JOINT CHECK AGREEMENTS, AND WHAT THEY REALLY COST.
A joint check is one check with two payees on it, and it can't be deposited until both of them endorse it. A supplier asks for one because it wants to be certain the material it ships gets paid for from the money that job produces. It's often what lifts a credit hold, or gets a subcontractor onto a job it couldn't otherwise buy material for. It costs you control and days. The money now needs a second endorsement on somebody else's schedule. Depending on how the agreement reads, the supplier may be able to apply it against balances you didn't intend. And a receivable you could have allocated on Friday is already committed. What the agreement does to your lien rights, your waivers and any claim is legal work, so your construction attorney reads it before you sign it.
This decision gets made badly because it's a financing decision that looks like a delivery problem. It's a Tuesday, and the truck doesn't leave until somebody signs something. So whoever is closest to the phone signs the agreement. You find out what you agreed to in the week the money was supposed to cover payroll. A joint check is a reasonable tool when you use it on purpose. When you use it to end an argument with a supplier, you lose control of cash and find out weeks later.
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WHAT IT MEANS.
A joint check agreement is an arrangement where the party paying you issues one check made payable to you and to one of your suppliers or lower tier subcontractors together. Both endorsements are required before the money can be deposited anywhere.
It helps in a few cases. A supplier holding your account will often release material against a joint check when it won't release against a promise. The job keeps going. On a large material buyout the arrangement can also get you better terms than your own credit would support, because the supplier is underwriting the project's payments. Those are real benefits, and they're why the tool exists.
The cost takes longer to see. Every joint check tells the general contractor's accounting department that your supplier doesn't extend you credit, and you can't take that back. It also means part of that receivable already belongs to the supplier, so you can't decide where it goes on the Friday it comes in. Neither cost is on any invoice. That's why the arrangement feels free when you sign it.
WHERE THE ARRANGEMENT TURNS EXPENSIVE.
It gets signed to solve a delivery problem, and never read
The request comes in as an emergency. Material won't ship, the crew is on site tomorrow, and a document needs a signature today. Nobody reads what the agreement covers, which project it applies to, or how long it lasts, because reading it doesn't get the truck moving. That's how you end up with an arrangement you can't describe and can't exit.
The second endorsement adds days nobody forecast
A direct payment is deposited the day it comes in. A joint check has to reach both payees, get endorsed by both, and then be deposited. It moves at the speed of whichever party is slower. Those are days without the cash, and they usually fall in a week that was already tight, because a tight week was the reason for the joint check in the first place.
The money can be applied somewhere you didn't intend
A supplier that receives funds from a joint check may apply them against balances other than the invoices you had in mind. Whether it can depends entirely on how the agreement and your account terms read. Contractors find this out when a $38,000 payment reduces an old balance on a closed job while the material for the current one is still on hold. The answer is in the document. Somebody else wrote it, so have your attorney read it.
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE IN DOLLARS.
Say you have a $95,000 pay application with a $38,000 joint check to a supplier inside it. Your usable cash from that payment is $57,000. Say payroll that week is $61,000. The joint check decided your Friday before the check was written, and whoever signed the agreement made that decision weeks earlier. Nothing about the job changed. A receivable you could allocate became a receivable that was already allocated.
A check is issued on day one and mailed to the supplier. The supplier endorses and forwards it on day eight. You receive and deposit it on day ten, and it clears on day twelve. A direct payment is deposited on day two. That's ten more days of float on money you've already earned. After three joint checks in a quarter, the arrangement has moved a month of cash timing, and nobody charged a fee.
HOW IT GETS USED ON PURPOSE.
We read it for what it does to your cash and your forecast. Your construction attorney reads it for what it does to your lien rights, your waivers and any claim. Those consequences are legal, they vary by state, and you can't undo them later. Both reads take a day. The truck can wait a day. If it can't, that tells you something about the supplier too.
Every pay application with a joint check inside it goes into the 13 week cash forecast at the amount you can really deposit. The joint check portion and the added float are shown separately. If you forecast the gross, you can have a healthy looking receivables report and still miss payroll. The forecast should only have the number you can spend.
A joint check arrangement should be tied to the credit problem that created it. Find out what the supplier needs to see before it will release it. Usually that's a current account and a series of payments made on terms. Ask for the release once you've met those conditions. An arrangement nobody revisits becomes permanent, and a permanent one costs you on every job.
Suppliers ask for joint checks when they doubt the timing of your payments. That doubt usually starts with a collections routine or a mobilization line, and your margin usually has nothing to do with it. Collections on a defined week and mobilization billed on the first pay application take away the reason for the request. That work costs nothing, and it's the only permanent answer here.
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. We don't bill by the hour, and we don't do payroll. The one-time onboarding fee is 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.
We build your plan every month. Your team does the work.
You get the CFO work: job costing built to match the way you estimate, a 13 week cash forecast, WIP every month, and a monthly meeting that ends with decisions.
Your bookkeeper still does the books.
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.
We build the plan, track it and adjust it every month.
We only work with trade subcontractors. We know what to look for, and we fix problems while they're still small. 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 pay for it.
Our team does the bookkeeping and the reconciliations. We don't do payroll.
Strategic, plus a controller who handles payables and receivables the way an in-house controller would. You approve every payment.
We manage the money side for you, every week.
Everything in Strategic, plus our team does the controller work. We handle your bills and receivables the way an in-house controller would: we 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.
Our team does the payables and receivables. We don't do payroll, pay applications or collections.
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