Guide
Ontario's prompt-payment deadlines
Ontario's Construction Act puts a clock on every proper invoice. Four dates matter, and they run whether or not anyone is watching them. Here they are in a builder's words, with one invoice worked through.
The four clocks
They all start on the day the owner receives your proper invoice — not the day it was written, and not the day someone gets round to opening the envelope. A proper invoice is the bill you give the owner with the details the Act lists on it: who you are, which contract it's under, the period or milestone it covers, what was supplied, what's owed and on what terms, and where to send the money.
- 7 days — the owner says what's wrong, in writing. An invoice that's missing something still counts as a proper invoice unless the owner tells you in writing, within seven days of receiving it, what's wrong and what's needed to fix it. Say nothing and it's proper, gaps and all. (Section 6.1(2), new for 2026.)
- 14 days — the owner disputes it. An owner who won't pay all or part of a proper invoice has to give a notice of non-payment, in the prescribed form, within fourteen days of receiving the invoice, saying how much is being held back and every reason why. Fourteen days from receipt: the seven days above don't get added on top. (Section 6.4(2).)
- 28 days — the owner pays. Whatever isn't covered by a notice of non-payment is due within twenty-eight days of the owner receiving the invoice. (Section 6.4(1) and (3).)
- 7 days — pay the subs. Once you're paid, each sub whose work was on that invoice is paid within seven days of the money arriving. If the owner doesn't pay, the subs are still due no later than thirty-five days after the invoice went to the owner, unless you give the sub a notice of non-payment in time (within seven days of getting the owner's notice, or before the thirty-five days run out) with an undertaking to take it to adjudication within twenty-one days. (Section 6.5.)
One invoice, with dates
Your invoice reaches the owner on Monday, September 1. Nothing on it is disputed. The dates are:
- September 8 — last day for the owner to say in writing that something is missing. After this it's a proper invoice, whatever it says.
- September 15 — last day for the owner's notice of non-payment, if it comes to that.
- September 29 — payment due.
- October 6 — the subs are due if the money arrived on the 29th: seven days after payment. It's also the backstop if the owner never paid, thirty-five days after the invoice went in.
Two of those dates are quiet ones. Nobody sends a reminder on day seven or day fourteen, and once they pass without a notice, the whole invoice is due on day twenty-eight.
The bills you receive
A supplier's or sub's bill to you isn't a proper invoice under this part of the Act. The Act's clock on paying it runs from your invoice to the owner and from the day you're paid, as above. Most builders still review each bill they receive within a week and settle any dispute within two, so that by the time their own invoice goes out nothing on it is in question. That's good practice rather than the statute, and it's the rhythm Millo keeps for you.
What this changes in practice
- Prove the delivery date. Every clock runs from the day the owner received the invoice, so send it a way that leaves a record, and note the date.
- Write the objection down. A phone call isn't a notice, whether it's the owner's to you or yours to a sub. It has to be in writing, in the prescribed form, and it has to say what's held back and why.
- Open the post. A bill from a sub that sits in an inbox for a week has used up the review time you'd want before it lands on your own invoice.
- Pay the subs quickly once you're paid. The seven days after the money arrives is the tightest clock of the four, and it's the one a sub is most likely to hold you to.
How Millo counts them
On the invoices you send, Millo shows the three owner-side dates from the day the invoice went out: deemed proper at seven days, the last day for a notice of non-payment at fourteen, due at twenty-eight. On each supplier and trade bill you enter, the Costs page shows the next of those dates beside the bill's status, counted from the bill's date: say what's wrong by seven days, dispute by fourteen, pay by twenty-eight, subs paid by thirty-five at the latest, so the quiet days don't pass unnoticed. Counting from the bill's date puts those dates on the early side of the Act's own, on purpose. You set your own day counts where your contract differs. Millo is job-costing software that runs on your own office computer, bought once.