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How to get paid faster as a Florida contractor
Read this period's finished and stored work. Confirm the payment summary. Keep the pay applications you sent on today's follow-up list. A separate lien worksheet holds the candidate dates ready for your team to read.
What you will do
- Write down the work you did
- Prepare a clear payment request
- Watch the dates that get you paid
Why slow cash is the real squeeze on a Florida trade contractor
- Hand-built G702/G703 pay apps get kicked back over one wrong retainage line or a schedule that does not sum.
- Finished, stored work goes un-invoiced across multiple jobs because no single list shows what is billable.
- Billed draws age in silence while you float payroll against invoices nobody remembered to chase.
- A plain invoicing tool does not know that Florida caps retainage on public work. It does not know when the payment is legally due.
You finish the work. Then you wait for the cash. For a Florida roofing, HVAC, plumbing or electrical shop of 5 to 75 people, that wait is where the squeeze happens. You floated the materials and the payroll; the draw is out; and now you are waiting.
Hand-building a G702/G703 pay application in a spreadsheet each month is error-prone. One retainage line that is wrong, or a schedule of values that does not sum, and the GC kicks the whole application back. That is another billing cycle lost on work you already did.
Finished, stored work piles up across three jobs at once. Without a single list of what is billable right now, real money sits on the table because nobody got around to writing the pay app. And once a draw does go out, 45 days can pass while you float payroll against an invoice nobody remembered to chase.
Florida law does not require one pay-application format. It does set prompt-payment timing and it caps retainage on public work. Bill in the format GCs expect, and know the dates the money is owed by. That is how you pull receivables in instead of chasing them.
How FL Permit Pay helps you get paid faster
- 1
Review the work in this payment request
For each line, read the scheduled value and the work this period. Read the stored materials, the total completed, the percent complete, and what is left.
- 2
Confirm the current payment due
Compare what is due now against the finished and stored work. Check it against the retainage, the previous certificates, and what is left on the contract. Do that before the draft moves on.
- 3
Keep the submitted pay application on today's list
The sample priority queue keeps Pay App #4 visible with its amount and submitted age. It shows a follow-up item, not proof that payment is late or that collection occurred.
- 4
Look at the lien dates on their own
Use the lien worksheet to prepare the candidate deadline chain from the job facts your team enters. The worksheet shows you got ready. It is not proof you filed, not proof you served it, and not a legal ruling.
The Florida rules behind it, sourced
- Florida caps retainage on public work and FL Permit Pay cites the section: 5% on state public construction (Fla. Stat. § 255.078, which does not apply under $200,000) and 5% on local-government work with a small-entity 10% allowance (Fla. Stat. § 218.735). Private work stays contract-driven, not statutorily capped (Fla. Stat. § 715.12). These are surfaced as sourced cautions, not silent blocks, because the statutes have real exceptions; confirm eligibility yourself. Not legal advice.
- On local-government public jobs, the Local Government Prompt Payment Act sets when the money is due. That is 20 business days after a proper invoice, or 25 business days if a third party has to approve it. A contractor must pay subs within 10 days of getting the funds (Fla. Stat. § 218.735). What counts as a proper invoice is set by your contract, not by one universal template. Check it against the agreement.
- AIA G702/G703 is the format the industry settled on. Florida law does not require it. FL Permit Pay does the standard pay-application math on its own template. Current payment due is worked out period by period: this period's earned, less retainage, less what was certified before.
- Online payment depends on your account being turned on. When it is on, the money settles into your own connected account. FL Permit Pay does not lend money, advance it, or factor it.
Common questions
Does Florida cap how much retainage a contractor can hold back?
Public work: 5%, set by state (Fla. Stat. § 255.078, over $200,000) and local government (§ 218.735, 10% for small municipalities). Private work: whatever the contract says (§ 715.12). Not legal advice. Confirm against your contract.
When is payment legally due on a Florida public construction job?
20 business days after a proper invoice on local-government work, 25 if a third party approves it, and you pay subs within 10 days of getting the money (Fla. Stat. § 218.735). Your contract defines a proper invoice.
What is the difference between an invoice and a pay application?
A plain invoice usually does for small, fixed-price, service, repair, time-and-materials or home work, where the owner does not ask for AIA forms. A pay application is for when the contract says to bill progress against a schedule of values. That is usually the AIA G702 plus the G703 continuation sheet. It is common on larger commercial, public or lender-financed jobs. FL Permit Pay builds the G702/G703 format for the jobs that need it.
How fast can a contractor actually collect a pay application?
Bill in the format the GC expects, review the totals before sending, and offer online payment when it is active for your account. On public work, statutory prompt-payment timers, including the 20 to 25 business days under Fla. Stat. § 218.735, may apply. Confirm the contract and project type before relying on a timer.
Put the guide to work.
See how FL Permit Pay turns checked field progress into a pay application on the Get Paid page. Keep the collection deadlines we support in view with Lien Protection.