How much of this job do you pay for before your client does?
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.
Adjust the guesses
Starting guesses for a typical job like this. Change them to match yours.
Paid the way you're paid now
−$7,300
your money in the job at its worst: 29% of the price
Spent by week 3: $13,500
Client paid $6,200 Your money $7,300
Your money is carrying this job.
On a phasecontract
$0
of your own money, start to finish
Spent by week 3: $13,500
Client paid $15,700 $2,200 ahead of the work
This job pays its own way.
Notice how your mood sours around week 3? Yeah. Here's why.
- −$7,300 out of your pocket at worst, week 3.
- $7,500 materials + $6,000 crew and subs, minus $6,300 paid in.
- Never out of your pocket.
- Press › to walk through every payment.
On a phasecontract: 2 deposits pay each order at its cost ($7,500); the parts due at start ($5,400) pay the crew as each phase begins and hold the dates.
At these numbers the job leaves you $8,200 (33%).
What this example is built on
- Bathroom remodel (vanity, tile, shower), typical: $25,000 over 4 weeks. Nearly two-thirds of remodels take one to four weeks; about one in five run past a month (This Old House, 2026). This Old House bathroom remodel guide ↗
- Crew: A carpenter and a tile setter, about two to three days a week on this job, between inspections and deliveries.
- Crew cost: $1,400 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: tile order 12%, vanity and fixtures 18% of the price, each bought when it's needed. Subcontractors: 15%.
- Margin: about 33% 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). Bathroom remodelers commonly take 30–50% up front (published contractor policies). Some states cap it: California at $1,000 or 10%, Maryland and Massachusetts at a third.
- Deposits, on a phasecontract: Tile order $3,000 · Vanity and fixtures $4,500. 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, plumbing and waterproofing: 60% at start, the rest on approval. Demolition, plumbing and waterproofing all happen before there is anything to approve.
- Tile: 20% at start, the rest on approval. Holds the tile days on the schedule; the rest after review.
- Fixtures, 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 29% 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)
That’s if everything goes right. Here’s the real cost.
When it goes wrong
At the worst point, $15,900 of this $25,000 job is your own money.
That’s 64% of the price, up from 29% when nothing goes wrong. The unpriced change also comes out of your profit.
Over a year
With 2 jobs going, you need $31,800 ready just to carry clients’ jobs.
About 7 weeks of payroll that can’t go into your business, for the weeks when their worst points line up.
No cash ready? On a credit card that costs $3,440 a year in interest.
A bank line: $1,090. A cash advance: $10,870.
Pricing makes a job profitable. Cash flow decides whether the business lasts long enough to keep the profit.
Invoices pay late, delays keep payroll running, loans still need paying. When the money runs out, jobs stall and contractors walk off. Paid ahead of the work, each job carries its own costs, so the next one doesn’t take more of your cash.
How this is figured
Paid late is 3 weeks past when your clients usually pay, or a last payment held over a scope question; runs long is 2 more weeks of crew; an unpriced change is work worth 10% of the price, done halfway and never billed. On a phasecontract each part collects from the payment method your client approved, so there’s no invoice to pay late, and a change is priced and collected when they accept it; a slip still moves its payments. Several jobs: each one’s worst point when their bad weeks line up (spread-out jobs need less), with that many always running. Interest is simple interest on what the jobs owe you on an average day, before fees: credit card at 22.15%, the Federal Reserve average for cards carrying a balance (Q2 2026); bank line at about 7%, the Kansas City Fed median for new bank lines (Q1 2026); cash advance at about 70%, a 1.35 factor rate repaid over six months (published estimates run 35% to over 350%). Houzz (2026): 33% of builders and remodelers cover gaps with credit cards, 34% with credit lines, 52% with other clients’ money.
What actually closes the gap?
The same $25,000 bathroom, four ways. The bar is your own money in the job at its worst.
- The usual way 25% down, the rest after each stage, paid within a week$7,300 25% paid before work starts
- Invoice faster The same, but every invoice paid the day it’s sent$3,000 25% paid before work starts
- Ask for more up front 50% down, the rest after each stage$1,000 50% paid before work starts
- A phasecontract Each order and each phase paid when it starts costing you$0 29% paid before work starts
Faster invoices shrink the gap by days, because the work is still done before it’s billed. A bigger deposit closes it by asking your client to pay for half the job before anything is built. A phasecontract closes it with 29% up front: each part is paid as it starts costing you, and your client approves the finished work before the rest of it is paid.
An illustration: the calculator’s typical bathroom, run four ways.
It’s not a client problem. It’s a timing problem.
What the research says
- 86% say clients pay on time
- 76% still run short of cash, at least sometimes
- 52% cover the gap with other clients’ money
- 14% hidden cost of slow pay in U.S. construction
“…timing of payments often fails to align with the immediate needs of the business.”
Sources: Houzz 2026 U.S. State of Pro Business Finance report, a survey of U.S. builders and remodelers; Rabbet 2025 Construction Payments report, covering U.S. construction overall. Tap a figure to read its passage in the source.