He Should Hear It From You, Not From His Check

The problem in one breath

The tear-off cracked a downspout. Or the homeowner pulled a nail out of the grass with a tire. Or the north side flashing came back wrong and your own men redid it. You paid for it either way, and now it is the end of the month and you are holding his check.

Why it happens

Most shops pick one of two bad endings. You eat it, say nothing, and carry the grudge until the week you quietly stop calling him. Or you take it off the check cold — no warning, no picture, a round number you settled on driving over. He sees a short check and hears one thing: this outfit shorts people. Good sub crews are the scarcest thing you have, and that is how you lose one that was actually good.

The play

Run the fairness rules. Five of them, and they are the whole play.

1. Photograph it the day you find it, before it is cleaned up, torn out or covered over. No photo, no backcharge — and that rule is on you, not on him. If nobody shot it, you eat this one. That is what the photo habit (Module 3, Play 10) is for.
2. Give him first shot at fixing it himself. Ask if he wants to come put it right. That beats pulling your own crew off paying work. Only when he cannot or will not does it turn into money.
3. Tell him the day you find it, not the day you pay him. One call: here is what we found, here is the picture, here is what it takes. A man who hears about it on his check does not come back next storm (Module 12, Play 5).
4. Real cost only, and you can show the receipt or the hours. A backcharge pays you back; it never punishes. Two hundred forty dollars is a downspout and a gutter apron. Five hundred "for the trouble" is a fine, and a fine ends the relationship.
5. He signs off, or you have in writing that you told him and what he said. A text back saying go ahead counts. Then it goes on the log and comes off a named check, never off "the next one."

Sometimes he flatly disagrees. Never let it drift to the check. It goes on the log as unsettled, you decide once whether the money or the crew is worth more, and either way he hears it before he is paid. None of this works unless the paper said it would (Module 12, Play 2). A checkpoint (Module 12, Play 3) catches most of it before it is money. Whether you can hold money back at all, and on what notice, is set by that subcontract and by your state — read yours and ask your own attorney before you keep a dollar of his.

Do this this week

Pull the last three months of sub payments and find every check you paid short. For each one, write down two things: was there a photo, and did he hear it from you before payday. Half an hour with the checkbook. Any crew that found out on his check gets a call today, so he knows you know.

The tool

The backcharge log is the-backcharge-log.xlsx. One row each time a miss costs you money: the day you found it, the crew, the job, what happened, whether there is a photo, the day you told him, what it really cost, whether he agreed, and which check it comes off. The Flag column does the nagging — NO COMPANY, NOT TOLD, NO PROOF, NOT SETTLED, HE SAYS NO. A green box counts the list, the dollars, and how many rows are still wrong. Type a crew's name into the BY SUB COMPANY block and it totals what that company has cost you; that number tells you which cheap crew is the expensive one. Row 5 ships yellow as an example done right; clear it. the sheet notes below has the formulas. Those dollars land on what the job really made (Module 6, Play 19). Print the card and keep it in the truck:

THE SAME-DAY BACKCHARGE CARD — what you say the day you find it

Job / address: __________________  Sub company: _________________
What you found: _________________________________________________
Found on: __________   Photographed: [ ] yes   By: ______________

BEFORE YOU CALL
  [ ] Photo taken today, before it was cleaned up or covered
  [ ] You know the real cost: parts $________  hours ________
  [ ] You read what the subcontract says about fixing his misses

SAY IT TODAY
  "We found ______________ at ______________. I've got a picture
   and I'll send it. Do you want to come put it right, or do we
   handle it and take the cost off?"

  [ ] He fixes it himself — done by: ______________
  [ ] We fix it, cost off his check: $________  check: ________
  [ ] He does not agree. What he says: ___________________________

THEN
  [ ] The number is cost — receipt or hours behind every dollar
  [ ] His answer in writing: text, email, or signed right here
      Sub signature: ______________________  Date: __________
  [ ] Typed into the log the same day, before it is forgotten

No photo, no backcharge. Nobody finds out on his check.

If your crew is 1099

Most sub crews are exactly this case. Get this line right. Charging back the cost of fixing work that missed the spec you bought is one thing — it runs company to company, off the paper, like any supplier credit. Docking a man's pay to teach him a lesson is a different thing entirely, and it's the version that starts looking like something other than a sub crew. Keep it company to company, in writing, priced at cost, and priced against the spec in the subcontract. What decides classification is set by federal and state rules and by how the work really runs, so put yours to your own accountant or attorney before backcharging becomes a habit.

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.