GC vs Subcontractor Billing Software: What Is Different

Same form, different job

Both a general contractor and a subcontractor fill in a pay application in the AIA G702/G703 format, so it is easy to assume the same tool serves both. The form is the same. The work around it is not.

A subcontractor needs to produce an accurate pay application, in whatever format each general contractor demands, and to track when it gets paid. A general contractor needs that for the owner, and then needs to manage a dozen or more incoming pay applications against a dozen subcontracts, each with its own schedule of values, retainage, change orders, waivers and insurance.

What a general contractor has to track that a subcontractor does not

• Retainage in two directions: what the owner is holding from you, and what you are holding from each sub.
• Sub pay applications checked against each subcontract schedule of values.
• Subcontractor change orders, and how they relate to the owner change order that funds them.
• Lien waivers from every sub and supplier, collected with each payment.
• Insurance certificates for every sub, with expiration dates.
• Joint checks and backcharges.
• Job cost by cost code across self-performed work and subcontracted work together.

Where subcontractor-focused tools stop

A tool designed for subcontractors is good at getting one company paid by many general contractors. It is not designed to be the system where a general contractor holds its subs to account, and it usually hands accounting off to a separate general-purpose package that has no idea what retainage is.

That leaves the general contractor running owner billing in one place, sub payables in a second, compliance in a spreadsheet and job cost in a fourth report built by hand at month end.

How EZBilling is set up for the general contractor

In EZBilling the project holds the owner contract and every subcontract under it. Owner billing, subcontractor billing, retainage receivable and payable, change orders in both directions, waivers, insurance and job cost all refer to the same project record, and all post to one general ledger.

So the question a general contractor asks every month, how much of this draw is mine once the subs are paid and what am I still holding, has one answer in one place.

If you are a subcontractor

EZBilling will produce your pay applications and job cost your work, and specialty contractors who also hire lower-tier subs get value from the payables side. If you never have subs of your own, a tool built only for subcontractor billing may be all you need.