THE SOV DECIDES WHEN YOU GET PAID.
Most subcontractors accept a GC-drafted schedule of values without review, and most GC-drafted schedules underweight mobilization, formwork and the other cash-heavy early phases while loading value into later milestones. On a $600,000 contract a poorly structured SOV can open a six figure cash hole in the first 60 days, and no amount of good field production closes it.
The SOV is a cash document that most subs treat as paperwork, and the person who wrote it was protecting his own cash position first. That's a template rather than malice, and a template written for the general contractor's balance sheet will load value into later milestones and underweight the phases where your money goes out. Every page in this hub is about closing that distance before the work starts: negotiating the breakdown, billing stored materials, timing the pay app, and getting the billing cycle itself down from a month to a week. None of it requires better field production, which is the point, because a crew that hits every number can't outrun a billing structure that was set against them.
WHAT IT MEANS.
A schedule of values is the breakdown of a contract into billable line items, and because a pay app can only bill against those lines, the structure agreed before work starts determines the cash timing for the whole project.
WHY IT BREAKS.
The Early Phases Are Underweighted
Mobilization, layout, formwork and reinforcing consume cash first and are the lines a GC-drafted SOV most often thins out. The work gets done, the cost gets incurred, and the billing against it's a fraction of what it consumed. The shortfall is structural and it's set the day the SOV is signed, months before anybody notices it in the bank.
Nobody Reviews It Before Signing
The SOV comes in with the subcontract and gets treated as boilerplate, because reviewing it feels like negotiating over paperwork rather than over money. It's over money. One meeting before signing is worth more to cash flow than a quarter of chasing invoices, and it's the cheapest intervention available on any project.
Billing Slips a Week and Nobody Counts It
A pay app submitted on the fifth instead of the last day of the month doesn't lose the money, it moves it a full cycle. Repeated across a portfolio, a week of habitual slippage costs more in financing and in stalled cash than most companies spend on their entire office. It's invisible because nothing was ever billed wrong.
EVERYTHING ON THIS SUBJECT.
Every guide below is a full page on one part of this subject. Start at the top if the whole thing is new; jump to the one that describes your week if it's not.
- SOV Billing GuidePush mobilization from 3 to 5 percent, phase any scope over $100K, and add a stored materials line before a $1.2M mill order funds itself for ten weeks.
- Progress BillingA balanced schedule of values, one fixed billing date a month, and follow up at 30, 60, and 90 days past due.
- T&M Billing GuideBase wage plus payroll burden, benefits, small tools, and equipment at a logged hourly rate.
- T&M Billing in ConstructionLabor at burdened plus 20 percent, supervision at 10 percent of labor, equipment at published rental, then overhead at 10 and profit at 5 on the subtotal.
- Billing Cycle Cash ImpactIndustry average is 18 to 22 days from work done to invoice out, and SPM targets 5 to 7.
- Billing Cycle TimeThe four stages a subcontractor's billing runs through, and why stage 2 review is the bottleneck on most commercial jobs instead of the delay spreading out.
- Billing Velocity SystemMost subs run a 75 to 105 day cycle and 30 to 50 percent of it's theirs.
- The Cash Gap Between Billing and PayrollOn a $5M company at $100K weekly payroll that's $400K to $600K of unfunded labor, against a line of credit that usually runs $150K to $250K.
- Pay App Timing OptimizationOne missed cut-off defers that cycle for the rest of the job.
- SOV NegotiationA GC drafted SOV back loads value and you fund the first 90 days.
- Overbilling and UnderbillingUnderbilling funds finished work out of your own pocket.
- Cost of Slow BillingAt $3M it runs $57K a year and at $8M it runs $154K.
- Stored Materials BillingMost standard subcontract forms already carry the right.
- Billing Discipline SystemOne cut off date on the 25th, a pay app review before it leaves the office, and a collections call on the 31st day.
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 and no payroll.
Pricing
| 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.
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
