Make payroll

Will the cash be there?

Short on payroll rarely means the job lost money. It usually means the money's out there and hasn't come in yet. The pay app went out a week late, retention is unbilled, a T&M ticket never became an invoice, and a GC is paying on terms you didn't plan for.

Payroll is the one bill that can't wait, so the fix is working backward from it. Bill on time, bill all of it, collect on a list, and look 13 weeks ahead. Each module below covers one piece of that, and CFOS works on top of the QuickBooks you already have.

Billing and invoicing, pay apps and the schedule of values

Cash starts with the invoice going out. CFOS builds the billing from a schedule of values, produces the G702 and G703 pay app for lump sum and unit price work, and sends it to the GC from QuickBooks or logs it for another system. Pay app due dates come with reminders to the PM, so the cutoff doesn't pass while he's out in the field.

The schedule of values is where you win or lose early. A schedule that front loads the right items means you bill what you've earned and the GC can't argue it. Stored materials go on the pay app as well, which brings cash in before the material is installed.

Retention and T&M billing

Retention is your money held by somebody else, and small contractors lose track of it. CFOS tracks retainage by job on every pay app, so you know what's held and what's due when the job is done. That list is cash you can ask for, and it counts most in a tight payroll week.

T&M work is the other leak. The foreman writes a T&M ticket on the daily, the GC signs it on site, and it becomes a change order draft that goes on the next pay app. Work done on Tuesday gets billed in the next cycle and not forgotten by October.

Collections and the 13 week cash forecast

Collections is a list, not a mood. CFOS shows AR aging by customer and job, with who owes what and how old each invoice is, so Monday's calls go to the right people. When a GC pays late, you know before payroll, not on payroll day.

The 13 week cash forecast is the answer to the question at the top. It reads your own QuickBooks and your pay apps and lays out cash week by week, with the lowest week marked. If the low week falls on a payroll week, you have a quarter of lead time to fix it by billing early, calling collections or timing a vendor payment.

What owners tell us about make payroll

Get on the list for the day it opens

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

What people ask

• Know if you can make payroll in 13 weeks, not 13 hours
• G702 and G703 pay apps from your schedule of values
• Get paid for every extra
• 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.