WHY TRADE
CONTRACTORS
CAN'T MAKE PAYROLL.
Trade contractors struggle to make payroll because of a timing shortfall between when costs go out and when money comes in. Payroll is weekly, and billing is monthly at best. GCs pay 30 to 60 days after you bill, and the shortfall widens every time billing is late, a change order goes unsubmitted, or a notice of nonpayment never gets sent. The result is a profitable business doing 3am payroll math.
The shortfall is structural. Payroll can't wait, but billing can, and it often does. Every week billing slips is another week the shortfall grows. Most trade contractors have lived through this at least once, and many live in it every cycle.
The Billing to Payroll Timing Shortfall
Payroll is weekly. Pay applications go out monthly at best, often later. GCs take 30 to 60 days to process and pay, and that's a 60 to 90 day shortfall between doing the work and receiving payment. Meanwhile, payroll, materials, equipment, and subcontractors all need to be paid now. The shortfall doesn't close on its own: it either gets managed or it gets funded by a line of credit, an MCA, or personal assets.
Late Billing Widens the Shortfall
Every week a pay application goes out late is another 30 days before you see the money. On a $500,000 project billed monthly, one month of late billing means $500,000 sits in someone else's bank account for an extra 30 days. Multiply that across every active project and the shortfall becomes a crisis. Most contractors have no set billing date: they bill when someone gets around to it.
Change Orders Never Billed
Change orders are money you've already spent. When they're negotiated verbally and never formally billed, that work is essentially donated. A $50,000 change order that's never submitted is $50,000 that never comes in, but the payroll cost of the labor that performed the work still went out. Unbilled change orders are the most common source of payroll crunches that look like cash flow problems.
Blaming the GC for Slow Pay
GCs do pay slowly, but the root cause of the payroll crunch is almost never GC payment speed: it's billing discipline. A contractor who bills on time, sends change orders immediately, and sends notice of nonpayment on day 40 gets paid differently than one who does none of those things.
Taking an MCA to Bridge the Shortfall
An MCA buys 30 days at a cost of 30 to 60% annualized interest. It bridges the shortfall, but it widens the next one, because the MCA payment comes out of the next payroll cycle's cash. Four MCAs compounding is how profitable contractors end up insolvent.
Trying to Win More Work
More work means more payroll going out before more money comes in. When the timing shortfall is structural, revenue growth makes the payroll problem worse, not better. Fix the timing shortfall first.
Hoping the Retention Check Arrives
Retention is real money, but it's 5 to 10% of every job held back for 60 to 180 days after completion. Counting on retention to make payroll isn't a system. It's luck.
- Chapter 6: Set a billing date, and bill on the 15th, every project, every month, no exceptions
- Chapter 6: Send a change order every time there's a change in conditions, whether drawings, scope, or contract, every single time
- Chapter 6: Send notice of nonpayment on day 40 after the GC submits their pay application; the PM sends it, no owner approval required
- Chapter 7: Build the 13 week cash flow forecast so you see payroll crunches coming 10 weeks before they hit
- Chapter 1: Install job costing so change orders are tracked from day one and never missed
CONTROL Chapter 6 covers the three billing standards that eliminate payroll crunches for most contractors within 30 days. Chapter 7 covers the 13 week cash forecast. Together they give you forward visibility and the billing discipline to fund it. Download the templates at constructioncfo.net.
Late billing combined with unsubmitted change orders. When pay applications go out late and billable work isn't being captured, the shortfall between money going out and money coming in grows every cycle until it becomes a payroll crisis.
A notice of nonpayment is a formal notice sent to the general contractor, and often the property owner and their lender, stating that your subcontract hasn't been paid. Most GC contracts require a specific process and timeline. Sending it on day 40 after their pay app gives the GC a legal and financial incentive to prioritize your payment.
First, find every open change order that hasn't been submitted and submit it today. Second, find every AR item over 30 days old and call on it immediately. Third, if you need bridge funding, understand the cost before you take it. Then install billing standards so this doesn't repeat. See the CONTROL book for the full playbook.
Not with the right template. It's a rolling 13 week projection of cash in and cash out. Once it's built the first time and updated weekly, it becomes your early warning system for every payroll crunch 10 weeks before it happens. The template is available at constructioncfo.net.
Start with your AR list and your PM, not a lender. A fractional CFO who works construction can build the 13-week forecast and the billing standards that prevent the next crisis, and Sulphur Prairie Management installs both as part of the CONTROL system.
STOP GUESSING WHY YOU ARE BROKE.
CONTROL covers the financial operating system for trade based subcontractors, including trade contractors. Get the book.
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