Finished the job in March and the general contractor is still processing my invoice

Luis Mendoza· Licensed electrician going out on my own after nine years with a contractor· Registered, Trades & Contractors·3d

Wired a six-unit remodel for a GC in March. Twenty-two days on site, my materials on my own card because his supplier account 'wasn't set up for new subs yet', and an invoice sent the day I finished.

It has now been long enough that I've stopped saying how long out loud, because it embarrasses me. Terms on the invoice said thirty days. I've had 'it's in the next run', 'accounting is waiting on the owner's draw', and last week, 'can you resend it, we may not have it.'

Meanwhile my card carries a balance that is entirely his materials, and I'm paying interest on his project.

What I should have done, obviously: a deposit, progress billing, and not carrying materials. My supply house guy mentioned there's a lien process in my state with deadlines I've probably already missed, and I've got a call about that this week.

What I actually want from people further along: what's your deposit policy for a new GC, do you bill weekly or at milestones on longer jobs, and at what point did you start saying no to the ones who pay like this? He's offered me another building.

3 replies

Jamal Carter· Open·2d

Don't take the second building. I mean that plainly. A GC who can't pay for March is not going to pay better on a bigger job, he's just going to owe you more.

My policy now, learned exactly this way: a new GC pays half up front on anything longer than a few days, materials are billed separately and paid before I order them, and I invoice every Friday on anything over two weeks. Weekly invoicing feels pushy for about a month and then it's just how it is, and you find out somebody's a problem in week one instead of month four.

I fired a builder over this in my first year. He called eighteen months later and paid. Different conversation that time.

Cheryl Dunn· Open·1d

Bookkeeper's side, and I've watched several trades clients go through exactly this. Two unglamorous habits help more than anything clever.

Send a statement, not a reminder. A one-page list of open invoices with dates, emailed on the same day every month, gets paid more often than a polite chasing email, because it lands on the desk of whoever actually cuts the checks rather than the person avoiding you.

And put the payment terms on the invoice in the same place every time, including what happens after the due date. Whether you ever enforce it is a separate question. My clients who write it down get paid sooner and I have no good explanation beyond people behaving how they're expected to.

Luis Mendoza· Registered·13h

Statement instead of a reminder. I've sent nine reminders and not one statement, and reading that back, every reminder I've sent has been an apology with a number in it.

Jamal, I've drafted the no on the second building three times. What's actually hard is that saying no to him means admitting the March money might not come, and while I'm still being polite I get to believe it's coming. Weekly invoicing starts with the next job either way.

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