Guide
Paying subs without a bookkeeper
The bills that hurt a small builder are almost never the ones they argued about. They're the ones nobody saw — handed over in a truck window, left on a counter, sent to an address that isn't checked — and found six weeks later attached to a job that's already been invoiced.
One place, one day
The whole problem is that bills arrive in four or five places. Fix that before anything else: every bill goes to one place, and one day a week you deal with all of them. It matters far less which place than that there is only one. Tell your suppliers once, tell your trades once, and redirect anything that comes in elsewhere rather than handling it where it landed.
The day matters too. Pick one that's ahead of your own billing, so that what you owe is known before you decide what to charge — a supplier bill that surfaces after the invoice has gone is a cost you may simply have eaten.
Three checks before anything is paid
- Is it ours, and is it right? Does it match what was actually ordered and actually delivered? On a materials bill, that means the quantities, not just the total.
- Which job is it? A bill without a job attached is a cost you will never find again, and it's the single most common reason a job looks profitable when it isn't. If nobody can say which job, ask now while someone still remembers.
- Have we seen it before? Duplicate bills are common and they are mostly honest: a statement arrives, then the invoice, then a copy chasing it. Paying the same thing twice is embarrassing and slow to unwind.
Pay on a rhythm, not on pressure
Without a routine, the order of payment is set by whoever shouts. That's a bad system for two reasons: the loudest supplier isn't the most important one, and the quiet trade who never chases is usually the one you most need next month.
A rhythm also gives you something to say. "We pay on Fridays" is an answer. "I'll look into it" is a promise you'll forget, and it's why a reasonable person starts phoning.
The habit with the highest return
When you can't pay on time, say so before the date, and say when you will. That's it — and almost nobody does it.
A trade who is told on Tuesday that they'll be paid a week late will nearly always work with you. The same trade who finds out by the money not arriving starts assuming the worst, and the next thing that happens is they don't turn up. The cost of the conversation is five minutes; the cost of avoiding it is a crew short on a framing week.
Terms, and when a discount is worth taking
Early-payment discounts are worth real money on materials, and they are worth nothing at all if taking them puts you in your overdraft before the client pays. Take them where your money is genuinely ahead of the job, skip them where it isn't, and don't let the habit of taking them drag you into funding work you haven't billed.
The same goes the other way: if you're regularly being asked for payment up front by a supplier, that's a message about how you've been paying, and it's worth fixing before it spreads.
What to keep
Keep the bill itself, not just the number — a photo of a paper docket counts. Keep it against the job. Keep the date you paid it. That's enough to answer every question anyone will ever ask you: a client querying a cost, a supplier claiming non-payment, an accountant at year end, or you in eighteen months trying to work out why that job went the way it did.
How Millo does it
Bills go in against the job they belong to, with the copy attached, and land on the job's costs the moment they're entered rather than at month end. What's unpaid shows up on one list with what's owed and when. Millo is job-costing software that runs on your own office computer, bought once.