Lien waiver tracking
Lien waiver tracking: know which waiver is holding your draw.
The waiver is the smallest document in the billing cycle and the one most likely to stop a payment. You sign it, you send it, you wait — and then somebody asks where the check is and nobody can say whether the hold-up is the waiver, the certification or the GC’s accounting calendar. SubMark tracks the waivers you send up the chain against the draw each one belongs to, with the signed copy on file.
14-day free trial, no card needed. Field crews are free and unlimited. See pricing →
- Conditional and unconditional, progress and final, as four distinct document types.
- Tied to the draw it was given for, so a stalled waiver is read next to the payment it is gating.
- Draft, signed, sent, received by the GC — with the dates and the signed copy kept on the job.
Why waivers stop payments.
They live in a sent-items folder
The only record that a waiver went out is an email somebody sent. Three weeks later nobody can tell a waiver that is late from one that was never actually sent, and the GC’s accounts payable clerk is not going to help you work it out.
Conditional and unconditional get treated as one thing
They are different promises with different consequences, and a progress waiver is not a final one. A tracker that calls all four “waiver” is not tracking anything you can rely on at close-out.
The through date is the part that bites
A waiver releases claims through a date. Sign one with the wrong through date and you have waived work you have not been paid for. That date is the single most important field on the document and it is the one a spreadsheet log almost never carries.
The signed copy disappears
It came back, somebody opened it, and now it is in a downloads folder on a laptop that has since been replaced. So you sign and send it again, which is both embarrassing and slow.
Nobody connects it to the money
The question is never “where is the waiver”. It is “why has this draw not been paid”, and the waiver is one of three possible answers. If they live in different systems, you check the wrong one first.
How a waiver is tracked in SubMark.
Recorded against the job and the draw it belongs to, with the four facts that decide what it actually covers.
- 01 Record what it is
Conditional or unconditional, progress or final — four distinct types, because they are four different documents with four different consequences.
- 02 And what it covers
The through date, the payment amount it is given for, and prior payments received. Those are the fields that determine what you have actually released.
- 03 Tie it to the draw
A waiver is attached to the draw it was given for, so the question “which draw is this one holding up” has an answer rather than a guess.
- 04 Watch the status move
Draft, signed, sent, received by the GC — each with its own date. A waiver that has stalled is visible instead of assumed to be fine.
- 05 Keep the signed copy
The signed document stays on the job, so the next time someone asks for it you answer from the file rather than from a search of somebody’s inbox.
- 06 Read it next to the retainage
Release of retainage is usually gated by closeout paperwork, waivers included. The held amounts and the waiver status sit on the same job.
Everything above ships today and none of it is a tier you upgrade into. The core modules are on in every trade pack from setup; a few extras, like the invoices inbox, are a switch in Settings. The full list is on the product page.
In the app
The four waiver types, kept apart on purpose.
Because “we sent a waiver” is not a fact anyone can act on, and the difference between these is the difference between getting paid and giving something away:
- Conditional progress
- Released for a progress payment, conditional on that payment actually clearing. The routine monthly one.
- Unconditional progress
- Released for a progress payment, unconditionally. The one worth a second look before anybody signs it.
- Conditional final
- Final payment, conditional on the check clearing. Usually what the last draw is waiting on.
- Unconditional final
- Final, unconditional. The end of the line, and the one that most deserves a read of the through date.
- Through date
- The date through which claims are released — the field that decides what the document actually gives up.
- Payment and prior payments
- The amount this waiver is given for, and what had already been received, so the arithmetic is on the record.
- Status and dates
- Draft, signed, sent, received by the GC, each with its own timestamp.
Every waiver here is one you are sending up the chain. The scope is deliberate: it is the half that gates your own money.
Straight answer
What it does not do.
A product page that only lists wins is a product page you stop trusting in week two. These are the gaps, in our own words, before you find them yourself.
- SubMark does not produce lien waiver forms. Your GC or the owner supplies the form, your state governs what it has to say, and SubMark tracks the document you actually sent.
- It tracks the waivers you send up the chain. There is no workflow for the waivers your own subcontractors owe you.
- It is operational tracking, not legal advice. Notice deadlines and waiver language are governed by your subcontract and your state’s lien statute, and a signed unconditional waiver is a real legal act. When the number is big, call your construction attorney.
Which trades feel this most.
Same problem, different shape. Each trade page leads with that trade's own phases, schedule of values and wording.
Electrical
A big monthly draw for fourteen months is a waiver on somebody’s desk fourteen times.
Concrete
You are off the job early and chasing closeout paperwork long after everyone has stopped answering.
Fire Sprinkler
Final inspection and closeout paperwork gate your last draws at the same time.
Questions
Lien waiver tracking: what a sub’s office actually asks.
Does SubMark generate lien waivers?
No. The form comes from your GC or the owner, and what a waiver must say is a legal question for your state, not a software default. SubMark tracks the waiver you sent — its type, what it covers, its status and the signed copy.
Which waivers does it track?
The ones you send up the chain to your GC or the owner: conditional and unconditional, progress and final. Each one is tied to the draw it was given for.
Does it track the waivers our own subs owe us?
No. That is a real problem and it is not one SubMark solves today, so we would rather say so than let you find out in week two.
Does it handle Texas-specific requirements?
SubMark does not draft or validate statutory language anywhere, Texas included. What it does is operational: the type, the through date, the amount, the status and the signed copy, tied to a draw. Texas lien deadlines are governed by the statute and your subcontract, and they are worth reading with an attorney, not a vendor.
Where does the signed copy live?
On the job, attached to the waiver record, with the date it was signed and the name of whoever signed it. The point is that you never send the same waiver twice because the first one went missing.
Put the open waivers on one list.
Start the trial, log the waivers outstanding on one job, and see which draw each one is holding. It takes a few minutes.
14-day free trial, no card needed. See the whole product →
$249/mo for your company, your first 3 office users included, $39/mo each after that. Field crews are free and unlimited. See what's included →
The rest of the job
Change orders
From the day the field finds the change to the day it is in the schedule of values, with an audit trail at every step.
T&M tickets
Priced in the office off your own rate lists, signed on site, and several tickets roll into one change order.
Schedule of values
One SOV per job, built from your trade’s own breakdown, locked when the first draw goes out, and approved change orders added to it automatically.
Draw tracking
Fifteen jobs, nine GCs, nine cutoff dates and nine submission methods — in one calendar and one log, with drawn, certified and received as three different numbers.
Retainage tracking
Five or ten percent of everything you have ever billed, sitting somewhere, on jobs some of which finished last year.
Daily logs
The record that wins an argument nine months later, written in two minutes by a foreman who wants to go home.
Job costing
The overrun you can still do something about, instead of the one you find in the end-of-job autopsy.
Crew scheduling
Who is on which job on Monday, across every job — and a flag the moment the same crew is promised to two of them.
QuickBooks
Bills and card purchases pull back as job costs. Draws and POs push across with a click. Your books stay your books.
Time tracking
Hours per worker, per job, per day — signed by the worker who worked them, approved by the office, and read straight into job costing.
Safety records
Toolbox talks signed off per person, scored site inspections, and certification and COI expiries you see 30 days out instead of on the day.