A profitable contractor shouldn't wonder whether there's enough cash to make payroll, buy equipment, or take on the next opportunity. Yet that's exactly where many commercial contractors find themselves.

According to Torque 2026: Commercial Contractor Benchmark Report, the average contractor on BuildOps waits 66.4 days to collect payment on service invoices, while best-in-class contractors collect in about 25 days—a 62% faster cash-collection cycle. The report shows the gap has less to do with profitability than timing. For many contractors, the real problem lies in getting earnings into the bank, not earning the money. 

Profit doesn't pay the bills

The margins can look healthy for successful contractors who feel cash-strapped. Jobs were completed on time, and the P&L says the business had a good month. But then payroll hits, equipment payments are due, suppliers need to be paid, and suddenly there’s no funds available. 

That's because profit and cash aren't the same. Revenue doesn't fund the business until customers actually pay their invoices. 

Between finishing the work and collecting payment sits a delay that quietly ties up working capital. The longer that delay lasts, the more money stays trapped in accounts receivable instead of supporting the business.

A profitable shop can still feel cash-starved because of the lag between completing work and collecting payment.

High DSO is usually a billing problem

When contractors look at Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), the instinct is often to blame collections.

• Customers are paying late.
• Accounting needs to follow up more aggressively.
• Collections policies need tightening.

Those factors could be true, but, more often, they’re not to blame for low cash flow. The benchmark report points out that high DSO is often a billing problem before it's a collections problem. Work sits unbilled because documentation never made it from the field to the office. 

• Notes are incomplete. 
• Photos are missing. 
• Signatures weren't captured. 
• Purchase order numbers need to be tracked down. 

By the time the invoice finally goes out, the billing clock already has started behind schedule. Customers can't pay an invoice they haven't received. That's why reducing DSO often starts long before accounting gets involved.

The field-to-office handoff determines how fast contractors get paid

If the office is unable to invoice jobs as they are completed, cash starts slipping away. When technicians leave jobs without complete documentation, the office has to chase information before billing can happen. Every extra phone call, missing photo, or unsigned work order adds another day. Multiply that across dozens of jobs each week, and cash begins piling up in accounts receivable instead of flowing into the business.

The contractors collecting payment fastest have stronger billing discipline, not just stronger collections teams. 

• Documentation is complete before the truck leaves.
• Invoices go out quickly.
• Work doesn't sit in limbo waiting for someone to piece together what happened in the field.

Faster billing creates permanent cash flow improvements

Many contractors think of improving DSO as a one-time boost that requires collecting a few overdue invoices and catching up on billing. But that's not how cash flow works.

Cutting 40 days off a 66-day collection cycle doesn't just free up cash once—it permanently restructures cash flow, according to the benchmark report. The financial impact is significant when every invoice starts moving through the business faster, and cash arrives sooner month after month instead of sitting idle in receivables.

Every 30 days of DSO on a $10 million business represents roughly $820,000 in working capital tied up in unpaid invoices. That's money the business has already earned but can't use.

When contractors close the gap between average and best-in-class performance across service and project DSO, the report estimates a $10 million contractor can release about $1.1 million in working capital. That's not new revenue. It's money that already was sitting inside the business, waiting to be collected.

It all starts before the invoice

Contractors shorten DSO by making billing part of the job. Cash flow improves because the process improves. This strategy separates average contractors from the best-performing shops.

• When field documentation is complete, invoices move faster. 
• When field teams and the office stay connected, work doesn't disappear into administrative limbo. 
• When billing happens consistently instead of in batches, customers receive invoices sooner, and payment arrives sooner.

Dig into the numbers

BuildOps’ Torque 2026: Commercial Contractor Benchmark Report looks beyond DSO to show how top commercial contractors improve productivity, office efficiency, and revenue growth alongside cash collection. 

To see where your business stands, download the full report to benchmark your performance against more than 1,500 commercial contractors across North America.