Month end with a pile of handwritten invoices
Your regular fixers and the extra hands you brought in for the busy spell all invoice at the end of the month. Some send a PDF, some a photo of a handwritten sheet, one sends a text with a total. Each has to be checked against the jobs and days they worked, split into labour and materials, have the right CIS deduction applied, and appear on a deduction statement.
Then the monthly return has to agree with what you paid. Your bookkeeper does it, but it takes two days and a lot of phone calls.
Why it takes so long
The rules themselves are applied by your bookkeeper or accountant. What slows things down is the information arriving in a mess, and nothing tying a subcontractor's invoice to the days they actually spent on your jobs.
- Invoices arrive in every format, some missing UTRs or dates.
- Days worked are not recorded against jobs, so invoices cannot be checked.
- Materials and labour are not always split on the invoice.
- Verification status is held in a spreadsheet that is not always current.
- Deduction statements are typed up separately.
What it costs
Your bookkeeper's time, first. Then the risk of paying for days that were not worked, or paying someone twice across two jobs. Errors in deductions or statements take time to put right, and subcontractors who are paid late or wrongly go and work for someone else. We do not give tax advice; we can make sure the people who do have clean information.
Good subcontract roofers talk to each other. A firm known for paying late, or for statements that never match the invoice, finds it harder to get experienced fixers in the busy months, which is exactly when it needs them most.
The subcontractor payment run we build
- Each subcontractor has a record with their details, rates and the verification status your bookkeeper has recorded, with the date it was checked.
- Gang leads record who was on each job each day, including subcontractors, from their phone.
- Subcontractor invoices arrive by email or upload and are read into lines: dates, jobs, labour, materials, total.
- Each invoice is checked against the days recorded and the agreed rate. Differences are listed for a person to query with the subcontractor.
- Once approved, the deduction is calculated using the status and rules your bookkeeper maintains, and a payment is prepared.
- Deduction statements are generated for each subcontractor from the same figures.
- A monthly summary is produced for your bookkeeper to check against the return, and approved payments and costs are posted to Xero, Sage or QuickBooks against each job.
| Step | Automated | Stays with a person |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice capture | Read into lines | Anything unreadable |
| Check against days | Compared with gang records | Querying differences |
| Deduction | Calculated from recorded status | Keeping status current |
| Statements | Generated | Final check |
| Monthly return | Summary prepared | Filing the return |
Your bookkeeper or accountant stays responsible for CIS. We build the plumbing so their time goes on checking rather than typing.
What month end looks like after
Invoices are checked as they arrive, not all at once. Queries are raised while the subcontractor still remembers the job. Statements go out with payments. And labour cost from subcontractors lands on each job, which feeds your job costing.
Is subcontractor pay a monthly headache?
- Subcontractor invoices arrive in every format.
- You cannot easily check invoiced days against days worked.
- Deduction statements are typed up by hand.
- Month end takes your bookkeeper days.