THE MECHANICS LIEN, IN PLAIN LANGUAGE.
A mechanics lien is a legal claim recorded against the property you improved, not against the GC who owes you. That's the entire source of its power: it clouds the owner's title, complicates their financing and their sale, and turns your unpaid invoice into the owner's problem, which turns it into the GC's problem within about one phone call. Many states require a preliminary notice near the start of work to preserve the right at all. The filing deadline counts from your last work on the project, typically 60 to 180 days depending on state, and it expires silently. The lien itself is a recorded document costing hundreds rather than thousands, and enforcement by foreclosure is the rare final step most claims never reach, because payment usually comes at the notice of intent stage. On public work, the payment bond claim plays the same role.
Deadlines vary sharply by state, so the dates on your jobs need a system rather than a memory. The whole tool is asymmetric. A preliminary notice costs a few dollars, a notice of intent costs a letter, and a recorded lien costs a few hundred plus modest attorney work, against receivables that total six figures. Almost none of that money goes to lawyers. It goes to keeping a right alive so the call you make on day 45 has something behind it. Subs who lose liens rarely lose them in court. They lose them to a calendar nobody kept.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A mechanics lien is a legal claim recorded against the property you improved rather than against the GC who owes you.
THE FOUR STAGES.
The preliminary notice, the document that preserves the right
In many states, subcontractors must send a preliminary notice, called a 20 day notice, a notice to owner, or a notice of furnishing depending on where you are, to the owner and often the GC near the start of work, or lien rights on that project shrink or disappear entirely. It isn't adversarial. It's routine commercial paper saying you're furnishing labor and materials there. The professional move is sending it on every job every time, as a system, because subs who notice selectively are choosing in advance which invoices they'll be allowed to pursue.
The deadline clock, which counts from last work and expires silently
The lien filing window, commonly 60 to 180 days depending on the state, counts from your last furnishing of labor or materials and not from when the invoice aged or when you got frustrated. Warranty visits and punch list returns may or may not restart it. The clock doesn't notify anyone. It just expires, and with it the strongest leverage you had. The operational fix is a lien rights calendar tracking every job's notice status and deadline from day one, reviewed in the weekly AR meeting alongside the aging.
The notice of intent, where most of the money moves
Before filing, the notice of intent to lien, a letter stating that a lien will be recorded by a date certain unless payment resolves, does the heavy lifting. It costs almost nothing, it isn't a lawsuit, and it has real weight: the GC's accounting department reprioritizes, the owner asks the GC pointed questions, and a remarkable share of invoices stuck in processing get processed. It's required in some states and smart in nearly all. Framed professionally, as in our standard process protects lien rights on accounts past 30 days, it's a system speaking rather than a threat.
Filing and enforcement, and the foreclosure almost nobody reaches
Filing records the lien against the property, typically a few hundred dollars in recording and drafting costs, and more with an attorney involved, which is recommended because defective liens are routinely voided on technicalities. The lien then has its own enforcement deadline: you must file a foreclosure action within a set period, often 6 months to 2 years by state, or it expires. In practice the overwhelming majority of claims resolve between intent and filing, or shortly after recording, so the foreclosure suit is the rare endgame and one you want counsel handling anyway. On public projects, where property can't be liened, the payment bond claim under the federal Miller Act or your state's little Miller Act is the parallel tool, with its own notice and suit deadlines.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
The discipline costs nothing: preliminary notice at job start, the deadline on the lien calendar the same week, and status reviewed alongside the AR aging. By the time an invoice is 45 days past due, the question is never whether you still have rights. It's which step is next.
Preliminary notices cost dollars. A notice of intent costs a letter. Recording a lien typically costs a few hundred plus modest attorney work. Against a $150K receivable, lien discipline is the cheapest insurance in construction, and the asymmetry between the two figures is the whole argument.
The collections record rests on leverage nobody let expire: preliminary notices sent by system, deadlines calendared from day one, and notices of intent used professionally when the cadence stopped working. Most of what gets recovered never requires filing anything. The preserved right does the work on its own.
THE LIEN CALENDAR, REVIEWED WEEKLY.
Every job gets a preliminary notice at start, whether the GC feels risky or not, because you can't predict at job start which relationship sours in month seven. Services and software automate it for under $50 a notice, so the cost of doing it everywhere is smaller than the cost of guessing wrong once.
Notice status and filing deadline get logged for every job in the first week, then reviewed in the weekly AR meeting next to the aging. Rights and receivables get managed in the same conversation, because they're the same conversation. A deadline that only lives in somebody's memory is a deadline you'll miss on the one job where it counts.
Notice generation and deadline tracking are handled by software at trivial cost. Notices of intent go out on your own letterhead in most cases. The recorded lien is where a construction attorney earns the fee, because the statutes are technical and a defective filing gets thrown out. Foreclosure actions and bond suits are attorney work without exception.
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.
