How it works
Three reports a month. One statement back.
You keep running your company. Your bookkeeper saves three reports from QuickBooks once a month and drops them in a folder you own. We turn them into one short statement and the letters that go with it. Here is what that looks like from the first week on, and what we can and can't touch.
The first week
Set up once, then it runs
Setup is the one time we ask for more than the monthly reports.
You share a folder
A Google Drive folder that you own, with five subfolders: exports, certificates, subcontracts, declarations and statements. You share it with us. You can remove us from it whenever you like.
You drop in what you already have
Your open subcontracts, the insurance certificates your crews have sent you, your workers' comp declarations page, and the first three QuickBooks reports.
We map your books and read every certificate
We match your job names and crew names to the reports, load every open job, and read each crew's certificate for its policy dates. Anything we can't read, we ask you about instead of guessing.
Your first statement arrives
The same short statement you'll get every month, built from your own books, with a letter drafted for every job that is past its legal date.
Every month
About five minutes from your side, plus a few in a month a crew is flagged
Your bookkeeper saves three reports
Saved once as memorized reports in QuickBooks, so each month is a few clicks: about five minutes. By the 7th, once last month's deposits are in, they save all three the same day and drop them in the shared folder.
We build the statement
Every job's held-back money, the date the law says it is due, how late it is, and the interest so far. Every payment to your crews checked against their insurance dates. And how long each subcontract gives you to send written notice of extra work or a claim, quoted from your own subcontract.
You get it by the 10th
Page 1 is the money owed to you. Page 2 is the insurance gaps to fix now. The letters for late jobs come with it as files. In a month your reports leave a gap, they come right after one short reply.
You decide what to send
Every letter comes to you as a ready email file in your name. You open it in your own email, change it if you like, and send it, or delete it. If you'd rather, give us a standing yes, and each letter goes out from your email three business days after your statement unless you stop it. For that, you give our account access to send from your email, and you can take it back any time. Nothing goes out unless you say so.
When a crew is flagged
If Page 2 flags a crew, your office looks it up in the state's free coverage search on the payment dates the statement lists, a minute or two a search, and replies with what it found. Only your own office may run that search, so we never do it for you.
One email when a job finishes
"Is it done, and on what date?" That date starts the legal clock for the job, so it is the one date we ask you for between statements.
We never call or email your general contractors. Your name is on every letter, and it only goes out when you send it, or, if you gave us a standing yes, three business days after your statement unless you stop it.
What you send
Files, not logins
Nothing on this list lets us move money, sign anything or talk to your general contractors.
What we need
- Three QuickBooks reports each month: Transaction List by Vendor, Transaction List by Customer, and the Retainage Receivable QuickReport.
- Your subcontracts and your crews' insurance certificates, as they come in.
- Your workers' comp declarations page once a year, and your year-end payroll summary by class if you order the Audit-Prep Packet.
- Your experience mod worksheet and your insurer's loss run once a year, with injured workers' names removed.
- The exemption certificate number for any tax-exempt job.
- A short email when a job finishes.
- In a month a crew is flagged, a short reply with what the free coverage search showed.
- In a month the letters wait, a one-line reply on whether the general contractors we name paid you since.
- Before the letters go, a word if a general contractor paid you after the date your statement names.
What we never ask for
- Your QuickBooks or bank password.
- Bank or card numbers.
- Social Security or tax ID numbers, or copies of W-9s.
- Employee names on injury claims, or payroll by person.
If you'd rather we pull the reports ourselves, you can set up a QuickBooks user that can only see reports. Most clients don't need to; saving three files is easier to start and to stop.
Taking access back
You can stop any time, in one step
| What we have | How you take it back |
|---|---|
| The three monthly reports | Stop sending them. That month's statement waits for them, and a month with no statement has no fee. |
| The shared folder | Remove us in the folder's sharing settings. The folder stays yours. |
| Subcontracts and certificates | Stop sending them. |
| A QuickBooks reports-only user, if you set one up | In QuickBooks: Settings, Manage users, then delete the user. |
| Letters | Nothing to take back. They are files you send yourself, unless you gave us a standing yes. |
| Sending from your email, if you gave us a standing yes | Tell us, or remove our access in your email's settings (in Gmail: Settings, Accounts and Import, Grant access to your account, then Delete next to our name). No letter goes out after that. |
What happens to your files
We keep the reports, subcontracts, certificates and the working files a statement is built from. They sit in your shared folder and on one work computer with its disk encrypted and two-step sign-in on every account. Only brandon, who runs 497 Systems, sees them. Subcontracts and certificates are read with an AI tool so dates aren't typed by hand, and brandon checks every result. We only use a business account whose terms say your files aren't used to train it.
When you leave, or if something goes wrong
Within 30 days of you leaving we delete our copies of your files and working data, tell you in writing when it's done, and hand back anything you ask for. We keep only the signed agreement, our invoices and your payments to us, which are our tax records. If we lose a computer or think anyone got into your files, we tell you within 72 hours and say what was involved.
Not taking clients yet
See what the statement looks like
The sample statement shows a whole one, for a made-up drywall company, Try a month walks you through one month as a client, and the home page has the prices. When 497 Systems opens, this is where you'll find a phone number and an email address.