Will the project pay before your cash runs out?
A payment-delay cash flow planner for independent subcontractors. Model the invoice, retention, materials, supplier terms, a deposit, and a realistic late-payment buffer before you order anything.
After using this, you can now see the cash a subcontract needs, what bridging it costs, and how much late payment it survives — which used to take a spreadsheet and a hopeful guess.
Scenario result
This is a timing scenario, not a prediction. The cost to bridge is simple daily interest on the shortfall, not a quote — it ignores draw fees, minimum charges, and whether credit is available to you at all. Confirm contract terms, retention release dates, taxes, debt, financing, and supplier requirements with your accountant or adviser.
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Everything runs in your browser. There are no accounts, cookies, analytics vendors, network requests, or uploads. Optional usage counters record only feature names in local storage, never your numbers or identity.
No warranty. This tool is provided free and as-is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied. It is not legal, tax, financial, or accounting advice, and it does not replace a qualified professional. You are responsible for reviewing and verifying its output before relying on it, and for meeting any obligation it helps you prepare for. To the maximum extent permitted by law, the authors accept no liability for any loss or damage arising from its use.
Common questions
What is the difference between "expected payment day" and when retention actually clears?
Expected payment day is contract terms plus your late-payment buffer — on the defaults, 30 days of terms + a 14-day buffer = day 44, when the collectable $9,000 (invoice less 10% retention) is expected to land. Retention release day adds the separate retention-release period on top of that — 44 + 60 = day 104 — because retention on most construction contracts is held until a milestone like project close-out or a warranty period, well after the regular invoice pays.
How is "cash needed before payment" calculated?
Materials and upfront costs, plus your weekly burn rate stretched across the days until expected payment — on the defaults, $2,500 materials + $700/week × (44 days ÷ 7) ≈ $2,500 + $4,400 = $6,900. That weekly-burn term is what most spreadsheet estimates skip: it is not just materials that need funding, it is every day of overhead and other bills that keep running while you wait to be paid. See how that cash-needed figure changes at net 15, 30, 45, 60, and 90 payment terms.
What does the funding gap actually mean, and what closes it?
Cash needed minus cash available for the project, floored at zero — on the defaults, $6,900 needed − $5,000 available = a $1,900 gap. Four of the things that close it are fields you can turn here: a deposit or mobilisation payment (25% of this invoice closes it outright), supplier terms that outlast the client's payment date, a shorter payment-terms negotiation, or more starting cash. A smaller late-payment buffer closes it on paper too — only do that if you have a real reason to trust this client. Whatever is left after those is a line of credit sized to at least the gap, and the planner prices that.
My supply house gives me 30 days — why didn't that close the gap?
Because the client pays later than the supplier does. On the defaults you are paid on day 44 and a net-30 materials invoice falls due on day 30, so the $2,500 still leaves your account first: supplier terms shorten the borrowing window (you run short on day 30 rather than day 26) without changing what the job needs. Set supplier terms to 45 and the answer flips — the bill is due after the client's money lands, the materials never need bridging, and the $1,900 gap disappears. The lever is not the length of the terms, it is whether they outlast the client.
The gap is $1,900. Is that a reason to turn the job down?
Not on its own — the size of a gap and the cost of a gap are different numbers. On the defaults you are short from day 26 to day 44, and the shortfall ramps up across those 18 days rather than sitting at $1,900 the whole time, so carrying it on a 12% line of credit costs around $6. The real questions are whether you can reach $1,900 at all, and what the same gap costs when the client stretches to net 90. That interest figure is simple daily interest on the daily shortfall and ignores draw fees, minimum charges, and factoring discounts — treat it as a floor, not a quote.
How many days late can the client pay before I am actually in trouble?
That is the “late payment you can still absorb” line, and it appears once the scenario is covered. It counts the extra days of slip — beyond the buffer you already entered — that your remaining cash and weekly burn survive. On the defaults with a 25% deposit you hold $600 spare against $100 a day of burn, so six days. It can read zero even with money left over: if the materials invoice falls due the day after payment was expected, one day of slip pulls that whole bill in ahead of the money, and the planner shows you that cliff instead of the comfortable-looking surplus.
Why include a late-payment buffer at all if the contract says net 30?
Because contract terms describe when payment is owed, not when it reliably arrives. A 14-day buffer on the default scenario models the gap between "invoice due" and "invoice actually paid" that shows up across the trades when a client's own approval or AP cycle runs slow. Set it to zero only if you have direct evidence this particular client always pays on the contract date.
Is retention money gone, or does it show up somewhere in the plan?
It is deferred, not lost. The retained amount ($1,000 on the default $10,000 invoice at 10%) is shown separately with its own expected release day, so it never inflates the cash the project planner assumes you'll have on the regular payment date. Treat retention release as a second, later collection date with its own risk of slipping, not as part of day-44 cash.
Once I know the gap, how do I actually close it?
This planner sizes the gap and prices what carrying it costs at a rate you choose — it does not lend money. See how this compares to Billd, a real material-financing product that pays your supplier directly and lets you repay over up to 120 days, for one way to actually close a gap once you know its size. If your own back-of-envelope plan books materials as cash out the moment you order, see why that can overstate the gap by the entire amount.
Is my project data uploaded anywhere?
No. There are no accounts, cookies, analytics vendors, or network requests — the scenario runs entirely in your browser, "Save locally" keeps a draft in this browser's storage, and CSV export saves a file straight to your device. Anonymous feature counts can be turned off with the checkbox in the Privacy and limits section above.