Your Storm Money Comes in Stages — Know Who's Holding Each Piece

The problem in one breath

You run an insurance roof like a retail roof: one price, one customer, one check coming. So when the first insurance check lands low, you panic — or you spend it like it's the whole job — and either way you lose the thread on money that's real but sitting in a stage you're not watching.

Why it happens

On a cash job the money is simple: the homeowner owes you, you call the homeowner, you get paid. A storm job doesn't work that way. The same roof has its money split across three different pockets — the carrier, the homeowner, and sometimes the mortgage company — and each pocket pays at a different moment for a different reason. Nobody hands you a map of it. So most owners write "insurance job — $18,000 owed" on one line and then can't tell you which dollars have already landed, which are held back on purpose, and which are the homeowner's to bring. Money you can't name is money you can't chase.

The play

Call it the carrier money path: for every insurance job, at every moment, you know WHO is holding WHAT. You stop tracking one lump "owed" and start tracking the stages.

1. The first carrier check is the opening payment, not the job's money. That first check is the actual cash value — ACV, the depreciated amount the carrier releases up front. It's real money, but it isn't the whole job. Bank it, note it, and don't mistake it for the finish line.

2. The held-back depreciation is real money waiting on proof. The rest of the carrier's money — the recoverable depreciation — sits held back until the roof is finished and you've sent completion photos and the final invoice. It's part of the claim; it just isn't loose yet. (Play 14 goes deep on prying it loose.) Not every policy holds one, though: some pay actual cash value only, and on those there is no second check to go back for. Read the policy or ask the carrier before you count on one.

3. The deductible is the homeowner's share — and it's part of your price. The carrier pays the covered roof minus the homeowner's deductible; that deductible is money the homeowner brings to the table, and it's part of what you collect on the job. Track it as its own line. (Play 16 handles collecting it cleanly.)

4. Watch for the mortgage company's name on the check. On many storm checks a mortgage lender is named alongside the homeowner and has to sign off before that money is usable. When you see that, the money isn't lost — it's parked behind one more door. (Play 15 walks the two-party-check process.)

5. Supplements ride alongside all of it. Anything the first estimate missed is its own claim on top — that's the whole of Play 08. Keep the supplement as its own expected dollar, never baked into the lump.

6. Only the chaseable pieces go on the money-owed list. Play 01's list is one row per unpaid invoice, so a stage earns a row the day you could actually chase it: the deductible once you've billed the homeowner, the held depreciation once the roof's done and the final invoice is out, an approved supplement once it's billed, a check parked at the lender waiting on sign-off. The ACV you already banked isn't owed — it comes off the job's balance. Unbilled depreciation belongs in Play 14's tracker; an unapproved supplement belongs in Play 08; money that isn't due yet stays off the list, same rule as the payment schedule (Play 07). The tool notes on Play 01 say which column each piece goes in.

Do this this week

Pick one open insurance job. On paper, split its total into the stages above: what the carrier already paid, what it's holding back, what the homeowner owes as the deductible, and whether a mortgage company is on the check. Name where every dollar sits right now. Twenty minutes, one job — and you'll see money you'd been treating as one blurry number.

The tool

None to build. The chaseable pieces go on the money-owed list from Play 01, one line each, so "owed" always names who's holding it and what the next move is. The held-back depreciation gets its own tracker in Play 14. The rest of the map is the split you do on paper — it tells you which sheet each dollar belongs on.

If your crew is 1099

Nothing to adjust — this is the owner's and office manager's billing work with carriers, homeowners, and lenders, not anything to do with directing a crew. W2 or subs, mapping where a storm job's money sits is the same job either way.

One more thing: this play is how we run a shop — it's not legal advice. Rules change by state and by contract, so before you act on the legal-sounding parts, run them past your own attorney or accountant. It's your business, and what you do with any of this is your call and your responsibility.