How much of this job will you finance?

86% of builders and remodelers say clients pay on time, and 76% still run short of cash (Houzz, 2026). When each payment lands is why. Free, and built on industry data.

The job
How you get paid now
Clients usually pay
Who does the work
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Starting guesses for a typical job like this. Change them to match yours.

Paid the way you're paid now

−$12,600

out of your pocket at worst, week 7

You’re the bank on this job.

That’s about 5½ weeks of crew and sub pay ($2,200 a week).

On a phasecontract

$0

of your own money, start to finish

Not one dollar of yours goes in.

$12,600 of your money stays free for the next job.

3 deposits pay each order at its cost ($14,900); the parts due at start ($11,300) pay the crew as each phase begins and hold the dates.

Set up your first job or book a setup call

Notice how your mood sours around week 7? Yeah. Here's why.

The job's cash, day by day: paid now against paid on a phasecontract.−$10k−$5k$0+$5k+$10k1 payroll3 payrollswk 1wk 2wk 3wk 4wk 5wk 6wk 7wk 8wk 9Worst paid now: −$13k
Whole job
Milestones −$12,600 out of your pocket at worst, week 7. $14,900 materials + $14,700 crew and subs, minus $16,900 paid in.
Phasecontract Never out of your pocket. Press › to walk through every payment.

If the work runs two weeks long, paid now: $14,700 at worst. At these numbers the job leaves you $12,300 (27%). See a job like this in the demo →

What this example is built on
  • Kitchen remodel (cabinets, counters, tile), typical: $45,000 over 8 weeks. Construction usually runs 6–10 weeks, larger kitchens longer (HomeAdvisor, 2026); cabinets are ordered at the start because of their lead time. HomeAdvisor kitchen remodel guide ↗
  • Crew: A lead carpenter, a carpenter and a helper, on this job about two days a week while plumbing, electrical and counters are subbed.
  • Crew cost: $1,300 a person a week: the 2025 BLS median wage for these trades (carpenters about $1,165, tile setters $1,071, roofers $1,066, laborers $906) plus 25% for payroll tax and insurance.
  • Materials: cabinet order 20%, countertop order 8%, tile and fixtures 5% of the price, each bought when it's needed. Subcontractors: 12%.
  • Margin: about 27% at these numbers; NAHB puts the remodeler average at 29.9% (2024 data).
  • Deposit, the usual way: 25% of the price here, the usual for this job at this size. Contractor guides put a deposit at 30–50% under $10,000, 20–30% up to $50,000, 10–20% up to $150,000 and 10% or less above that (TakeoffConvert, 2026). Kitchen remodelers commonly take 25–40% up front, then progress payments and a final 10–20% (published contractor policies, 2023–2024). Some states cap it: California at $1,000 or 10%, Maryland and Massachusetts at a third.
  • Deposits, on a phasecontract: Cabinet order $9,000 · Countertop order $3,600 · Tile and fixtures $2,300. Each is a real order at what it costs, collected when it’s ordered, not a percentage picked for the whole job.
  • The phasecontract: each phase is paid on approval unless the business would front cash during it; then it asks the least at start that stops that.
    • Demolition and rough-in: 60% at start, the rest on approval. The crew's first days and the rough-in subs come before there is anything to approve.
    • Cabinets and counters: 50% at start, the rest on approval. The deposit paid for the cabinets; this pays the crew for the weeks they take to install.
    • Tile, finish and walkthrough: on approval. The default: the money already paid in carries this phase, so the client pays after reviewing it.
  • Getting paid: each payment lands a week after the work it bills unless you choose later; Houzz's 2026 average is 7.3 days from invoice to money. On a phasecontract, each deposit is collected when you order, then each phase by its timing, the rest at the latest when the client's 72-hour review ends. Before work starts it collects 30% of the price here: the deposits and the first part of the work.
  • The colors: measured in weeks of what this job pays its crew and subs (one "payroll" on the chart). Green is about a week or less, yellow up to three, red more. A rough estimate, not a forecast; nothing you enter leaves this page.

Sources: NAHB remodeler cost data (2024)BLS construction wages (2025)Houzz payment timing (2026)