Question 1

Will Drumtap waive my lien rights or step in when the GC disputes my invoice?

Accepted Answer

Drumtap never signs, files, or transmits a lien waiver. We have no lien-waiver workflow and no authority to waive rights on your behalf. Whether and when you waive stays between you and your counsel — Drumtap does not assume legal standing in that decision.

What Drumtap actually does is sit between your QuickBooks ledger and the GC portal. We read each row's Status and Notes on every upload compare, and the moment a GC dispute shows up against an AR row we label it a disputed discrepancy. The agent then drafts the dispute package the discrepancy type requires — signed PO, change order, daily logs, and photos for rejected rows, pulled from your existing storage. Drumtap tells you which evidence each discrepancy type needs and why.

Any recovery fee and paid terms are planned and remain disabled pending legal review. We keep our hands off the legal exposure and focus on the AR reconciliation.

What Drumtap does: Drumtap flags a GC-disputed portal row as a disputed discrepancy the moment it appears in compare — and never auto-files a lien waiver on your behalf.

Question 2

Does Drumtap monitor GC portal cutoffs or statutory payment deadlines?

Accepted Answer

Drumtap does not maintain the legal deadline calendar or send statutory reminders. The subcontractor and counsel own each deadline decision.

A GC portal or pay-cycle cutoff is separate from state prompt-pay, lien, notice, and contractual clocks; a portal receipt shows submission, not approval or cleared funds — talk to us →

Check the subcontract, portal instructions, and current cycle; calendar the applicable state and contract deadlines with counsel; preserve submission, rejection, and receipt timestamps.

When the portal allows a correction, fix and resubmit promptly, then upload the submission, rejection, and receipt records so the next reconcile exposes late or missing rows.

What Drumtap does: Drumtap reconciles portal and AR records so late, missing, short, and rejected rows are easier to spot.

Question 3

What timing applies to a pay-app cutoff, a rejected resubmission, and a notice of completion?

Accepted Answer

There is no single industry-wide cutoff for a pay app. Use the GC’s contract, portal instructions, and current pay-cycle calendar to confirm when the submission must arrive and which cycle it feeds. A portal receipt confirms delivery, not approval or payment.

If a pay app is rejected, read the rejection notice and the contract before resubmitting. Correct the missing reference or backup, preserve the original submission and rejection timestamps, and resubmit as soon as the portal allows. The cure or resubmission window can depend on the GC, the contract, and the state, so Drumtap does not publish one universal day count.

A notice of completion is also not governed by one universal clock. The trigger, delivery method, and timing can come from the contract and the law where the project sits. Confirm what counts as completion and the applicable notice or lien deadlines with your construction counsel before relying on a portal status.

What Drumtap does: Drumtap does not calculate legal deadlines. It lines up pay-app, portal, and AR records so late, missing, or rejected rows surface on the next reconcile while the contractor and counsel keep the calendar.

Question 4

What does Drumtap do when the GC only pays part of my invoice — and how does aging factor in?

Accepted Answer

When the GC pays less than invoiced, Drumtap reads the portal’s paid-amount column against your AR and labels the row a partial-payment discrepancy. The gap — the dollar difference between invoiced and paid — is the dollar amount of the dispute. Drumtap drafts the partial-payment package this row requires: signed PO, change order, and daily logs. Photos are not part of a partial-payment package; they only attach when the row was rejected. Today you send the package; Drumtap sends nothing automatically.

Drumtap also surfaces aging exposure across four buckets — 0–30 days, 31–60 days, 61–90 days, and 90+ days — so you can see the cumulative gap sitting past each increment. Every partial-payment row that crosses a threshold is currently flagged as a discrepancy and surfaced on the next reconcile.

Drumtap does not chase every unpaid row today, and does not currently send the AP email itself on any tier. The partial-payment package is a drafted document the customer emails under their own letterhead, and the recovery fee only lands on money Drumtap actually collects once a separate written fee schedule is published.

The package is built from one row of evidence Drumtap assembles — forwarded AP email, the matching PO, the change order, the daily logs — the same artifacts you already have, just ordered by Drumtap. See how Drumtap handles the evidence →

What Drumtap does: Drumtap labels every under-paid portal row as a partial-payment discrepancy and tells you — by discrepancy type — which evidence to attach; aging exposure lines up across 0–30, 31–60, 61–90, and 90+ days.

Question 5

What does Drumtap see (and not see) when a GC holds retainage back from my pay apps?

Accepted Answer

Retainage is the percentage the GC holds back from each pay app — the percentage, the release conditions, and any milestone triggers are all set by your subcontract with that specific GC, not by a fixed industry default. Drumtap reads whatever the GC portal shows for retainage withheld on each pay app and pairs it against your QuickBooks AR row for the same invoice. If the portal’s net-paid figure is lower than your billed figure by exactly the retainage amount, the gap gets labelled, not flagged.

Release conditions live in your subcontract — punch list complete, lien waivers signed, project closeout documents filed. Drumtap does not track those milestones. What Drumtap does flag is the moment the GC's portal shows retainage that's been released but hasn't been remitted: that lands on the next reconcile as a held-over discrepancy. Drumtap does not currently auto-mark released retainage as paid — that is your ledger work.

Retainage tracking is bookkeeping, not legal standing. Whether to negotiate, discount, or release is your call and your counsel's. Drumtap keeps the AR side honest and labels held dollars as held, not as money you're missing. Do not assume a specific retainage percentage applies to your subcontract — your subcontract controls.

What Drumtap does: Drumtap labels retainage-held portal rows distinctly from disputed or partial rows — and flags a released-but-unpaid retainage line on the next reconcile so it surfaces before it ages.

Question 6

How does Drumtap handle a conditional lien waiver during dispute evidence assembly?

Accepted Answer

When a conditional lien waiver is part of the AP email or supporting files you forward, Drumtap surfaces it as evidence alongside the matching dispute row. Conditional, unconditional, and partial waivers stay identifiable as their own evidence items so the packet shows which waiver belongs with which invoice and discrepancy.

Drumtap tracks the waiver status next to the dispute as the evidence is assembled. That status is a record of what was surfaced and matched for review; it is not a legal conclusion about the waiver, the underlying payment, or whether the waiver should be signed.

Drumtap does not sign, file, transmit, convert, or decide on a conditional lien waiver. It also does not treat the waiver as proof that funds cleared — cleared-funds confirmation stays in your books and with your bank.

What Drumtap does: Drumtap matches conditional, unconditional, and partial waivers to the dispute row, surfaces them in the evidence packet, and tracks their status — without signing, filing, transmitting, converting, deciding, or treating a waiver as proof of cleared funds.

Question 7

How do mechanic’s-lien and preliminary-notice deadlines work across the states Drumtap covers?

Accepted Answer

Mechanic’s-lien windows are state-specific and firm. Texas, California, Florida, New York, and Illinois each set their own preliminary-notice + lien-claim deadlines — and missing one is usually fatal to the lien right. Drumtap is not a calendar tool, does not currently monitor state-by-state deadlines, and does not file notice on your behalf; the statutory calendar stays with you and your counsel.

For the per-state statute reference a Drumtap-style reconciliation could be paired against, your construction attorney is the source — reach out →

Drumtap’s reconciliation focuses on the AR side — what was billed and what the portal paid. Drumtap does not publish a per-state statutory reference today; that reference work belongs to your local counsel. The product does not pretend to give legal advice across states.

The lien calendar is your risk to track. Drumtap is the bookkeeping that lines up AR with the GC portal; legal standing decisions are separate.

What Drumtap does: Drumtap pairs AR reconciliation with a per-state deadline reference for the states a customer’s counsel controls — Drumtap does not currently publish a cross-state statutory reference of its own.

Question 8

What counts as an on-time GC portal submission, and how does Drumtap catch missing or late uploads?

Accepted Answer

Each GC runs a pay-app cycle with its own submission window — the cutoff date and the cycle it feeds are set by the individual GC’s contract and pay-cycle calendar, not by a fixed industry default. Any pay app submitted after the window parks in the next cycle, which means another 30+ days of aging before it clears.

Drumtap reads the portal export you uploaded on every reconcile and pairs it against your QuickBooks invoice date. A portal timestamp that lands inside the GC’s stated window confirms the upload was on-time; a portal timestamp that parks in the following cycle is labelled late and flagged. Drumtap does not currently connect to a portal — every portal row comes from the CSV you uploaded.

A row missing from the portal that exists in your AR is the worst case — it’s never been submitted at all. Drumtap flags every AR row that has no portal counterpart in the current cycle as a missing discrepancy, distinct from a late one.

The planned tiers are intended to catch late and missing rows before they age past 30 days; live portal log ingestion is planned and not active. Join the waitlist for timing and final terms.

A row that never made it to the portal is also the cue to start the evidence chain: forward the AP email and its attachments to Drumtap — the PO, the change order, the conditional or unconditional waiver, the W-9 — and a Drumtap team member walks the row against your QuickBooks invoice before any draft goes out. See how Drumtap handles the evidence →

Before submitting, compare the portal cutoff with the payment clock and lien-notice deadlines that govern your job. Read the prompt-payment and lien-rights guidance →

The invoice number matches the QuickBooks record and the GC portal pay app.
The PO number or contract reference is included and matches the job.
Every approved change order is attached or referenced in the submission.
Supporting evidence such as daily logs, delivery tickets, photos, waivers, or the W-9 is ready.
The payment terms, due date, and portal cutoff have been checked before sending.

What Drumtap does: Drumtap labels every reconciled row by submission timing so a row that never made it into the GC’s pay cycle surfaces before it ages past 30 days. The planned tiers remain waitlist-only pending legal review.

Question 9

How does Drumtap label the dollar gap between what I invoiced and what the GC actually paid — and what evidence goes in the partial-payment package?

Accepted Answer

The dollar gap is the difference between your QuickBooks invoice total and the GC portal’s paid-amount on the same pay app. Drumtap labels that exact gap as the partial-payment amount at issue — never inflated, never corrected down by the agent. The label is the number a counsel writes into a dispute letter.

A Drumtap partial-payment package bundles signed PO, change order, and daily logs from your existing storage for the matching job. It does NOT include photos — photo evidence is reserved for rejected rows. The package is the seam between Drumtap’s reconciliation and your counsel’s dispute filing. Drumtap does not currently send the disputed email — it drafts, you send.

Every reconcile loops through the same read: portal paid-amount paired against AR invoice total; the difference carries a discrepancy label; the agent drafts the matching package. A row that was a partial last cycle and is now paid in full closes on the next reconcile; a row that keeps under-paying across cycles ages into the 0-30 / 31-60 / 61-90 / 90+ buckets automatically.

Drumtap does not collect on partial payments in the lawyer-letter sense. The package goes out under your name, to the GC, on your letterhead. Drumtap does not automatically mark payments cleared today; clearing sits in your books, and no recovery fee is charged under any band until a separate written fee schedule is published.

See how that worked end-to-end on an owner-approved, anonymized pilot row — view the case study →

What Drumtap does: Drumtap labels the dollar gap as a partial-payment discrepancy, drafts a PO + change order + daily logs package per row, and earns its fee only on dollars that have cleared your bank — once a separate fee schedule is published.

Question 10

What should I check before submitting an invoice to a GC portal?

Accepted Answer

Run this five-point readiness check before you send the packet. It catches missing or mismatched backup while the job record is still easy to verify.

Lien waiver is current for the submission.
Vendor record matches the GC portal exactly.
PO is attached and signed.
Daily log is uploaded.
Job photos are tagged by stop.

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