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.
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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 delaying 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 $3.2M 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.
RESEARCH FROM OTHER SOURCES.
These figures come from another company's survey, not from SPM's clients. Each one cites the report and the page.
Billd's 2026 National Subcontractor Market Report found subcontractors reported waiting an average of 51 days for payment, against 35 days reported by general contractors.
Source: Billd, 2026 National Subcontractor Market Report, pages 4 and 5 (survey of 623 respondents, published May 13, 2026).
The report doesn't state when the 51 days start. The 2024 and 2025 reports measured the wait from the pay application.
Billd's 2026 National Subcontractor Market Report found 64 percent of subcontractors reported being paid slowly by general contractors.
Source: Billd, 2026 National Subcontractor Market Report, page 5 (survey of 623 respondents, published May 13, 2026).
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. The one-time onboarding fee is right here in the table.
Built for subs doing $1M to $12M. Above $12.5M we quote.
| Last 12 months revenue | Core | Strategic | Platinum | One-time onboarding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900 | $3,100 | $3,300 | $2,500 |
| $1M to $3.5M | $2,600 | $4,100 | $5,300 | $4,500 |
| $3.5M to $6.5M | $3,800 | $5,900 | $8,300 | $6,000 |
| $6.5M to $9.5M | $5,100 | $7,600 | $11,800 | $7,500 |
| $9.5M to $12.5M | $6,100 | $8,900 | $14,900 | $9,000 |
| Above $12.5M | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted | Quoted |
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, and it moves with your revenue band. Your first month is prorated, and your monthly engagement starts on the first of the first full month.
Just want the setup? Onboarding only is the same onboarding work with no monthly service after it, one time, at the onboarding fee plus $2,000. Start a monthly engagement later and $2,000 counts toward it. It starts at $4,500, and the price for every band is on the pricing page.
The three tier columns are the whole price. Which one fits 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.
- Online software only: QuickBooks, Sage, Viewpoint and similar. No VPN or hosted desktop.
- Not in any tier: payroll, pay applications, collections on receivables.
- Pricing valid through 2027.
CFO work. Your own bookkeeper keeps doing the books.
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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.
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Core, plus bookkeeping and bank reconciliations, plus job costing and WIP software set up and managed for you. Use your own online accounting software or we supply it, one price.
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.
Strategic, plus a controller who handles payables and receivables the way an in-house controller would. You approve every payment.
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.
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