THE CONSTRUCTION PAYMENT CHAIN
Construction payments aren't payments.
They're a chain.
Owner draw → GC pay app → sub disbursement → sub-sub paycheck. Lien waivers, retainage, certified payroll, 1099s — first-class objects in one ledger. Built on Stripe.
BUILT ON STRIPE
Six primitives. Six construction-native roles.
We didn't rebuild fintech. We picked the winning rails and mapped every primitive to a construction object that nobody else has finished modeling.
Stripe Connect
Threads the chain.
GC, sub, and sub-sub each a connected account. Funds flow tier-to-tier on real Stripe rails — no intermediate ledger, no mystery floats. Every payable knows where it came from and where it's going.
- +Connected accounts at every tier of the chain
- +Tier-to-tier transfers on Stripe rails, not custom plumbing
- +Provenance baked into every payable's metadata
- +Joint-check distribution as a first-class transfer pattern
// payable.disburse() on T4 vendor
stripe.transfers.create({
amount: payable.amount_after_retainage,
destination: sub.connected_account_id,
transfer_group: 'chain:gc->sub:job-3411',
metadata: { waiver_id, pay_app_line }
})
→ tr_1QkJ... // 1.4s end-to-endTHE CHAIN
Every other platform automates one link.
We hold the whole chain.
Lien waivers live with the disbursement. Retainage releases when the punch list closes. Certified payroll posts when the worker clocks out. The chain isn't a workflow — it's the data model.
lien waiversretainagepay-when-paidcertified payrolljoint checks1099s
THE AUTONOMY
Trust earned. Payments advance themselves.
Twelve verification tools score every payable: task complete, document compliant, math right, vendor clean. Once a payable crosses T3, it advances without a human. T4 vendors get paid before you read this sentence.
FOR YOUR ROLE
Three roles. One chain.
Pick your seat in the chain. The product re-shapes around you — same data, same Stripe rails, role-aware UI.
For General Contractors
Pay apps that approve themselves.
- + Lien-waiver-perfect disbursement
- + Audit-clean closeout in days
- + Retainage that releases on its own terms
For GCs →
For Subcontractors
Get paid in days, not months.
- + Working capital on receivables
- + Certified payroll filed automatically
- + 1099s done for you
For subs →
For Owners & Lenders
Proof of every dollar.
- + Waiver-perfect disbursement, on chain
- + Lien risk eliminated, not insured
- + Real-time draw status, no phone calls
For owners →
THE ARCHITECTURE
Every payment is a state machine.
Verification → trust score → autonomy tier → disbursement. Every transition is a Stripe webhook or a Cascade rule. Nothing is a cron job pretending to be policy.
// the construction payment chain has 7 governance gates. we modeled 7. stripe ships 6 primitives that map to them. the 7th — lien waiver lifecycle — we built ourselves in a Cascade-native ledger. // every payable is a tracked state machine. verification(task, document, math, vendor) → trust_score → tier(T0..T4) → disburse() every transition is a Stripe webhook or a Cascade rule. nothing else.
Ready when you are.
A 30-minute walkthrough is the fastest way to see whether the chain holds for your projects. We'll move a live dollar through it together.