CFO Webinar Series

Optimizing AR

Field-tested playbooks from 3 construction finance practitioners

Growth and cash flow delays hand-in-hand - but the right ops and accountability plan eliminates unforced errors. Our presenters do this every day.

Luke Boyenger

Owner, Cruzumi CFO & Advisory

Financial advisor to 20+ best-in-class subs across the country - helping them identify past due AR that no one’s chasing and the other $5M that should have been billed but wasn’t.

Kelsey Stone

Relationship Manager, Billd

Owned and operated an abatement sub from 0 to 75 employees - knows what Owners want to see from CFOs. Now, she advises 30+ subs on project finances at Billd.

Marcos Cordova

Director of Operations, Billd

Expert on operationalizing smart cash flow practices. Has protected over $1 billion in lien rights in 50 states - and sees subs lose theirs every day because they filed too late.

Cash-forward AR strategies for subcontractors

For subcontractors of all sizes and across trades, accounts receivable processes represent one of the most persistent challenges in a business, making it difficult to get cash back into the business. To combat this, financial leaders are creating cash-forward cultures that prioritize speed, predictability, and accountability.

The ultimate goal is to treat billing as a professional, repeatable system. By implementing proven processes used by top-tier practitioners, you can shorten your cash conversion cycle and ensure that every team member is aligned with the company’s underlying goal of improving your cash flow.

Here are some of the actionable strategies we cover in this webinar to help you optimize your AR process and resources you can implement in your business right away.

Strategy 1

The 4 AR Procedures Every Subcontractor Needs

To ensure billing is predictable and collections are proactive, your organization should implement these four core Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs):

Create Contract Abstracts: Consider this the backbone of your billing process. Conduct a thorough review of your agreements to identify every administrative and compliance requirement before you sign your contract or mobilize.
Run a Weekly Billing Process: Move away from monthly rushes by adopting a weekly rhythm where the CFO and project managers review the WIP report to identify every billable milestone as soon as it’s reached.
File Pre-Liens on Every Project: Protecting your payment rights should be a set-it-and-forget-it process. By establishing a 10-day rule to send notices after your first day on the jobsite, you ensure you never lose your lien rights.
Standardize Collections and Escalations: Stop taking collections on a case-by-case basis by establishing a fixed timeline. Create one consistent process that everyone is trained on and held accountable to. When everyone knows their role and timeline, your collections process becomes routine instead of reactive.

Strategy 2

The Contract Abstract Template

The contract abstract acts as your guide for project success, pulling critical data out of the contract and into a scannable template. For each of your contracts, create an abstract featuring the following details:

Project basics: the GC name and contact information, project owner and address, and the contract date, number, and amount
Compliance: Insurance reporting programs (like those required by top GCs), certified payroll needs, and P&P bond premiums.
Billing Rules: Exact deadlines (e.g., the 20th of the month) and the required platform to submit payment.
Operations: A clear breakout of the scope of work, specific exclusions to avoid disputes, and the latest plan set revisions.
Ownership: Clearly defined internal owners for each field—ensuring the PM owns the scope while your finance team owns insurance and billing.

Strategy 3

Ways to Incentivize Project Managers (PMs)

PMs are the tip of the spear because they sit closest to the project costs and timelines. To get them focused on cash flow, you must change their relationship with the billing process:

Formalize Responsibilities: Update PM job descriptions to explicitly include billings and collections so they understand these tasks are part of their core role, not extra work.
Tie Compensation to Billing: Implement bonuses or incentives tied to timely billing and over/under-billing metrics, ensuring PMs have a vested interest in the company’s cash position.
Drive Competition: Circulate bi-weekly reports showing billing performance by project manager to encourage a healthy competitive environment.
Celebrate the Cash: Don’t just celebrate winning the contract; give credit in team meetings to the PMs who are consistently overbilled and collecting on time.

Strategy 4

How CFOs Can Get CEO Buy-In

For a CFO to drive real change, they must align financial SOPs with the personal and professional goals of the owner. Here’s how CFOs can shape their conversations with business owners when it comes to updating or creating new processes.

Bridge the Gap: While the CFO focuses on the “how” (quantitative data), the CEO focuses on the “why” (qualitative vision); the two must work together to reach company goals.
Utilize Scenario Modeling: Use a cash flow forecast to show the owner the tangible difference between the status quo and your proposed changes—for example, showing how much additional cash an SOP could generate in a year.
Connect to Personal Milestones: Explicitly show how improved cash flow can fund the owner’s specific goals, such as a business expansion, a distribution, or a down payment on a home.
Establish Ownership: Ensure the owner understands that their support is required to enforce the progress the CFO identifies. For updates to be successful, CFOs and CEOs must provide a united front to the rest of the organization to encourage buy-in across departments.

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