Guides

Construction billing, explained plainly

Guides for the person who actually does the billing at a small trade sub.

• How to bill stored materials on a pay application (without double-counting)

  Billing materials delivered but not yet installed: what qualifies, the backup GCs demand, and the column math that keeps stored materials from being counted twice.

• Does QuickBooks do AIA-style billing? What it can and can't do

  QuickBooks handles progress invoicing, but it can't produce G702/G703-style pay applications or track retainage out of the box. Here's what works, what doesn't, and the workarounds.

• G702 vs G703: the difference, explained simply

  G702-style is the one-page payment summary; G703-style is the line-by-line continuation sheet behind it. What each contains and how they tie together.

• How to fill out a G702-style pay application, line by line

  A plain-English walkthrough of every line on a G702-style payment application: contract sum, change orders, completed and stored to date, retainage, and current payment due.

• The 4 types of lien waivers, explained for subcontractors

  Conditional vs unconditional, progress vs final, what each of the four lien waiver types means, when each is used in monthly billing, and the classic mistake to avoid.

• Retainage explained: where 5–10% of your money goes and how to get it back

  What retainage is, how it's calculated on a pay application, what retainage reduction means, and how small subcontractors keep track of what they're owed.

• How to build a schedule of values that gets approved (with free template)

  A practical guide to structuring a schedule of values: how many lines, how to weight them, front-loading realities, and the math rules that keep every later pay app clean.

• Switching billing tools mid-project (without breaking your pay app history)

  Most subs can't wait for a new project to fix their billing. How to backfill prior periods, reconcile certified amounts, and switch tools mid-stream safely.

• What is a payment application? A beginner's guide for subcontractors

  New to commercial work? Here's what a pay app is, why GCs require them instead of invoices, what's in the package, and the monthly rhythm of progress billing.

• The 7 reasons GCs reject pay applications (and how to stop all of them)

  Rejected pay apps cost a full billing cycle. The seven most common rejection causes, math that doesn't tie, wrong previous certificates, retainage drift, and more, with fixes.