Ontario

Getting paid on Ontario construction

The work is the easy half. These guides cover the gap between finishing and being paid: an invoice that cannot be sent back, the prompt payment clock that starts when you hand one over, surviving a client on net 60, charging for the estimate up front, and the order to do things in the week somebody stops answering the phone.

6 ways to move forward

Practical guidesInvoice 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.Practical guidesSurviving 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.Practical guidesWhen a client will not payFive steps in the order that costs least: check whether they ever opened it, send the reminder from your business, read the statutory dates, put it in writing, then pick the remedy that matches the amount.Practical guidesPrompt payment clocksOntario gives the payer 28 days to pay a proper invoice and 14 to dispute it, and gives you 7 to pay your own subs once you are paid. Put in one date and every deadline it sets is counted, with the section it comes from.Practical guidesCharge for the estimateSomebody wants a boiler sized or a panel schedule laid out, and what they are buying is your judgement. Put the design fee on the quote as its own line, credited against the contract, and make paying it a single tap.Practical guidesPaying subsPaying a sub is three jobs: pay them, prove everyone under you is paid, and report it to CRA. The statutory declaration that releases holdback is already generated, the subcontractor agreement starts the paper trail on day one, and the T5018 totals itself from your books.

Count it instead of estimating it

Ontario prompt payment calculatorOne date in: the day you gave them a proper invoice. Out comes the day they have to pay, the day they had to dispute it, and the day you owe your own subs whether or not you were paid.Free, no signup.
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The rest of the Ontario library

Project documents & deliveryFinding construction work in OntarioBidding and prequalification in OntarioPricing construction work in OntarioConstruction holdback in OntarioHST for Ontario contractorsConstruction bookkeeping in OntarioStarting a construction business in Ontario
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