SUBCONTRACTOR INVOICE MANAGEMENT.
For general contractors and self-performing GCs who manage subcontractors, invoice management is one of the most operationally complex financial functions on the desk. Approval workflows, lien waiver collection, conditional versus unconditional releases, payment timing, and job cost coding all have to work correctly at the same time. Get any of it wrong and you're either exposed on lien liability or miscoding cost to jobs.
Three failures cost the most. The first is a payment released before the conditional waiver comes back, which leaves your project open to a supplier claim on work you already paid for once. The second is an invoice booked to general AP instead of to a job and cost code, which understates job cost until the project closes and it's too late to price the next one differently. The third is timing, because paying subs faster than owners pay you funds their work out of your own working capital. All three are workflow problems, not accounting opinions.
WHAT IT MEANS.
Subcontractor invoice management is the approval workflow a GC applies to every sub invoice, covering the job and cost code it gets charged to, the lien waiver collected against it, and the timing of the payment relative to what the GC has collected.
A GC who self-performs part of the work faces both problems at once. The self-performed cost has to be tracked in labor hours and units, and the subcontracted cost has to be tracked in approved invoices with waivers behind them. Those are two different disciplines appearing in the same job cost report, and when the sub side is processed as bulk AP, the job looks more profitable than it's right up until the last invoice comes in.
WHERE THE WORKFLOW BREAKS.
Invoices get approved without lien waivers
Paying a subcontractor without collecting a conditional lien waiver is one of the most common and expensive mistakes a GC makes. If you pay a sub and the sub doesn't pay their supplier, the supplier can potentially lien your project even though you've already paid for that work once. Conditional lien waivers protect you, and paying without them means you've given up the protection you were entitled to.
Subcontractor invoices aren't coded to jobs
When subcontractor invoices get processed as a general AP entry rather than coded to specific jobs and cost codes, job costing understates cost. Cost-to-complete estimates come out wrong and the WIP schedule is inaccurate along with them. The bookkeeping convenience of processing invoices quickly costs you financial visibility on every active project.
Payment timing doesn't match your collections
If you're paying subcontractors in 30 days but collecting from owners in 60 days, you're advancing 30 days of subcontractor cost out of your own cash. Managing subcontractor payment timing to line up with your collection cycle, or writing appropriate pay-when-paid terms into your subcontracts, directly affects your working capital. Every day of difference between the two cycles is a day you're funding somebody else's work.
WHAT THE WORKFLOW LOOKS LIKE.
SPM builds a lien waiver collection workflow tied directly to subcontractor invoice approval. A conditional waiver is required before payment goes out, and the unconditional waiver is collected after the payment clears. ControlQore tracks lien waiver status by subcontractor and by payment, so nothing gets paid without the matching waiver documentation behind it.
Every subcontractor invoice is coded to the specific job and cost code in ControlQore when it's entered, rather than processed as a general AP entry and allocated later. Job costing stays current and cost-to-complete estimates reflect committed cost as it comes in. The WIP schedule is accurate because the cost side going into it's accurate.
SPM initiates subcontractor ACH payments on your behalf. You review and approve each payment, and we handle the execution, the timing, and the records behind it. Lien waiver collection is coordinated with payment execution, so the workflow is complete and documented rather than reconstructed at year end.
THE OUTPUTS, NAMED.
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.
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