Payroll's Friday and the GC hasn't paid

Friday is coming and the check from the GC isn't

You did the work. You sent the pay app. The GC says they get paid when the owner pays them, and the owner is waiting on something else. Meanwhile your crew gets paid Friday, your supplier wants 30 days, and your account balance is lower than you'd like.

Most small subs handle this with the account balance and a good memory. That works until two things hit in the same week, like a payroll, a tax payment and a late check. By then your options are a line of credit, calling the supplier, or delaying yourself.

The fix starts with seeing the shortfall early. A short week costs you little if you know about it 10 weeks ahead. It costs a lot if you find out on Thursday.

How to see the shortfall 13 weeks out

Build a sheet with 13 columns, one for each week. In the top section list money coming in: open invoices by the week you expect to be paid, retention due on closed jobs, and new billing from work still to do. Be honest about the date. Use how long that GC actually takes to pay, not what the contract says.

In the bottom section list money going out: payroll each week, payroll taxes, vendor bills by due date, subcontractor payments, equipment and insurance payments, and loan payments. Don't leave out the quarterly items, because those are the ones that hurt. Pull the bills from the open bills list in QuickBooks Online and the invoices from the open invoices list.

Subtract out from in, week by week, and roll the balance forward. Find the lowest week. That's the week to plan around, not the average one.

Update it every Monday. Move last week's actuals in, push out any invoice that didn't get paid, and look at the new low point. It takes about as long as a cup of coffee once it's built.

What to do about a short week

Bill the day the work is done. Every day you wait to send a pay app is a day added to the whole chain, and many GCs have a cutoff date each month. Miss it and you wait another month.

Chase the oldest invoices first. Sort your open invoices by age and call the oldest GC contact on Monday. A short call asking what's needed to release the check beats an email that waits in an inbox.

Ask for stored materials. If you bought gear or material for the job and it's on site or in a warehouse, most contracts let you bill for it. That brings cash in before the install does.

Stage the bills. You can't skip a vendor, but you can pay them in order of who you need most and who charges for late payment. Call before the due date, offer a date, and keep it. Vendors handle a call better than silence.

How CFOS does it

CFOS for QuickBooks builds the 13 week cash forecast from your own QuickBooks Online data and your pay apps. Open invoices, bills, payroll and pay app due dates all feed it, and the lowest week is marked so you see the problem before Friday comes. That's the week to plan around.

The AR and AP aging and a collections list are next to it. They're built from the same QuickBooks data. The collections list gives you the oldest invoices to call, and pay app due dates send reminders to the PM so billing doesn't slip past the GC's cutoff.

Retainage and stored materials are on the pay app, so you can see what is held and what you can still bill. Nothing here moves your money. It tells you where it's going. The decisions stay with you.

Get on the list for the day it opens

30 days free, a 90-day money-back guarantee, and cancel anytime.

What people ask

• Job costing for contractors doing $1M to $10M a year
• Know if you can make payroll in 13 weeks, not 13 hours
• Make payroll
• G702 and G703 pay apps from your schedule of values
• One price. Every module. Priced by your revenue.
• Use all of it, or just the part you need

QuickBooks is a trademark of Intuit Inc. Run On CFOS isn't affiliated with Intuit.