Retention held back past practical completion. Pay-when-paid clauses that aren't enforceable but get used anyway. Main contractors going into administration with three months of your invoices on the books. WeorcOS gives subcontractors the evidence, escalation, and recovery tools to defend cash flow — built around CIS, the Construction Act, and the realities of the payment chain.
Standard retention is 5%, half released at practical completion and half at end of defects period. In practice, getting that final 2.5% back can take 12–24 months — or never, if the main contractor disputes the defects.
Section 113 of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 made most pay-when-paid clauses unenforceable. Main contractors still write them in. They still rely on subcontractors not knowing the law.
Three months of unpaid invoices, retention you'll never see, and a queue of unsecured creditors ahead of you. Without contemporaneous evidence of debt, your claim in administration is at the bottom of the pile.
The fastest way to delay payment is to raise a "concern" about workmanship just before the due date. Without a documented acceptance trail, you're now arguing the merits — not the maths.
All your statutory obligations covered
Record CIS deductions on every invoice, generate monthly CIS300 returns, track gross / net status of every contractor and subcontractor you work with
Quarterly MTD-compliant VAT submissions
For the consultancy and project-management work you sometimes pick up alongside trades
Available on Business OS and Enterprise plans.
The Procurement Act 2023 (in force from February 2025) requires contracting authorities and Tier 1 contractors on public-sector contracts to pass 30-day payment terms down the chain to subcontractors. In theory, payment from public-sector projects should now flow predictably. In practice, enforcement is uneven and delays still happen — but you now have a statutory hook to refer to in your LBA.
WeorcOS auto-flags public-sector contracts in your client list (via Companies House and Find a Tender service data) and applies the 30-day statutory term automatically.
You're a mechanical and electrical subcontractor on a £180K commercial fit-out. The main contractor's standard payment terms are 60 days. You raise a £45K interim valuation in March. The main contractor doesn't dispute within the 30-Day Dispute Lock window. April comes and goes. By the time you call in May, "there's a snag list".
You spend two weeks on emails, eventually pay a solicitor £400 for an LBA, and accept a "settlement" of £38K to close it out. £7,000 lost, plus your time.
The DVC was generated on day 30. The 30-Day Lock makes the snag list a post-acceptance dispute, not a payment block. The LBA is auto-generated with the DVC attached. Statutory interest has been accruing at 12.75% (8% + base rate) since day 61 of the original invoice. Settlement happens at £45K + £40 fixed compensation, in three weeks, without a solicitor.
Works if you're a one-person trade with simple invoicing and don't need CIS or MTD
Recommended for most subcontractors. Includes CIS, MTD VAT, IR35, custom branding, API access
Multi-entity / white-label / large fit-out subcontractors with multiple trading divisions
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Yes. Retention amounts and release dates are recorded at invoice issue and tracked through the DVC. Statutory interest accrues automatically once retention release dates pass.
Yes. WeorcOS integrates with FreeAgent, Sage, Xero, and QuickBooks. CIS handling within WeorcOS supplements your accounting software's CIS records.
Acceptance is a digital workflow, but the 30-Day Dispute Lock works whether or not the client clicks "accept" — if 30 days pass without a dispute being formally raised, the DVC is generated regardless.
Yes. WeorcOS records both gross and net CIS treatment per invoice. Your gross status doesn't affect WeorcOS workflow.
WeorcOS doesn't replace JCT/NEC payment notice mechanics. It sits alongside them and provides the audit trail and recovery infrastructure for when notices are missed or ignored.