Guides

Guides for GC document teams

Plain-language explainers for the people who actually run lien waivers and certificates of insurance at a general contractor — project managers, AP teams, and whoever inherited the spreadsheet. Every reference states its sources and the date it was compiled.

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Lien waivers

Which form, and when it goes out

The two questions that decide a waiver: whether payment has landed, and whether this release covers one period or the whole job.

Conditional vs. unconditional

The four waiver types, where each belongs in a payment run, and which blanks the claimant fills in rather than the sender. Carries the prescribed statutory notice text for the states that print one.

Closing out a draw

Sequence conditional and unconditional waivers around the payment, handle retainage and joint checks, and return to the unsigned rows without rebuilding the draw.

Certificates of insurance

Reading the paper, and chasing the gap

An ACORD 25 is a one-page summary of policies it does not contain. These two cover what it can tell you and what to do when it falls short.

How to read an ACORD 25

A box-by-box read of the insured, producer, policy dates, limits and endorsements — and what the one-page certificate cannot prove on its own.

When a certificate comes back short

Work out whether the problem is the paper or the policy, send the exact difference with the sample emails, and keep a clean record while the replacement is chased.

References

Look it up by state or by trade

The two long-form references the guides above point into. Both are free, both cite their sources, and both carry the date they were compiled.

Lien waiver requirements by state

51 jurisdictions · 17 flagged

A page for every state and DC. 17 are flagged for a prescribed form or state-specific handling, each with the statute citation it rests on; the rest state plainly that the reference identifies nothing state-specific.

COI requirements by trade

General liability · auto · umbrella

Typical certificate minimums by construction trade as a starting point — the figures we see most often, before your company and its advisors set their own.

Past the reading stage?

Reading about it is not the same as knowing who still owes you one.

The guides explain which form and which limits. SubLien is what asks the subcontractor for it, chases the ones who go quiet, and keeps the signed waiver on the same record as that sub’s certificate and W-9.

A missing or incorrect waiver can leave lien exposure on the project. A certificate can show limits or endorsements below what the contract calls for. Both problems start as paperwork nobody chased.

Every sub’s waivers, certificate and W-9 on one record.
The chasing runs on a set schedule, then stops on its own.
Your sub signs from a link — no account, nothing to install.

from$199/mo

80 documents a month, billed quarterly or annually. Every plan includes every feature. A one-time onboarding fee applies.

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This guide is general information, not legal advice, and may not reflect the most recent changes to the law. Statutory lien-waiver and insurance requirements change — confirm the current rules with qualified counsel or your insurance advisor for your specific project and jurisdiction. Nothing here is a legal determination that a form or workflow is correct for a project; your organization and qualified counsel decide that.