PARTNER · GETTING PAID

National Lien Services

Preliens, mechanics liens and waiver management. The rung after the notice letters, for the jobs where writing to the general contractor has stopped producing a check.

WHAT IT COVERS
50 states
Each one runs its own clock on notices and filing deadlines.
BEFORE IT
5 letters
The escalation ladder that ships in the toolkit.
STEP
06
Project management, chapter 6.
WHY IT IS HERE

A letter asks. A lien attaches.

THE RUNG AFTER THE LETTERS

The pm standards pack carries 5 letters that cover most of what goes wrong on a slow paying job, and most slow payment resolves on the first two of them, because somebody finally put the thing in writing with a date attached. What the letters cannot do is create a deadline the other side has to care about. A lien does that, and every state runs its own clock on preliminary notices and filing windows, where missing one by a day usually ends the right permanently.

Read step 06 for the documentation standards the letters sit inside, or visit National Lien Services.

THE OTHER DIRECTION

They wrote about the book

National Lien Services published a page about CONTROL for their own audience, and it links back here five times. Nothing is paid either way. Their clients and the contractors this was written for are the same people, which is the whole reason either page exists.

FROM THEIR SIDE

What their principal said about it

Josh has thrown down an absolute master class in this exceptionally accessible look at what it really takes to run a successful construction company today—mastering cash flow and risk. Whether you've been in the industry for twenty years or twenty minutes, you'll find at least three 'Dang, I wished I'd learned that sooner!!' moments.
Peter HoukPrincipal, National Lien ServicesNational Lien Services is a partner. They published a page about the book and this site links back to them, and nothing is paid in either direction.
QUESTIONS

What owners ask

What does a lien service do that a letter cannot?

A notice letter asks. A lien attaches to the property, and that changes who has a problem. Every state runs its own clock on preliminary notices and filing deadlines, and missing one by a day generally ends the right for good. National Lien Services tracks those dates across your jobs and files inside them.

Do I need this if I have the templates?

Not at first. The 5 letters in the pm standards pack are the escalation ladder, and most slow payment resolves in the first two rungs because somebody finally put it in writing with a date on it. This is the rung after the letters, and it works better when the paper trail underneath it already exists.

Where does this sit in the ${CFOS.modules.length} steps?

Step 06, project management. Billing dates, change orders, and notices, run as standards that hold without anyone chasing them.

Is this an affiliate arrangement?

No. Nothing is paid either way. They wrote about the book because their clients are the same contractors this was written for, and this page exists because the reverse is true.

8 Steps 60 Days

CONTROL is the full system, written for commercial subcontractors from under $1M to $100M. It publishes on October 1, 2026. 8 steps, 6 working templates, and the order they install in. $9.99 ebook, $24.99 paperback.