Pay the Day You Said and You Get First Call After the Storm

The problem in one breath

Hail comes through on a Tuesday. By Wednesday morning the best tear-off crew in your market has three shops calling him, and all three pay about the same money a square. He has one crew. He gives it to the shop that paid him on the day it promised, last time.

Why it happens

You pay your subs when the homeowner pays you, or when the carrier finally releases the depreciation. That feels fair — you can't hand out money that isn't in the account. He never sees your bank balance or the file on an adjuster's desk. He sees a man who owed him eleven grand on the fifteenth and went quiet. Come spring, he answered somebody else's phone first.

So don't squeeze him. Fix the timing on your end, so his money is there before his invoice is. Set when the homeowner pays you instead of finding out (Module 6, Play 7), and carry a reserve through the slow months (Module 6, Play 11).

The play

Call it the pay-day promise. One day. Said out loud. Kept.

1. Pick one pay day and never move it. Friday every week, or the tenth and the twenty-fifth. Not "when the job closes out." Not "as soon as the check clears." The same day whether the carrier paid you or not.
2. Say the day before he ever starts, and put it in the paper. Out loud in the first conversation, then written into the sub agreement (Module 12, Play 2) beside the scope and the price. A pay day you never said out loud is a hope, not a promise.
3. Make the terms plain, so nobody has to guess. Spell out what has to be in your hands and by when: his invoice, the last checkpoint passed, any backcharge already talked through — all in by a cut-off a day or two ahead. Miss the cut-off and he's on the next pay day — that's how the office cuts checks without a fire drill.
4. Settle a backcharge before the pay day, never on it. Nothing burns the promise faster than a man opening an envelope that's fourteen hundred short with no phone call behind it. Talk it through, agree the number, then pay (Module 12, Play 4).
5. If you truly can't pay, call before the day. Not after. One call ahead beats three excuses behind. Give a date you will actually hit — the second missed date costs you more than the first. If payroll is on the line, that's a week for the cash war room (Module 6, Play 5), not a week of ducking your phone.

Here's what it buys: first call when the sky opens up, crews that stay when a competitor waves a few more dollars a square, and four crews on one neighborhood when every shop in town is short men. Same as the bench list on the hiring side (Module 4, Play 13) — build it before you need it. It never shows up on a statement. You see it the Monday after a storm.

Do this this week

Pick the day and the cut-off, then call your best three sub companies and tell them both. Say it straight: "From now on we cut sub checks every ______. Get me your invoice by ______ and you're on that one." Twenty minutes on the phone. Then keep it the first time it's inconvenient — that's the one everybody remembers.

The tool

One card, filled in once and handed to every sub company you use. Put in your day, your cut-off, and the man he calls when a check looks wrong — a real name and a real number, not "the office." Hand it over with the agreement, and to every new crew before its first job — after his certificates are already on file (Module 11, Play 5). It tells him when his money lands and what he has to do to make that happen, so a late check turns into a fact you can both look at instead of an argument.

THE PAY-DAY PROMISE — when you get paid, and what has to be in by then

To: ______________________________________  (sub company)
From: ____________________________________  Job / crew: ____________

OUR PAY DAY IS: __________________________________________________
  Every ______________. It does not move, and it does not wait on
  the homeowner, the adjuster, or the carrier.

CUT-OFF: everything below has to be in our hands by
  ____________ (day) at ________ (time) to be paid on that pay day.
  Miss the cut-off and you are on the next pay day, not on the phone.

WHAT HAS TO BE IN
  [ ] Your invoice: company name, job address, scope, squares, amount
  [ ] The last checkpoint passed and signed off
  [ ] Any backcharge talked through — the number in writing, agreed
      or not
  [ ] Lien waiver for the amount, if we agreed on one: _____________
  [ ] Certificates already on file and good on every day you
      were on our roof (checked before you rolled)

IF THERE IS A BACKCHARGE
  We call you before the pay day, not on it. You get the photos and
  the number in writing first. The rest of the money still goes out
  on the day.

IF WE CANNOT PAY ON THE DAY
  We call you BEFORE the day with a date we will hit. No call means
  we were late and it is on us.

CHECK NOT RIGHT? CALL: ______________________ at __________________
  (one name, one number)        You get an answer back by: ________

If your crew is 1099

Less to adjust here than almost anywhere in the library: paying another company on its own invoice, on terms you both agreed to, is about as clean as it gets. Keep it that way. Pay the company, off the company's invoice, in the company's name. Don't hand cash to his individual men, don't front them gas or draw money on a Thursday, and never run his people through your payroll to help him out. Those favors are how a clean company-to-company deal starts to look like something else on paper. What decides classification is set by federal and state law and by how the work really runs, so get yours checked against your own state and your accountant.

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.