Finance · Accounts receivable
Construction AR automation and collections
Get paid weeks sooner. Brody runs the whole receivable, from the pay application to collected cash: it tracks every bill across every GC and owner, chases on a cadence, applies the cash, and posts it back to your ERP.
In short
Construction accounts receivable automation
Construction accounts receivable automation runs the whole invoice-to-cash process on top of the ERP: it tracks every AIA pay application across every general contractor and owner, chases payment on a cadence with promise tracking, applies incoming cash to the invoice, job, and GL, bills retainage when it releases, and forecasts when each customer actually pays.
| Subcontractor wait to get paid (Rabbet 2024) | About 74 days, up to 120 |
| Construction DSO (industry surveys, no official figure) | Commonly cited near 80 days |
| Contractors consistently paid on time (Levelset 2024) | Only about 12 percent |
The problem
You finance the job, then wait months to see the cash.
A subcontractor can carry a job on its own cash for 60 to 120 days before the first dollar comes back. Pay applications sit in an approval chain with no visibility, retainage piles up across counterparties, and change orders get approved but never billed.
Existing portals let you submit and sign, but they give no portfolio view of cash realization. The finance team lives in email, chasing payments one project at a time, with no way to see what is stuck, why, or what to do first.
Buildalytic aggregates receivables across every project and counterparty, tracks each pay application through its approval chain, and produces a queue ordered by dollar amount, aging, and likelihood of collection.
The collections engine
Chased on a cadence, not from memory.
Follow-up is where cash is won or lost, and it is the first thing to slip when the office is busy. Brody runs a professional cadence on every open receivable and keeps running it until you are paid.
A cadence per counterparty
A slow-paying owner and a reliable GC do not get the same treatment. Set the timing, tone, and escalation for each relationship, on brand, every time.
Promises tracked, slips escalated
When AP says the fifteenth, that promise is logged. If the money is not in by then, it moves up the queue on its own instead of falling through the cracks.
The queue, ordered by dollars at risk
The team works a prioritized list ranked by amount, aging, and what is blocking payment, with the backup already attached, not a stale spreadsheet.
Billing, cash application, and visibility
Every pay app, every GC, one board. The books tie out.
Pay-app tracking across every GC
The AIA G702 and G703 for every counterparty, with values, percent complete, and retainage per line, followed through submitted, in review, approved, and paid.
Change orders folded in
Approved change orders flow into the schedule of values and get billed, not lost, and you can see on each job whether you are billing ahead of your cost.
Cash application inside your ERP
Each payment is matched to the invoice, job, and GL account and posted back to the ERP you run. Partials, retainage, and batch remittances are handled; your team reviews exceptions.
Waiver and paperwork gates
Conditional and unconditional lien waivers, insurance certificates, and certified payroll a customer needs before paying are prepared and tracked with the receivable.
Pay prediction per customer
Watches how fast each GC and owner really pays and forecasts the likely collection date for every open receivable, instead of assuming contract terms.
DSO visibility
Days sales outstanding tracked against your own baseline, so cash realization is measurable, not a feeling.
The complete invoice-to-cash run
One platform, from the pay app to collected cash.
Not a follow-up reminder bolted onto your accounting system. It runs the whole receivable, built for pay applications, retainage, and the way construction actually gets paid.
Bill
Track the AIA pay application for every GC and owner, with the schedule of values, percent complete, and retainage per line.
Submit and track
Follow each application through submitted, in review, approved, and paid, on each counterparty’s form and portal.
Chase and collect
Run a professional cadence on every open receivable, track promises, and escalate what slips, ranked by dollars at risk.
Apply cash
Match each incoming payment to the invoice, job, and GL, handling partials, retainage, and batch remittances, exceptions only.
Release retainage
Track retainage held per job to its release trigger, gated on the lien waiver, so held funds get billed the day they are due.
Post and forecast
Post back to your ERP and forecast when each customer actually pays, so cash timing is a number, not a hope.
In short
Days sales outstanding (DSO)
Days sales outstanding is the average number of days it takes to collect payment after work is billed. Construction runs among the highest DSO of any industry, commonly cited near 80 days, because of retainage, slow pay-application approvals, and the paperwork that gates each payment.
In short
Cash application
Cash application is the accounting task of matching each incoming payment to the open invoice, job, and general ledger account it belongs to. In construction it is hard because of partial payments, retainage, and batch remittances, so it consumes the last week of every month unless it is automated to match and post inside the ERP.
What is construction accounts receivable software?
Construction accounts receivable software runs the invoice-to-cash process a contractor actually has: it tracks every AIA pay application across every general contractor and owner, chases payment on a cadence, applies incoming cash to the invoice, job, and GL, tracks retainage to its release, and forecasts when each customer pays. It replaces the spreadsheets, portals, and email chasing that make construction the slowest-paid industry.
How does it track pay applications across every GC and owner?
Every pay application lands in one board, followed through submitted, in review, approved, and paid, on each counterparty’s form and portal. A subcontractor billing a dozen GCs sees exactly where each application sits and what is holding it, instead of logging into a dozen portals or reconstructing status from email.
Does it read and track AIA G702 and G703 pay applications?
Yes. It carries the G702 summary and the G703 schedule of values, including work completed this period, stored materials, percent complete, and the retainage held on each line. Change orders fold into the schedule of values rather than getting lost, so the billing is right and you can see on each job whether you are billing ahead of your cost.
How does automated collections follow-up work without annoying customers?
You set the cadence, tone, and escalation per counterparty, so a slow-paying owner and a reliable GC are not treated the same. Reminders go out on schedule and on brand, promises like “pays the fifteenth” are logged, and anything that slips moves up the queue automatically. Follow-up becomes consistent and professional rather than sporadic.
How does it reduce DSO in construction?
DSO is driven by slow pay-app approvals, missed retainage releases, and the paperwork that gates payment. Buildalytic attacks all three: it tracks every application to approval, bills retainage the day it releases, prepares the waivers that unblock payment, and chases on a cadence. Collecting sooner on a large receivables balance frees working capital and lowers the financing cost of carrying the receivable.
What is a good DSO for a construction company?
Construction runs high, commonly cited near 80 days in industry surveys, because of retainage and slow pay-app approvals. There is no authoritative government figure and no single good number. What matters is a downward trend against your own baseline as tracking, cadence, and retainage release tighten the process.
How is construction DSO calculated?
Days sales outstanding is average accounts receivable divided by total credit revenue for a period, multiplied by the number of days in the period. It measures how long it takes to collect after billing. In construction, retainage and slow pay-application cycles push it well above other industries.
Does Buildalytic move the money or process payments?
No. Buildalytic runs the receivable operation, tracking, chasing, applying, and reconciling, but the payment itself moves through your existing bank and ERP. It makes sure the bill goes out, gets collected, and gets applied to the right invoice and job. It is not a payment processor holding your funds.
How does it handle retainage and its release?
Retainage is tracked as a first-class number, held per line and per job, with the cumulative balance carried across billing cycles and the release trigger or date attached. When retainage becomes billable, it surfaces so the held funds get billed the day they are due, instead of being left on the table because nobody was watching the date.
Which ERP does it work with?
It works alongside the construction ERP you already run, such as Viewpoint Vista, Sage 300 CRE, Foundation, CMiC, Sage Intacct, or Acumatica. It reads your source of truth and writes back with no double entry, so your ERP stays the general ledger and Buildalytic runs the receivable workflow on top of it.
Does it work for subcontractors, or only general contractors?
Both. Subcontractors use it to bill and collect from the GCs above them, with automated follow-up and pay-app tracking. General contractors use it to see which lower-tier pay applications are missing and blocking their own owner billing. A firm that is a GC on some jobs and a sub on others runs both sides in one place.
How is it different from Siteline, GCPay, or Textura?
Those tools focus on generating and exchanging pay applications and lien waivers, mostly on the GC side. Buildalytic runs the full receivable: pay-app tracking plus a collections cadence, cash application, retainage release, per-customer pay prediction, and ERP posting. It is the AR operation, not only the billing document, and it is built for the subcontractor side as well.
How is it different from a generic AR tool like Billtrust or Versapay?
Generic AR tools assume a clean invoice with one due date. Construction bills in pay applications with a schedule of values, retainage withheld on every line, change orders that move the contract mid-job, and lien-waiver gates. Buildalytic is built around construction billing, so retainage, waivers, and pay-app status are first-class, not workarounds.
Does it replace my accounting system?
No. Your accounting or ERP system stays the ledger and the system of record. Buildalytic runs the receivable process on top of it, from the pay-app board through the collections cadence, cash application, and retainage release, and posts the results back so you are not entering anything twice.
See your receivables in one view.
We will show portfolio aging, pay-application status, and a prioritized collections queue on a real book of receivables.
One full Platform plan. No standard setup fee. Start with one supported workflow.
Plan your rollout
Pricing, security reviews, procurement and rollout across your projects and regions.