Construction Business QuickBooks CleanupThe clock starts when the request is proper

A written payment request, for an amount the contract allows and for work properly done or for materials suitably stored, starts a clock. The contract names the day the owner pays, less any amount the agreement lets the owner withhold. Once the contractor is paid, the subs are owed their share on the shorter clock the contract names. Many states add a prompt-pay rule on top of that paper. We do not invent a day that makes the aging look kinder, and we do not paste one state's day count onto a job in another state.

A file that ignores those dates turns collections into memory. We want the request, the date it was received, the date the money moved, and the date the subs were paid. A missing date stays visible as a missing date. We do not fill in a day that would make the aging look kinder.

The statute also covers suitably stored or specially made materials. A pile of gear in a yard can be part of a proper request. It can also be a pile nobody has agreed to pay for yet. We ask which one it is before it becomes income or a cost on a job.

Anyone who has walked a yard full of material bought ahead of a start date knows the itch to call it progress. We share that itch and then we look for the request. Without the request, it is inventory of a kind, or it is a question, and the question stays visible. A state that writes its own day count for that request keeps those days on the state page.

Bring the request even if the date is written in the margin of a scan. A date we can see is a date we can post. A date we invent would only make the aging look kinder than the job was.