CONSTRUCTION BILLING CYCLE TIME.
Billing cycle time is the full span from work completed to cash collected: submission, GC or owner review, approval, and payment. On commercial jobs this typically takes 45 to 60 days end to end, and the delay usually concentrates in one stage rather than spreading evenly across all four.
Most subcontractors treat getting paid late as one problem when it's four separate stages, each with its own failure point. Knowing which stage is slow decides whether the fix is a billing process change inside your own office or a hard conversation with a general contractor. Those two fixes cost very different things, and picking the wrong one is the reason the number never moves. Log four dates on every pay application and the slow stage becomes obvious inside a couple of billing cycles.
WHAT IT MEANS.
Billing cycle time is the full span from work completed to cash collected, covering submission, GC or owner review, approval, and payment.
The stages are worth separating because they fail for different reasons and they get fixed by different people. Stage one is entirely yours. Stage two is a document quality problem. Stage three is a relationship problem. Stage four is a contract terms problem. Treating all four as one complaint about slow GCs is how a subcontractor spends two years being frustrated without the cycle getting a day shorter.
WHERE THE CYCLE REALLY TAKES TIME.
Submission
The pay application gets built and submitted, ideally on a fixed date every month. This stage is entirely inside the subcontractor's control, which makes it the cheapest one to fix. It's also the one most often blamed on somebody else, because a late submission doesn't look like a problem until the payment is missing three weeks later.
Review
The GC or the owner's rep checks the application against the schedule of values and prior billing. A clean, balanced SOV moves through this stage fast. A padded or unclear one gets kicked back, and the clock starts over on a document that was submitted on time.
Approval
The application gets certified for payment. This is often where slow paying GCs hold an approved application without releasing funds. Nothing is in dispute and nothing is missing, which is what makes this stage so hard to follow up on unless you have the approval date written down.
Payment
Funds reach the bank. Contract terms of net 30, net 45, or net 60 set the floor here, but many subcontractors never track whether payment comes in on the contract terms or consistently late. A GC who pays 20 days past terms every time is a fact you can plan around once somebody writes it down.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
45 to 60 days is the typical span from submission to cash on a commercial job. Stage 2, review, is the most common bottleneck. Stage 3, approval, is where slow pay GCs hold an approved application. And 1 fixed billing date every month is what fixes stage 1.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Three tiers, priced by your trailing twelve month revenue. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No hourly billing. No payroll. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900 to $3,300 | $1,000 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $5,300 | $1,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $8,300 | $3,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $11,800 | $4,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $14,900 | $6,000 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $17,650 | $7,500 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $22,400 | $9,000 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually | Quoted individually |
The onboarding fee covers migrating your books back to the start of your last taxable year and getting you fully operational in 60 days. It's billed once, with your first invoice. It's the same for all three tiers. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
Range reflects the three tiers below. Which one you're in depends on how much of the work you want off your desk. No payroll. No hidden line items. The onboarding fee is right here in the table.
You stop guessing.
You get the CFO work. Job costing built against the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, monthly WIP, and a meeting every month that ends in decisions and never in a report.
Your bookkeeper still does the books.
Every job shows its margin while it is still open.
Everything in Core, plus the bookkeeping and bank reconciliations done for you, and the job costing and WIP software set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed every month. Use your own online software, or move to ours and we cover it.
A bookkeeper we choose does the books and reconciliations. No payroll.
You approve, and the money side gets handled.
Everything in Strategic, plus a controller we choose who handles your bills and receivables for you the way an in-house controller would. They call vendors, pay the bills and keep the accounting current. We plan the cash flow first, and you approve every payment because it is your money.
A controller we choose does the payables and receivables. No payroll, no pay applications, no collections.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
