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Ontario

Construction holdback in Ontario

Ten percent of every progress invoice sits with somebody else until the job is certified, and the tax on it does not wait for the money. These guides cover what you invoice, what you remit and when, the day the holdback is legally yours, and what happens when the release date goes by and nothing lands.

Try this on a real business

Open a seeded business in your trade. Nine jobs on the pipeline, a quote sent and viewed, a deposit paid, an invoice overdue, and a holdback on the current month.

Open the demo business

No card, no form. Sign in later and everything you built stays on the same account.

7 guides on this

How to run the businessHow much to chargePrice one real job end to end: every cost on its own line, markup you set on purpose, Ontario HST applied for you, holdback split into what you bill now and what waits, and one list of every quote out with its status and value. Demo business, no signup.How to run the businessInvoice and get paid on timeBuild the invoice straight from an accepted quote, with HST at 13 percent and the 10 percent Construction Act holdback computed for you. Send it with a timestamped record, log partial cheques, and put every held-back dollar on a countdown.How to run the businessGet your 10% holdback backTake the 10% off every invoice automatically, on the pre-tax value, so your client sees what is payable now. Record each release date once, and every held dollar lands in one tracker that turns red the day you are allowed to collect it.How to run the businessSurviving net 60Materials and payroll go out weeks before the money comes in. Bill against a schedule of values as the work happens, see what is outstanding against what is genuinely late, and keep the holdback out of the number you think you have.How to run the businessHST without the surpriseNobody writes to tell you that you crossed the threshold. Register on time, charge it on the whole invoice, keep the collected money separate, and read your return on the CRA's own line numbers before you sit down with your accountant.How to run the businessOne place, not five toolsContractors build their own spreadsheets because every app was missing the thing that makes construction different, and because a monthly bill for something that still needs a workaround is infuriating. Holdback, per-job profit and the T5018, in one place, with no monthly bill.After you qualifyOperational SetupBusiness banking, construction-specific accounting, payroll setup, trust obligations under the Construction Act, and day-to-day operations.

Count it instead of estimating it

HST on holdback calculatorYou charge HST on the full value of the work, including the tenth being held. You do not remit all of it yet. Enter the job and get both numbers, and the date the rest falls due.Free, no signup.Ontario lien deadline calculatorLast day on site and contract date in. Preservation, perfection and the annual holdback dates out, counted with the periods in the Construction Act.Free, no signup.

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The rest of the Ontario library

Finding construction work in Ontario Bidding and prequalification in Ontario Pricing construction work in Ontario Change orders and extras in Ontario Getting paid on Ontario construction Construction liens in Ontario HST for Ontario contractors Construction bookkeeping in Ontario

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