Siteline

09/02/2026

Mechanic's lien rules aren't static, and a few states just proved it: Florida raised the bar on what counts as a valid Notice of Termination, Illinois modernized how lien notices get delivered, and Arizona's Supreme Court made it riskier to sit on an unenforced lien.

We rounded up all the 2023–2026 changes subcontractors should know about here. 🤠

State laws on construction mechanic's liens are forever changing and can be hard to follow. Learn what’s changed since 2023 and how subs can keep up.

09/01/2026

Retainage is having a moment. After nearly 200 years of “this is just how construction works,” states are starting to rethink how much cash can be withheld, how long it can be held, and whether cash needs to be withheld at all.

In her latest Founder Note, Claire Wilson digs into the retainage reforms giving subcontractors a little more leverage—and what subs can do with it.

Read more👇️

Learn how retainage laws are changing in subcontractors’ favor, from lower caps and faster release timelines to retainage bonds and other reforms.

08/28/2026

We asked subcontractors to rank the internal factors that most slow down their payments—the delays that start on their side of the table. The top offenders: pay app errors, disputed change orders, missing compliance docs, and lien waiver headaches.

The good news? Every one of them is fixable. And the bottleneck isn't people—70% of subs say their team already has the capacity to keep up. They just don’t have the visibility. We dig into what subs can actually control here.👇

Our co-founder shares the results behind Siteline's 2026 State of Subcontractor Billing report and why subs need benchmarks built for them.

08/26/2026

The core idea of a mechanic's lien travels across state lines, but the process does not. For instance, the filing window you count on in North Carolina closes a full month sooner in South Carolina. And Utah won't let you lien at all without a preliminary notice first. So, if you run every job through the same checklist—especially if you’re working across state lines—a requirement is bound to get missed.

Read on for more common mechanic's lien misconceptions.🔻

Think lien rights only matter when payment goes bad? These seven mechanic's lien myths cost subcontractors leverage long before a lien is ever filed.

08/21/2026

You don't always need to replace your accounting system. If your ERP works fine and the pain is specifically A/R aging, juggling GC pay app requirements, or chasing lien waivers, a dedicated billing layer solves that without ripping out what already works. The real question is whether you have a billing problem or an accounting problem—and choosing accordingly:👇

Compare the 13 best construction billing software for subcontractors, including pricing, features, and which truly have the trades in mind.

08/20/2026

If you haven’t looked at your state’s lien rules in the past couple of years, it’s worth doing so. A handful of states—detailed in this blog post—have made some legislative changes that materially affect how subcontractors preserve or enforce their lien rights. Get the full scoop.👇️

State laws on construction mechanic's liens are forever changing and can be hard to follow. Learn what’s changed since 2023 and how subs can keep up.

08/17/2026

56% of subcontractors have missed a critical lien deadline in the past two years. That's a protection—often the strongest one you have—slipping away before it's ever needed. In Wednesday's webinar, we cover why lien exposure is so widespread and how the most confident subs keep their deadlines from falling through the cracks. It's free to join.👇️

Every subcontractor knows the feeling: first on the job, first to spend, and last to get paid. But for all the frustration, the real cost has gone largely uncounted, leaving subs to run on instinct while billing drags, retainage waits, and waiver Whac-a-Mole drains the cash they’ve already earned.

08/14/2026

If you've ever looked at your A/R and assumed you must be mismanaging something, this message is for you.

92% of subcontractors floated payroll in the past year waiting to get paid. 43% wait more than 90 days for retainage; for GCs, only 15% wait that long. That's not you dropping the ball. That's how the payment chain is built.

Our co-founder, Claire Wilson, breaks down what our State of Subcontractor Billing report revealed—and what subs can actually do about it—in her latest Founder Note.👇

Our co-founder shares the results behind Siteline's 2026 State of Subcontractor Billing report and why subs need benchmarks built for them.

08/13/2026

Subcontractors aren’t banks—but they sure are financing projects like them.

This year, 92% floated payroll while waiting to get paid, and 43% wait more than 90 days for retainage. Those are just a couple of our major findings.

See what 430+ subcontractors told us in the 2026 State of Subcontractor Billing Report, linked the comments.

08/11/2026

You know it's time to look at real billing software when you're re-keying the same schedule of values into three or four GC formats every month, your retainage tracking lives in a spreadsheet only one person understands, and pay apps come back rejected over a missing signature or the wrong lien waiver.

TL; DR: A PDF editor and a shared inbox isn't a billing strategy. Here's what to look at instead.👇

Compare the 13 best construction billing software for subcontractors, including pricing, features, and which truly have the trades in mind.