Many construction companies process liens, notices, and waivers manually — doing the research, printing out forms, and mailing them themselves. This manual process requires them to track the sending and status of the documents, usually on a spreadsheet. Using this method, deadlines are often missed, meaning these companies lose their lien rights. They then must rely on collection companies or lawsuits to recover their payments, both costly solutions. However, thousands of construction companies are turning to lien software that helps automate this process.
Using lien management software ensures they don’t miss deadlines and that their documents meet state requirements. By using lien software to keep payments protected, they can rest easy.
What is lien software?
Lien software helps construction companies be proactive in collecting payments by sending the right paperwork to protect their mechanics lien rights.
Sending preliminary notices and notice of intent to lien letters improves the visibility of contractors and suppliers to project owners. This helps ensure that they get paid for the work or materials they are providing.
Software automates the process of creating and sending this lien rights paperwork. Meeting lien deadlines is imperative when it comes to maintaining lien rights, and software ensures that notices are sent on time. Also, by automating the lien rights process, companies can save time and money.
Advantages of lien software
Implementing a lien software solution to manage paperwork offers many advantages:
Integration
Lien software often integrates with accounting software so that vendor names, addresses, and invoice amounts are automatically synced. This reduces manual data entry, which reduces the potential for errors. It also makes the process faster and more efficient.
Automation
A lien rights software processes notices automatically, reminding you when they’re due, so all you have to do is push a button to send them. This helps ensure you’ll never miss a deadline and will maintain your right to file a lien on every project.
Accessibility
If you have several members of your team who manage accounts receivables and lien rights, having a centralized system is a necessity. Cloud-based software ensures that everyone is on the same page since data appears in real time. With many employees working remotely, the ability to access your lien rights documents from anywhere makes working easier.
With a cloud-based software solution everyone on your team has access to real-time data from wherever they may be. All they need is a computer, tablet, or phone.
With so many documents required for construction projects it can be a struggle to keep them organized. Construction teams can spend hours searching for documents they need to make key project decisions.
When all the payment documents are kept in one central location, teams save money and have more time to spend on other important tasks. Levelset allows teams to store all their payment related documents in a secure cloud-based platform, so everyone can have access to the information they need.
Tracking
Knowing when notices were sent, or lien waivers signed, is key to getting proof that payments have been received and invoices have been paid. Lien laws also sometimes require that companies track the sending and receipt of notices and liens. If a company is sending multiple notices for multiple projects, tracking them by hand can become time-consuming.
Lien rights software provides proof of mailing and receipt for each document, when needed. It lets you know when documents need to be sent and when they were sent. You never have to guess whether a notice was sent out or not, as all the information is contained in the software.
Features of Levelset’s lien rights management software
Levelset has you covered for all facets of lien rights paperwork management.
Research job stakeholders
Before notices are sent, our Scout Research ensures that the job stakeholders have been properly identified and that their contact information is correct. This ensures that notices will be delivered properly, as well as flushing out additional project stakeholders that a contractor or supplier may not be aware of, such as a lender.
Send and track preliminary notices
Levelset tells you when to send a preliminary notice on a project, depending on the type of project and where it’s located.
This removes the guesswork about which projects you are legally obligated to send notices on. We recommend sending prelim notices on every project, as it helps improve collections by increasing your visibility on the project. Levelsetalso tracks the receipt and delivery of preliminary notices, so you have the proof that you need.
Create lien waivers based on AR
By integrating with your accounting software or importing transactions with Excel, you can automatically generate and send lien waivers based on the amounts of your accounts receivable transactions. Before payment is received, you can create conditional lien waivers based on the amount that you’ve billed. And, once you are paid by your customer, Levelset creates an unconditional waiver to show that payment has been received. With a couple of clicks, these documents are generated and sent to the appropriate parties for signature.
Request lien waivers based on AP
Levelset also allows users to import their accounts payable transactions so they can automatically generate lien waivers for vendors and subcontractors. This speeds up the lien waiver process and reduces the chance for data-entry. Both conditional and unconditional lien waivers can be created and sent directly from the software.
Deep dive: How to Improve Accounts Payable in a Construction Business
Track multiple tiers of contractors and suppliers
On large projects, there are often multiple tiers of subcontractors and suppliers who are working on the job. Levelset allows you to quickly set up each vendor and specify its relationship to other companies on the project. Vendors and contractors are shown in a tree format in the software so you can easily identify lower-tier subcontractors and suppliers and who they are working for. This makes documentation easier to track and prevents the confusion that can occur when there are multiple tiers of contractors.
Facilitate electronic signatures
Collecting electronic signatures speeds up the process of gathering the documents needed to release payment. Our software allows you to send waivers and other documents needing signature electronically so they can be signed on a tablet, phone, or computer. Not having to print the documents and sign them by hand saves time and helps speed up payment.
Manage deadlines
Levelset ensures that you won’t miss key notice or lien deadlines. We provide daily push notifications of required documents so you’ll never miss another date. Our system helps keep your lien rights intact, ensuring that you have all your options open if you don’t get paid.
Want to learn more about how lien software speeds up payments?
Using lien software to automate and improve the process for notices, waivers, liens, and other payment paperwork will save your team time and money and help ensure that you get paid quickly. If you’d like to see how Levelset can help you get paid faster, request a demo today.
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