PAYROLL IS FRIDAY.
YOU DON'T HAVE
THE MONEY.
If payroll is in 48–72 hours and the cash isn't there, the first move is AR recovery — not a loan. Call every GC with an outstanding invoice today. Get status on every pending pay application. A $500K civil contractor often has $80K–$150K in AR that's collectible within 48 hours if the right calls are made. The loan is the last resort, not the first call.
This happens to contractors who are not failing. It happens to contractors who are growing too fast, carrying too much retention, or who haven't built a collections process. The problem is almost always a timing problem — the cash exists, it's just in someone else's account. The fix in the next 48 hours is get it back. The fix for next month is build the system that prevents it from happening again.
WHAT TO DO
BEFORE FRIDAY.
Make a List of Every Outstanding Invoice
Pull your AR aging report right now. Every invoice over 14 days gets a phone call — not an email. Start with the largest. A $80K draw from three weeks ago that the GC 'forgot to process' is recoverable today with a direct call.
Call Every GC With an Open Pay App
Don't ask when it will be processed. Ask who is holding it and what it needs to be released. Most GC accounting teams release early when a subcontractor calls directly and professionally. 'I need this processed by Thursday' is a complete sentence.
Check Every Active Project for Unbilled Work
Is there work completed and not yet billed? Submit the pay application today. Some GCs will process a mid-cycle billing if it's small enough and the sub asks directly.
If AR Won't Cover It — Line of Credit Before MCA
If your bank has a line of credit, draw it today. A line of credit at 8–12% is infinitely better than an MCA at 40–80%. If you don't have a line of credit, this is the second thing to fix after payroll.
WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE
SO THIS DOESN'T REPEAT.
Build a 13-Week Cash Forecast
A payroll crisis doesn't appear in 48 hours. It builds over weeks. A 13-week cash forecast would have shown the gap six weeks ago — when there was still time to collect AR, accelerate billing, or draw credit without panic.
Implement a Weekly Collections Cadence
Every invoice over 30 days gets a follow-up call every week. Not when the balance is low — every week on schedule. This alone moves average collection from 75 days to 50 days on most jobs.
Front-Load Every Pay Application
The schedule of values on every active project should be front-loaded — mobilization, submittals, early phases billed at full defensible value. This moves the first draw forward by 15–30 days on every project.
WHY THIS KEEPS HAPPENING
AND HOW TO STOP IT.
A payroll crisis is a symptom. The underlying problem is a cash timing gap with no system managing it. The work gets done. The billing goes out late. The GC is slow. The AR sits uncollected. Overhead runs. Friday comes.
The system that prevents it: weekly bookkeeping, monthly close by the 10th, 13-week cash forecast, billing on the 1st, collections follow-up every Tuesday. These five habits eliminate payroll crises for businesses that are financially viable — the cash was always there, just not managed.
One thing to know: If you're experiencing payroll crises regularly, the business is either genuinely not profitable (margin problem) or genuinely not collecting (cash management problem). Both are fixable. Neither fixes itself. Call Josh — 30 minutes, free, he'll tell you which one.
