Invoices out on time. Money in on time.

Send what you have. Get the finished document.

5 steps, one of them a person.

Notes from the billing desk

Most invoices go unpaid for one of four reasons. The T&M ticket was never signed, so the customer's rep does not recognize the hours. The change order is on the invoice but not on a signed form. The invoice went to the super instead of the person who pays. The COI on file lapsed, and accounts payable will not cut a check until a new one arrives.

We check all four before an invoice goes out. Every T&M invoice carries its signed tickets. Every progress invoice ties to the last one, so work to date never runs backward. An unsigned ticket is held and flagged on Friday, not billed in September and argued about in December.

Some of it depends on your state. Sales tax on construction differs: some states tax materials only, some tax labor too, and the invoice shows it the way yours treats the job. On home improvement work, your state may also limit the deposit or say how it is held. The deposit invoice goes out with the signed contract, and the deposit comes off the first progress invoice, not the last.

The prompt payment clock

Your state and your contract set the schedule. Most states have a prompt payment law for public work, and many cover private work too. Federal contracts follow the federal Prompt Payment Act. The days to approve an invoice, the days to pay it and what happens when payment is late all differ from state to state. So does whether a pay-if-paid clause holds. Many states also cap retainage. We read your contract and your state's rule, and each due date goes on the calendar with the invoice.

The clock only helps if the invoice is complete. If the contract calls for a lien waiver, certified payroll or backup with each invoice, leave one off and the customer has a reason to hold the check. That is why the conditional waiver goes out with the invoice, not after the call.

A late fee on the statement needs a basis: the contract or your state's law. If neither gives one, it stays off.

The lien clock

Lien rights are set state by state, and the date is the whole game. Many states require a preliminary notice, and missing one can cost the lien, however good the invoice. The lien itself is filed where the property sits, most often with the county. The deadline usually runs from your last day of work on the job. In New York, for example, there is no preliminary notice, and a private lien is filed within eight months of the last day of work, four on a single-family house.

Filing is not the last date. Your state also sets how long the lien lasts before it has to be enforced, and often a deadline to notify the owner. Miss one and the lien can be gone.

We draft the lien from the job file: what is owed for labor and materials on that job, and nothing more. A notice of intent to lien works because the date behind it is real. The date goes in the job file the day the crew leaves, and on the letter.

When a customer stops paying

Send us the last thing they said, the day they say it. The sequence is fixed. A statement with every open invoice. A call to the person who signs the checks, not the super. A notice of intent with the lien date and a copy of the invoice. Where the contract or your state allows it, a written notice to suspend work. The steps stop at whichever one gets the check.

Do not trade an unconditional waiver for a promise of a check. The unconditional waiver goes out when the funds clear, and not before.

On a bonded job, the payment bond is the other claim, and it runs on its own deadlines.

After that it goes to your attorney, with the file we kept. Contract, tickets, invoices, statements and every call logged by date. A lien has to be enforced before your state's deadline, so the file goes over early, not in the last month.

On the page, like everything else.

Asked on the first call.

Usually handed over together.