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Reducing Payment Stress, One Project at a Time

We are well aware that the current system of payments in the construction industry is broken.

It’s not working for anyone -- not for owners and developers, nor for their lenders. Not for the general contractors and certainly not for the subs and suppliers that they hire.

Every stakeholder has to navigate the broken and dysfunctional payment landscape. Their collective experience can be summed up in one word -- STRESSFUL.

GCs go into each new project stressed about their lien exposure. They worry about knowing all of the parties who are working under them on their projects and whether they could face a "hidden lien" from an unknown sub or supplier. They exist in constant fear of getting all of the required paperwork (and especially the lien waivers) right so that they can get paid quickly and efficiently.

And it’s not any less stressful for the subcontractors and the lower-tiered project stakeholders below them. Late payments are the norm -- not the exception -- which leads to significant problems with cash flow.

Tools such as preliminary notices and lien waivers are meant to make this all easier, but that’s not how it works in the real world. Even though these tools were created with the best of intentions (after all, preliminary notices were originally created for the benefit of project owners and other top-tier project stakeholders), the inherent complexity that comes with using these documents only adds to the stress factor instead of alleviating it.

So why is that? First of all, there are just so many required documents going back and forth between the parties on a project. Then there are a lot of different nuances and rules associated with each document depending on differing state laws. On each new project, GCs have to chase down all of their subs and stakeholders, each with their own processes, in order to gather all of the paperwork that’s supposed to protect them from risk.

And the reward for all of this hard work? Half the time, the GCs don’t even know if they’ve gotten all of the paperwork they need or if they’re doing the process correctly.

As an illustration of this point, consider this: most GCs think all they need is a signed waiver from the sub they paid and contracted with to protect themselves from a lien filing. That is far from the truth. GCs are also exposed to a potential lien filing from all of the stakeholders that the subcontractor hired -- the sub-subs and suppliers -- project participants that the GC may not even know about.

All of these lower-tiered project stakeholders have the right to lien for their work and materials -- this is the “hidden lien” we talked about above. This is where the real risk is, and these are the often overlooked stakeholders that the GC needs help keeping track of.

But even with all of these ever-present risks and the stress that comes with dealing with them, many GCs still do not have an effective process in place to manage all of this paperwork. Many resort to a complicated, internal, and often manual process that historically lived entirely separate from their other technology platforms and processes.

Until now that is.

Introducing Procore’s integration with zlien.

Procore’s seamless, two-way integration with zlien is made possible through the open API and provides an efficient and automated workflow to better manage two of the most important tools in construction payment -- preliminary noticies and lien waivers.

Specifically, Procore users will be able to do the following with each document within the Procore user interface:

Lien Waivers

  • Send, request, receive, and control lien waivers
  • Automatically trigger waivers with pay apps and requisitions

Preliminary Notices

  • Receive and store all preliminary notices
  • See and keep track of who is on every project
  • Connect notices to projects, contractors, and waiver requests

The bottom line? With the zlien integration, Procore users will be able to stop chasing down paperwork. They will be able to see project stakeholders, minimize lien exposure, and ensure smooth, risk-free payments.

Visit zlien’s page on the AppMarketplace for more information.