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Trade Contractor
What is a Trade Contractor?
AA trade contractor, also known as a subcontractor, is a specialized construction professional hired by a general contractor (GC), construction management property, owner, developer, or other entity to complete specific aspects of a construction project. Trade contractors typically specialize in a particular trade or craft, such as electrical work, plumbing, HVAC installation, framing, roofing, glazing, flooring, or drywall installation. They are bound by a contract that outlines the tasks to be performed, deadlines, and terms of payment.
Trade contractors are distinguished from GCs in several ways. GCs oversee the entire construction project, managing all aspects from start to finish, including coordinating trade contractors, obtaining permits, and ensuring compliance with building codes and regulations. Trade contractors, on the other hand, focus solely on their specialized area of work and are responsible for completing their specific tasks according to the project's plans and specifications.
Trade contractors face extensive payment cycles, as they cover all labor and material costs upfront for a project yet receive payment last. Progress billing further complicates the matter, mandating that GCs only reimburse trade contractors based on project completion percentage. This system requires trade contractors to invoice GCs every month for the work completed, which exposes them to various factors that can delay progress billing further. These include:
- using the wrong pay application form,
- missing documentation,
- lien waiver oversights,
- submitting pay apps through the wrong GC portal,
- general project delays and disputes, or
- the GC’s own cash flow issues.
As a result, most trade contractors wait about 90 days to get paid for the work they’ve already done, which can strain their cash flow and hamper their ability to take on new projects or pay their employees and suppliers.
This is where Siteline comes in. Siteline is a construction billing solution built specifically to streamline the subcontractor A/R workflow. With Siteline, trade contractors can easily generate and submit detailed pay apps tailored precisely to each GC's requirements. The platform also:
- tracks all compliance requirements and stores pertinent documents;
- tracks, collects, and submits lien waivers for the sub and their lower tiers;
- ensures approved change orders are incorporated into the schedule of values;
- provides full visibility into billing statuses across projects—including which GCs pay fastest to better anticipate cash flow; and
- creates accurate billing projections to monitor progress and effectively manage backlog.
By eliminating manual spreadsheets and centralizing all billing data, Siteline helps trade contractors accelerate their payment cycle by an average of three weeks. Discover how Siteline can get your subcontracting business paid faster by scheduling a demo today.
Trusted by trade contractors across the country
Other construction terms
What is a Lender?
A construction lender is a bank or financial institution that provides short-term financing specifically for construction companies, developers, and builders working on construction and development projects. In commercial construction, these lenders control project cash flow by deciding when and how much money gets released throughout a project. Instead of providing all funding upfront, they release funds in phases as work gets completed and milestones are hit, which affects everyone involved in the project—especially subcontractors.
Here's how it works for commercial subcontractors: the lender has to approve each payment before the general contractor gets their money, and only then can the GC pay their subs. This means subcontractors are essentially waiting in line behind both their GC and the lender's approval process, which can stretch out payment timelines well beyond what's written in their contracts.
Construction lenders also require extensive paperwork before releasing funds, including lien waivers from all project participants and current insurance certificates. If any documentation expires or goes missing, it can freeze the entire payment process. This means subcontractors must stay organized with their accounts receivables, match their progress billing to lender draw schedules, and keep track of compliance deadlines for themselves and any lower-tier vendors and suppliers.
Siteline streamlines these A/R workflows by centralizing lien waiver tracking and submission, helping subcontractors prevent costly payment delays caused by missing documentation. Learn more here.
What is a Payment Bond?
A payment bond is a type of surety bond commonly used in the construction industry to guarantee that subcontractors, laborers, and material suppliers will be paid for their work and materials on a project—even if the prime contractor faces financial difficulties. This security allows subcontractors to manage their cash flow more effectively and take on projects with reduced financial risk. Additionally, payment bonds help prevent the need for subcontractors to file liens against the property, which can be a complex and time-consuming process.
For subcontractors, working on bonded projects requires attention to detail in documentation and adherence to specific procedures. They must maintain accurate records of work performed and materials supplies, as these may be necessary to support a claim against the bond if payment issues arise. Therefore, subcontractors must familiarize themselves with the bond’s terms, claim processes, and any statutory limitations or notice requirements.
To that end, implementing a solution, like Siteline, to centralize financial data—including bond-related information—across all your projects is incredibly helpful in managing payment bonds. Siteline can also:
- Track payment schedules and alerting users to potential delays
- Provide cash flow forecasts that account for bond-secured payments
- Offer insights into project financial health to preempt payment issues
To see how Siteline can streamline your payment bond management—and your billing and collections workflows as a whole—request a personalized demo today!
What are Canned Reports?
Canned reports are predefined reports that provide information about various construction processes. Unlike ad-hoc reports—which are customized each time they’re run—canned reports follow standard layouts and include pre-set fields that provide consistent information on an ongoing basis. Subcontractor account teams can set these fields to include data related to project progress, labor costs, equipment utilization, material usage, safety incidents—anything that they frequently compile for their analysis or are required to report to other stakeholders.
The key benefit of canned reports is having regularly scheduled visibility into key metrics and insights without recreating the same reports and analyses each time. This enables subcontractor accounting teams to focus less on compiling data and more on strategic analysis and monitoring. Furthermore, they provide quick, comprehensive visibility into a company’s financial processes to help accountants identify issues early on, analyze costs and variances, validate invoices, and ensure compliance on an ongoing basis.
Canned reports are typically generated from construction project management or accounting software. However, when it comes to accounts receivable (A/R) and billing reporting, Siteline takes the cake. With Siteline, subcontractors can easily:
- View the status of all their pay apps—filterable by various project details—to stay on top of collections.
- Track and compare GC payment times and benchmark their performance to inform bid prices.
- Analyze overhead costs and cash flow health to optimize financial performance.
- Evaluate A/R performance by office and project manager to identify successes and opportunities.
See for yourself! Schedule a personalized Siteline demo today and learn how our A/R and billing reporting capabilities can strengthen your construction business.
Ready to end the fire drill and get paid faster?
