YOUR GC IS PAYING LATE. HERE'S WHAT YOU ACTUALLY CAN DO.
When a GC pays late, most subcontractors send a polite follow-up email and wait, which is the wrong move. You have real leverage: lien rights, contract terms, the limits of pay-when-paid, and the GC's own relationship with the owner. That leverage weakens the longer you wait. Systematic responses work and emotional ones don't. Net 60 when the contract says net 30 is business trouble, and every extra day they hold your money is a day they're financing their project on your balance sheet.
The question isn't whether to push. It's how to push without losing the next project. That comes down to sequence and tone: dated, written, and unemotional at every step, so nothing you send reads as a threat and everything you send counts as notice. A GC's accounting department deals with this all week and respects a sub who asks clearly, in dollars, by invoice number, with a date attached. The subs who get paid aren't the aggressive ones. They're the consistent ones.
WHAT IT MEANS.
Late GC payment is a general contractor holding an approved pay application past the payment terms written into your subcontract, which finances their project with your money at zero interest.
Late payment from GCs is predictable. Some GCs pay consistently late as a cash management strategy, because they know most subs won't escalate. A systematic collections process changes that math, since the cost of stalling you goes up and the cost of paying you stays the same.
Timing is the whole thing. Leverage exists while the work is going in and while the lien window is open. After the lien window closes, your leverage is gone and you're asking a favor instead of making a claim.
WHY LATE PAYMENT KEEPS HAPPENING.
The polite email, then silence
The standard response to a late payment is one follow-up email to the project manager and then a wait. The PM isn't the person who cuts checks, so the email goes nowhere and the invoice ages another 30 days. Nothing about that sequence tells the GC that this account has a consequence attached to it.
Leverage expires on a deadline you didn't calendar
Lien rights exist in every state and every state puts a clock on them. Preliminary notices have to be filed at project start and the filing window closes on a date, whether or not anybody in your office knows what that date is. Subs who find out about the deadline after it passes still have a receivable, they just no longer have a claim behind it.
Some GCs pay late on purpose
For a certain kind of GC, stretching subs is a funding strategy rather than an accident. They hold pay applications because the money is cheaper than a line of credit and because experience tells them subs will keep working and keep quiet. That behavior stops with the subs who escalate on a schedule and continues with everybody else.
Waivers signed for more than what came in
Partial lien waivers get signed at the pay app desk without anybody reading them, and a waiver written for the full billed amount releases rights on money you haven't received. That signature is worth more to the GC than the check they gave you. Every waiver needs to be read and limited to what has been paid before anyone signs it.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
A verified electrical client at $2.3M in revenue put this process in place with SPM and recovered $365K in overdue AR. All debt was cleared within 120 days. That was the first year the crew got Christmas bonuses in 11 years.
WHAT YOU HAVE TO WORK WITH.
In every state, subcontractors have the right to file a mechanic's lien against the property for unpaid work. The lien threat, or the actual filing, is the most powerful collection tool available to a sub. A lien clouds the title, blocks a refinance or a sale, and puts pressure on the owner rather than only on the GC. Lien rights have deadlines, so file preliminary notices at project start and know your state's filing window before you need it.
Many GC contracts include pay-when-paid language, and the GC will claim it lets them delay paying you until the owner pays them. In most states pay-when-paid is a timing mechanism rather than a way to push risk downhill. If the owner never pays the GC because the GC defaulted, pay-when-paid may not protect the GC from paying you at all. Know your state's law before you accept that clause as a reason for a delay.
A GC with a lien filed against one of their projects has a problem with their owner, not with you. GCs pay the subcontractors who make filing a lien look like the obvious next step, because it is. A professionally worded notice of intent to lien, sent on letterhead, resolves most late payment issues inside a week.
On day 1 past due, send an email confirming the payment is past due per contract terms and state the amount and the due date specifically. On day 7, call the GC project manager and accounting at the same time and ask for a specific payment date in writing. On day 14, send a notice of intent to lien by certified mail to both the GC and the owner, which is a required step before filing in most states rather than a threat. On day 21, file the lien if payment hasn't come in and no credible written payment commitment has been made. Throughout, don't release lien rights in a partial waiver for more than you've been paid.
Every pay application gets tracked from submission to receipt. Any application over 14 days outstanding gets a status call on Tuesday. The escalation protocol triggers automatically at 30 days rather than when somebody remembers. Lien rights are preserved on every project from day one, so the leverage is still there in month four when you need it.
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, and no add-ons.
| Last 12 months revenue | Monthly fee |
|---|---|
| Up to $1M | $1,900 to $2,900 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 to $3,900 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 to $5,700 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 to $7,100 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 to $8,500 |
| $12.5M to $15.5M | $7,400 to $11,000 |
| $15.5M to $18.5M | $9,400 to $13,500 |
| $18.5M+ | Quoted individually |
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.
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 rather than a report.
Your bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
You stop touching the books.
Everything in Core, and we run the bookkeeping and the controllership as well. Nobody in your office is answering coding questions or chasing a reconciliation at month end.
We do the books. No payroll.
Every job shows its margin while it's still running.
Everything in Executive, plus the job costing and WIP platform set up, loaded with your cost codes, and managed for you every month. You never have to learn it.
We do the job costing.
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