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Construction guides for California contractors

88 guides written against California rules, not translated from somewhere else. Every one of them ends somewhere you can act.

Start with a subject

Count it instead of reading about it

California lien deadline calculator
It is 90 days until the owner records a Notice of Completion. Then it is 60 for a direct contractor and 30 for everybody else. Enter your dates and see which one you are on.
California prompt payment and retention calculator
Two clocks, not one. Progress payments run from the payment demand; retention runs from completion, not from your final invoice. Enter both dates and see which one is actually late.
Hourly rate calculator
Overhead, billable days and the wage you want in. The hourly rate that pays for all three.
Markup and margin calculator
Add twenty percent to your costs and you keep sixteen point seven. Enter one job and see the price, the profit, both percentages, and what the mix-up is worth in dollars.

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After you qualify

The dates that cost California contractors money

One email a month. The lien deadline and prompt payment and retention arithmetic this site already does for you, the dates it turns on, and every new guide the day it goes up.

California lien deadline calculator: The 20-day preliminary notice, and what a recorded Notice of Completion does to your 90 days. It compresses them to 30 or 60.
California prompt payment and retention calculator: Two clocks, not one. Progress payments from the demand, and retention from completion rather than from your final invoice.
Every new guide the day it goes up. 88 are live for California right now, the most recent being "Do you need a license" on 20 August 2026.

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