Getting paid on time: a cash-flow playbook for contractors

MORTAR · 6 min read

Contractor checking payments on a phone with a relieved expression at a site office

More contracting businesses fail from late payment than from a lack of work. You can be fully booked and still go under if the money comes in slower than it goes out. The good news: getting paid on time is mostly about habits and systems, not luck. Here's a playbook you can put to work today.

1. Quote clearly and set the terms early

Payment problems often start at the quote. State your deposit, payment schedule and due dates in writing before the job begins, so there's no ambiguity later. A clear, itemised quotation also makes your final invoice impossible to argue with. (See our guide to writing a quotation.)

2. Always take a deposit

Money in before work starts funds your materials and proves the client is serious. For most jobs, 30–50% upfront is reasonable. Never finance a client's project out of your own pocket — that's our whole point in how much deposit to collect.

An overdue invoice beside a calculator and phone — Every day an invoice sits unsent or unpaid is a day your money is in someone else's account.

3. Invoice immediately

The longer you wait to invoice, the longer you wait to be paid — and the more a client's memory of the job fades. Raise the invoice the moment a stage is done, not at the end of the month. Speed here is free money.

Contractor sending an invoice PDF from a smartphone — Send a clean invoice the moment work is done — straight to the client's phone.

4. Make paying easy

Put clear payment details on the invoice and accept the methods clients actually use — bank transfer and DuitNow. Friction loses you days; the easier you make it to pay, the sooner the money lands.

5. Track what's outstanding — and how old it is

You can't chase what you can't see. Keep a live view of total outstanding and, crucially, the aging — which invoices are 30, 60 or 90 days overdue. Aging tells you who to call first, and a polite reminder the moment an invoice tips past due works far better than an awkward call three months later.

Phone showing an outstanding-payments summary with an aging list — Know your total outstanding and its aging at a glance — chase the oldest first.

6. Stage payments on big jobs

For longer projects, don't wait until the end for one big payment. Break it into stages or progress claims so cash keeps flowing while you build, and you're never carrying a huge unpaid balance.

How MORTAR helps

MORTAR puts the money side on one screen: total outstanding and aging the moment you open the app, plus how much you've collected this month. You raise a clean PDF invoice in seconds and share it straight to WhatsApp, record payments as they come in, and watch balances update themselves. The result is simple — you always know who owes you what, and you stop letting invoices slip.

Want to stop chasing payments and start seeing them? Join the MORTAR early list.