How to get paid faster on every job

Get money before you start

The single biggest lever on cash flow is the deposit. A job that starts funded is a job you are never chasing from behind. Collect enough at signing to cover your material, and you have removed the scariest version of getting stiffed: eating the cost of supplies for work that never gets paid.

Pair the deposit with a clear balance and due date on the same document, and the customer knows the whole money picture before the first day of work. No surprises means no arguments at the end, which is where most slow pay actually starts.

Bill in stages on big jobs

For anything that runs more than a few days, do not wait until the end to send one big invoice. Bill in stages tied to real milestones: deposit at signing, a progress payment when the rough-in is done, the balance at completion. Progress billing keeps your own cash even with your costs, so you are never floating the customer’s project out of your own pocket.

It also protects you if a job stalls. If a customer goes quiet halfway through, you have already been paid for the work that is done, instead of holding weeks of unbilled labor and hoping.

Put a pay button on every invoice

The easiest invoice to ignore is one that makes the customer go find their checkbook or log into their bank. The easiest to pay is one with a button. When the invoice carries a link to pay by card or bank in one tap, you remove the friction that turns a 3-day payment into a 30-day one.

Card and bank payment also means the money moves on the customer’s schedule, not on the mail’s. A tapped payment can clear in days; a mailed check clears whenever they get around to it.

Let the reminders do the awkward part

Nobody likes calling a customer to ask for money, so most contractors put it off, and the invoice ages. The fix is to take yourself out of it. A friendly automatic reminder that goes out every week until an invoice is paid does the nagging for you, without the awkward phone call and without you having to remember.

Customers pay the business that invoices like a business. A polite, consistent reminder reads as organized, not desperate, and it works: most overdue invoices get paid after the first or second nudge, as long as the nudge actually goes out.

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