Subcontractor billing software — check the bill before you pay it.
Measured quantity against agreed rate, with advances, retention, debits and TDS applied the same way every cycle. For contractors whose labour and subcontract spend is checked by hand, in a hurry, at month end.
Where subcontractor money quietly goes
- The bill arrives with the subcontractor's own measurement, and nobody has time to verify it line by line.
- The agreed rate is in a contract file; the rate on the bill is whatever was typed.
- Advances and material issued to the subcontractor are remembered by one person, and sometimes not deducted at all.
- Retention is worked out on a calculator each time, so two bills for the same job are computed two different ways.
- Nobody can say what has been certified this month against what was budgeted for the package.
How the checking actually happens
The bill is built from measurements and the rate master, not typed in from a piece of paper.
Measurement against the MB
Work is recorded as measured quantity, in the measurement-book format the industry already uses, tied to the project and the item.
Rate comes from the agreed rate master
The labour and subcontract rate master holds what was agreed. The bill is priced from it, so a rate on a bill can be compared with the rate in the contract — not taken on trust.
Deductions applied the same way every time
Advances, material issued, debits, retention and TDS are applied by rule, in one order, on every bill. GST is computed with them.
Certification with a name against it
Who checked the measurement, who certified the value, who released the payment — each step sits in the audit log with a time.
Package-level visibility
What has been certified and paid on a subcontract package, against what it was let for — visible while the job is running, not at closeout.
Verified: subcontract packages at Secured Engineers — a live 14-year EPC contractor, and sotyn.ai's first customer — are billed and certified through this workflow.
One subcontractor bill, checked
Illustrative figures for a single package — sample data, not a customer's account.
| Step | Who does it | Goes in | Comes out |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Measure | Site engineer | Conduiting, 1,860 m measured this cycle against the MB | Measured quantity recorded against the package and the item |
| 2. Price | System | Agreed rate ₹42/m from the rate master | Gross value ₹78,120 — priced from the contract, not from the bill |
| 3. Check | Billing engineer | Subcontractor claimed 1,940 m | 80 m difference raised before certification, not after payment |
| 4. Deduct | System | Advance ₹15,000 · material issued ₹6,400 · retention 5% · TDS 1% | Retention ₹3,906 · TDS ₹781 · net certified ₹52,033 |
| 5. Certify | Approver | Checked value with the difference noted | Certified with a name and a time in the audit log |
| 6. Track | Accounts | Certified value | Payable scheduled; retention held and visible until release is due |
Deduction order and rates are configured to match your contracts during onboarding. The numbers above are illustrative only.
What this does not do
- It does not measure work for you. Someone still records the measurement — the system holds it, prices it and checks it.
- It does not read a subcontractor's PDF bill and extract quantities automatically.
- Rate masters and deduction rules must be set up from your actual contracts at onboarding. Bad rate data produces confident, wrong bills.
- TDS and GST rates are configuration, not tax advice. Your accountant confirms what applies to each contract.
- Payments are recorded here and reconciled with your books; the system does not move money or connect to your bank.
Questions contractors ask
Can it handle MB-based billing?
Yes. Measurement-book billing is one of the supported bill types, alongside Sales, RA, Installation and T&C — all with GST.
How are advances and material issued to a subcontractor recovered?
They are held against the package and applied as deductions in a fixed order on each bill, so a recovery cannot be forgotten in a busy month.
Does it show what is still held as retention?
Yes — retention held per package and per bill, and what becomes releasable. The retention calculator on the tools page does the same maths for a single bill.
Can a site engineer certify a bill?
Only if you give them that role. Checking, certification and payment release are separate permissions, and each action is recorded in the audit log.
Is this the same as RA billing to our client?
No — related but opposite. RA billing is what you bill your client; this is what your subcontractors bill you. Both use the same measurement and deduction engine.
What this looks like on your kind of job
The workflow is the same; the BOQ lines, the measurements and the approvals are not. Pick the closest fit.
See this on your own numbers
A 20-minute walkthrough on your trades and project sizes — not a slideshow. Three fields and we will call you back.
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A free 20-minute walkthrough on your own trades and project sizes — no slides, no staged data.