Take money before you start
A deposit off the accepted quote, sent the day it is signed. It reduces the contract balance automatically rather than sitting as a number you have to remember.
Invoicing & payments
Bill from the job, not from memory.
The invoice comes off the estimate you already wrote and the work you actually did — deposits, progress draws, change orders and holdback, all against the same numbers.
Bathroom — 14 Fletcher Ave schedule of values
Paid Deposit on signing $4,600
Paid Rough-in complete $5,520
Sent Tile & fixtures complete $4,600
Queued Change order — heated floor $1,240
Holdback Released 46 days after substantial performance $1,840
Contract to date $17,800
Re-typing the job into an invoice
Where the money quietly goes missing
The problem: The estimate lives in one place and the invoice gets typed somewhere else. The change order you agreed on site never makes it in. Neither does the extra day. You bill what you remember, which is always less than what you did.
And once it is sent, chasing it is a calendar reminder you keep pushing — so the money sits in someone else’s account while you float materials on a credit card.
- Change orders that never reach the invoice are pure loss
- HST charged wrong is found at filing, not at billing
- Nobody knows what is actually outstanding this week
Outstanding right now
Tara Coutts — tile complete $4,600
Alison — deposit $3,200
Dave & Kath — 41 days overdue $2,415
$10,215
How a bill gets raised
The estimate already did the work.
Nothing is retyped. An invoice is a slice of a job you already priced, so the two can never disagree.
Bill as phases finish
A schedule of values off your own phases. Mark rough-in done, the draw is ready. The client sees what they are paying for because it is the same breakdown they approved.
Extra work bills itself
Priced and signed before it happens, then added to the contract. The thing most often done for free stops being done for free.
Ontario holdback, tracked
The statutory 10% held and released on the right date under the Construction Act — not a note in your calendar that a US platform has never heard of.
Where the invoice goes
Billed once, counted everywhere.
EstimateInvoicePaymentJob marginBooksHST collected
Send an invoice and the job’s margin updates, the receivable appears, the ledger entry is made and the HST is recorded — because it is one system, not an invoice tool that emails a total to your accountant.
What it changes on Monday
- You bill the day the phase finishes, not the Sunday you get round to paperwork.
- Change orders get billed. Every one, because raising it is the same action as agreeing it.
- You know what is owed without opening four things.
- The HST is right at filing, because it was right at billing.
Same job, both sides
Quoted$18,400
Change orders+$1,240
Invoiced to date$14,720
Still to bill$4,920
Invoice a job you have already finished.
Put in the phases, raise the draws, and see whether the total matches what you actually collected.
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