Contractor invoicing for property management companies is slow for one reason. You're not billing the person whose money it is. You're billing the middleman. The property manager has to get the owner's sign-off, match your invoice to a work order and wait for the next payment run. Every gap in your paperwork adds a week. So getting paid faster isn't about chasing harder. You fix your terms before the job, then send an invoice nobody in accounts can bounce.
I ran a property maintenance company in London that worked for housing associations and letting agents. Letting agents are the UK version of property managers. Different country, different rules, same problem. The rule I ended up living by: an invoice gets paid as fast as the slowest person who has to approve it. Your job is to make each of those people's lives easy.
One thing up front. In the US, liens and late fees work differently in every state. I'll tell you where to check. I won't pretend to know your state's rules.
Why do property management companies pay contractors so slowly?
Usually they're not crooked. It's how the money is set up.
Most property managers pay you out of the owner's money, not their own. That means:
- Work over a certain amount often needs the owner's approval, and some owners take days to answer an email.
- Your invoice lands with an accounts payable team that has never seen the job. If the work order number is missing, it sits there.
- A lot of PM companies pay vendors in batches on set days. Miss the cutoff and you wait for the next run.
- If they dispute one line, the whole invoice gets held up.
A lot of the time net-60 isn't even the real term. It's what happens when net-30 meets a missing PO number and a payment run you just missed.
Set the terms before the first job, not after
Here's the part people hate hearing. By the time you're chasing, you've already lost most of your bargaining power. The time to sort out payment is before you've done any work.
Do the vendor setup properly
Every serious PM company has vendor onboarding. That's usually a W-9, a certificate of insurance listing whoever they tell you to list, and an ACH form for direct deposit. Get all of it in on day one. A missing or expired COI can freeze payment on work you've already finished.
On that same call, ask three things:
- What's your payment cycle, and when's the cutoff for each run?
- Who approves invoices, and who in accounts do I call when one gets stuck?
- What has to be on the invoice for it to go straight through? Work order number, PO, property code?
Write the answers down. That's your invoicing checklist for that client.
Ask for shorter terms
Net-30 is a fair ask for maintenance work. For small callouts, net-15 is worth asking for. The worst they can say is no. If you're giving a manager fast response times and clean paperwork, you've got something to trade.
On bigger jobs, ask for a deposit before you order materials. You're not a bank. If a PM won't put down a deposit on a full unit turn, that tells you how the final invoice is going to go.
Get approval in writing before you start
If the job needs owner approval, don't start on a verbal go-ahead and a promise that the owner will be fine with it. Get the approved scope and price in an email or on the work order. Same goes for anything extra you find on site. Water damage behind the vanity isn't part of the faucet replacement until someone with authority says so in writing.
This one rule stops most disputes before they start.
Build an invoice accounts can't bounce
The person paying your invoice has never been to the property. Write it for them.
Every invoice to a property manager should have:
- The work order or PO number, exactly as they issued it
- The property address and unit number
- The billing entity name, exactly as it appears in your vendor setup
- The agreed scope and price, matching what was approved
- Any approved extras on their own lines, with who approved them and when
- Before and after photos, attached or linked
- Completion date, due date and your remittance details
Then send it the same day the job's done. Not Friday when you catch up on admin. Same day. Every day it sits in your truck adds a day at the other end.
Illustrative example, not a real job: you replace a water heater in a rental unit. The manager approves it by email on Tuesday and you install it on Wednesday. Wednesday evening the invoice goes out with the work order number, a reference to the approval email and photos of the old unit, the new unit and the data plate. Accounts has nothing to ask. Now picture an invoice that just says water heater, labor and materials, sent ten days later. The first one gets paid on the next run. The second one gets an email back asking which property it was.
How to chase without losing the client
Chasing is part of the job. Do it badly and it costs you the client.
Know the dates before you chase
If you know which days they pay, you know when to expect your money and when it's actually late. Chase the day after a run you should have been paid in. Don't just chase whenever you remember.
Chase accounts, keep the manager on side
The property manager gives you the work. Accounts pays you. Go to accounts payable first with the invoice number, work order number and due date. Keep it short, polite and factual. Only bring in the manager if accounts tells you it's stuck on approval. Then you ask the manager to get it moving. You don't complain to them.
A simple routine that works:
- With a new client, a friendly reminder a few days before the due date.
- The day after it's due, a short note with the invoice attached again.
- A week later, a phone call. People answer calls they'd leave in an inbox.
- If it keeps happening, talk to the manager about the whole account, not just the one invoice.
Know when to stop taking work
Only you can make this call, and it's the one people avoid. If a client keeps paying past terms, you're financing their owners. Stop taking new non-emergency jobs until the account is up to date. Say it calmly. Good managers respect it. The ones who don't were never going to pay on time anyway.
What if an invoice goes really late?
Most late invoices get paid once the paperwork is right. A few don't.
In the US, contractors generally have mechanics' lien rights against property they've improved. But each state sets its own rules on who can file, which notices you have to send and the deadlines. In some states a notice has to go out early in the job, well before you know there's going to be a problem. Talk to a construction attorney in your state before you count on lien rights. Better still, do it before you start working for a new PM company.
Late fees work the same way. Only charge them if they're in your agreement and your state allows them. Adding a penalty to an invoice after the fact just starts an argument.
For smaller amounts, small claims court is another option. Limits and procedures vary by state, so check yours.
Where Plan@Job fits
I'll be straight about what the software does and doesn't do. Too many tools promise contractors their money.
Plan@Job is AI-powered project and operations management for construction and property businesses. In Plan@Job you're the Operator. That means the contractor business that manages clients, delivery, subs and its own crew.
Plan@Job doesn't pay your invoices on behalf of property managers, and it doesn't hold anyone's money. Payment goes from your client to you. What Plan@Job does is keep everything that gets invoices paid in one place.
With project management you split a job into internal stages, each with its own scope, dates, status and costs. The client sees the agreed overall scope and price, plus whatever evidence you choose to share, like those before and after photos. Your stage costs and which sub did the work stay internal.
The AI staff handle the follow-up you forget at 9pm. Maya Collins, the AI Finance Coordinator, prepares deposit requests and overdue payment actions for you to approve. Nothing goes out on its own, and she works to fixed workflows. Daniel Reed, the AI Operations Manager, follows up on quotes and proposed dates and sends you a morning brief, so a stuck job doesn't go unnoticed.
The decisions that matter stay with you: the price, the approval, whether to stop working for a slow payer. The software does the remembering.
You should also know this. Plan@Job is live in the UK right now. If you're a US contractor, the US contractors page is where you reserve your spot for when it opens here.
The verdict
Net-60 isn't a law of nature. Most of it comes down to paperwork and timing. Agree your terms before the first job, send invoices accounts can't argue with, and chase the right person on the right day. That's how you get paid on time. If you want that built into the way you run jobs, put your name down on the US contractors page.
FAQ
Is net-60 normal for property management companies?
It's common, especially with larger firms, but it isn't fixed. Plenty of managers will agree to net-30 or shorter for maintenance work if you ask during onboarding and your paperwork is clean. Ask before the first job, not after the first late payment.
Can I charge a property manager late fees?
Only if your written agreement includes them and your state allows them. Put the terms in writing before work starts, and check your state's rules or ask an attorney. A fee you add afterwards usually just starts an argument and doesn't get you paid any faster.
Should I invoice the property manager or the property owner?
Bill whoever issued the work order and set you up as a vendor. That's usually the management company acting for the owner. Use the exact entity name from your vendor setup, and if you're not sure, ask accounts before you send the first invoice.