Subcontractor management in Sage Intacct: setup, tracking, and lien waivers

Sage Intacct Construction can create lien-waiver records from your AP activity, track which waivers are still outstanding, and let your team hold a vendor's next payment when they missed signing a waiver.

Our team sets this system up for contractors. Troy Guevara and Tina Rehberg explain how subcontractor management works in Sage Intacct Construction and what to ask an implementation partner to demonstrate before you sign.

What Sage Intacct Construction includes for subcontractor management

Sage Intacct Construction is the construction-specific version of Sage Intacct. It includes the subcontractor workflows that contractors use every month.

These workflows cover job costing, project profit and loss, cost codes, compliance, project management, submittals, transmittals, RFIs, and change management. They only work together effectively when your implementation partner configures them around your processes. That work needs to happen before you run your first pay application through the new system.

Lien waivers: conditional, unconditional, partial, and full

Conditional, unconditional, partial, and full. Your AP clerk names those four without thinking, and the team configuring waiver compliance has to know them the same way.

Tina Rehberg explains why that familiarity matters:

That shared language matters because lien-waiver compliance connects AP transactions, commitments, vendor documents, and future payment decisions. A gap in that vocabulary shows up later as a check that went out against an open waiver.

Setting up records and withholding future payments

Sage Intacct Construction can automatically create lien-waiver compliance records from an AP bill or AP payment associated with a commitment.

The commitment must come from a Purchasing transaction definition that has been designated as the primary document. The setup involves three main steps:

1. Enable the primary-document workflow feature for Purchasing transaction definitions.
2. Create a compliance definition and select Lien waivers as the compliance category.
3. Create a compliance type that includes the definition and the required compliance templates.

Once configured, the system generates the appropriate compliance records from AP and commitment-payment activity. Your team prints or emails waivers for vendors to sign and marks each compliance record as received when the signed document comes back.

Your team can withhold future payments when a vendor doesn't return a signed waiver, but Sage Intacct Construction won't stop those payments automatically. Accounting must monitor outstanding records and decide when to place the hold. The system creates and connects the records while your accounting team controls the payment decision.

Change orders stay on the schedule of values

Change orders are a normal part of construction, and owners often plan for them. Their presence alone doesn't mean a project has failed.

Field issues still need review before they become change orders. Clarified drawings, differing site conditions, and delayed owner decisions usually begin as RFIs, and many are resolved there. A cost that belonged in the bid stays yours.

A pending change order appears on the schedule of values while it moves through the review process. Once approved, it moves to the actual schedule of values. You and the project team see what is proposed, what has been approved, and who owns the next action.

Troy Guevara describes where the software helps:

Your partner needs Sage Intacct Construction experience

When evaluating an implementation partner, ask whether its consultants have direct experience with Sage Intacct Construction, not just the standard Sage Intacct product. Look for a partner that regularly works with construction companies and understands the accounting and operational terms your team uses every day.

Test that standard in one meeting. Ask the implementation team to walk through job costs, commitments, compliance documents, and change management in Sage Intacct Construction.

The difference shows up in the first working sessions. Your time goes into deciding which waivers you collect and who withholds a payment, rather than stopping to explain what a submittal is.

Before the project begins, ask the implementation partner to demonstrate how lien-waiver compliance and change-order statuses will work with your commitments.