Lien Waivers help protect both builders and subcontractors by documenting payment agreements and reducing the risk of future lien claims. Buildertrend allows you to create customizable lien waiver forms, apply them to bills, and track their status throughout the payment process. 

---

Creating Lien Waiver Forms 

To configure lien waivers for your company, navigate to the User Profile icon and select Company Settings. 

Next, navigate to the Bills / POs / Budget within the Financials section.

From here, you can:

• Disable Lien Waivers across all jobs.
• Enable and customize an additional signature line on printed lien waivers (such as a notary signature).
• View or edit the default Standard Lien Waiver.
• Select Add New Lien Waiver Form to create additional templates.

When creating a new lien waiver, enter a Title and Lien Waiver Description.

The Definition of Terms section automatically populates using information from Job Details when the lien waiver is applied to the bill. If applicable, active subcontractors can electronically sign the lien waiver directly through Buildertrend. 

Active Subcontractors may sign to approve as shown below.

---

Applying a Lien Waiver to a Bill 

Once your lien waiver forms have been created, they can be applied to any bill before or after payment. 

Navigate to the Bills page and use the checkboxes to select the applicable bill(s). Then choose Apply Lien Waiver and select the appropriate lien waiver form. 

Once applied, you can open the Bill and navigate to the Lien Waiver tab to manage the applied lien waiver. 

From here, you can:

• Review or change the applied lien waiver form. 
• Choose whether the lien waiver is Conditional or Unconditional. 
• Add supporting attachments. 
• Send the lien waiver to the subcontractor or vendor. 
• Monitor the lien waiver's signature status.

---

Payments made on Purchase Orders are to be created as Bills. Payments may be partial, or the total amount of the Purchase Order. Integration with Quickbooks or Xero is not required to utilize this feature.

Payments may be made individually on each Bill, or in mass action using the checked boxes.

It's important to understand basic functionality, rules and permissions for mass action payments.

• Payments will be processed in full or the full amount of any remaining amount on that Purchase Order. Partial payments is not currently available with mass pay.

• Paying Bills/POs in mass action will send 1 email per PO. Notifications are not sent in bulk.

  • Example: If you pay 10 POs to a vendor, that means 10 separate emails will go to that vendor and any internal user who has that email notification turned on.

Next, it's important to understand what makes a Bill or PO eligible for mass action payments.

---

Eligible

• PO must be approved.

• Sub assigned to PO must be active in BT.

Ineligible

• PO has scheduled payments with dollar amount – including payments billed to QB.

• PO has QB validation errors.

• PO has a 'required' custom field.

---

Eligible

• Sub is added to the job.

• Sub has an email associated with their profile.

Ineligible

• Bill has QB validation errors.

---

To make a payment on a Purchase Order, navigate to the Purchase Orders tab. 

Next, use the check boxes to select the desired Purchase Orders and select Bill Remaining Amount to immediately create a bill, or select Mark Work Complete to show that this item is ready to be billed by your accounting team.

It is recommended to select Mark Work Complete for proper documentation, but it is not required.

Choosing Bill Remaining Amount will automatically update Work Status to "Work Complete".

Once completed, navigate to the Bills tab, or open the desired Bill. These items are now ready for next actions using the checkboxes to Pay Online, Record Offline Payment or Mark Ready for Payment. 

• Paying Online is an available option to builders using Buildertrend Payments. This can be used in conjunction with Quickbooks or Xero account.

• Record Offline Payment is an available option to builders who wish to complete the payment outside of Buildertrend, such as Quickbooks.

  • QBO payments will update automatically

  • QBD payments will update the next time the connector runs.

• Mark Ready for Payment will send off a notification to the proper user to proceed with payment. Assigned and active Subcontractors will see any Bills in their portal of this status.

After you choose your method of payment, the Bill Status will update accordingly.

 

Retroactively Adding Paid Bills to Purchase Orders (POs)

When you need to retroactively add paid bills to POs and ensure that the correct amounts are reflected in both the POs and the job costing budget, you have two primary options.

Option 1: Void Existing Paid Bills

First, start by voiding the bills that were previously paid within Buildertrend.

Next, navigate to the relevant POs and create new bills directly from them.

Ensure these new bills are marked as "paid", and if necessary, prevent them from being sent to QuickBooks.

This method ensures that the correct amounts are reflected in both the POs and the job costing budget without duplicating any entries.

Option 2: Create a Negative Bill

Instead of voiding the paid bills, create a new bill with a negative amount that offsets the total of the already paid bills.

This approach allows you to adjust the job costing budget and PO amounts without voiding the existing bills. The job costing budget will reflect the correct total, and the POs will be updated accordingly.

If accuracy in the POs and budget without any redundant entries is your priority, voiding and recreating the bills is the recommended approach.

If maintaining the original records is important and you prefer a simpler adjustment, creating a negative bill may be preferable.

Reflecting Changes in QuickBooks

For Option 1 (Voiding Bills): Voiding bills in Buildertrend does not automatically void them in QuickBooks. After creating the new bills from the POs, you’ll need to manually reassign payments in QuickBooks to ensure everything aligns correctly.

For Option 2 (Negative Bill): Ensure this approach aligns with your accounting practices and correctly reflects in QuickBooks, as adjustments made in Buildertrend may require corresponding actions in QuickBooks.

---

Purchase Order management and collaboration with your trade partners through Buildertrend will result in a structured workflow, key for accuracy and efficiency. Active subcontractors are able to directly invoice you for completed work on their Purchase Order scope and/or access their scheduled payment details. 

Watch the video below to learn more about how Subcontractors request payments.

Subcontractor approved Purchase Orders are eligible for payment request through the subcontractor portal, shown below.

They may request a partial amount, or the entire outstanding.

If you utilize a payment schedule using Bills, this will be visible to the Subcontractor.

When payment has been requested, you will receive a notification of the request. You can access their request within the purchase order under the Bills/Lien Waivers.

A Bill will be automatically created for the request, but you will need to manually fill out the amount you would like to pay.

After entering an amount that you would like to pay, you can choose to:

• Send the payment amount to QuickBooks or Xero.

• Pay the amount online using Buildertrend's Online Payments feature.

• Or simply mark it as paid within the Buildertrend platform.

 

---

Purchase Orders and Bills may be linked to your schedule to ensure your deadlines remain aligned across both the project and financial workflows. 

Whether expenses are planned or unexpected, documenting them properly helps keep your project running smoothly. When an unplanned cost occurs – whether it is the responsibility of the builder or the client – you can track it using Variance Purchase Orders and/or Bills.

Variance tools allow you to document these changes while clearly indicating who owns the cost and how it impacts the project budget and profitability. 

Watch the video below to learn more about POs, Variance Codes & PO + Schedule

Watch the video below to learn more about Bills, Variance Codes & Bill + Schedule

---

Adding Variance to Purchase Orders and Bills

Variance can now be applied directly within the line item container on Purchase Orders and Bills. This allows variance to be tracked at the individual line item level, making it easier to organize unexpected costs and quickly control which items are treated as a variance.

PO:

Bill:

 

To create a Variance PO from scratch, navigate to Financials and select Purchase Orders.Under the + Purchase Orders button, select Variance PO. 

This will automatically mark the PO as a Variance PO and default to Line by Line, allowing you to designate which line items within the PO are variance costs. 

Next, select the appropriate Variance code for the applicable line items. 

If you have several line items that you are marking as a variance within a PO, you can also do so in mass. 

Variance functionality is also available within PO Amendments, ensuring amendments behave consistently with standard Purchase Orders. To learn more about PO Amendments, visit our Purchase Orders and Bills Overview article here. 

---

Understanding Variance Ownership

Variance functionality makes it easier to track whether unexpected costs belong to the builder or the client. 

When selecting a variance reason, the Variance code dropdown now groups options under: 

• Builder variance
• Client variance

These group labels make it easier to identify who is responsible for the cost when assigning variance. 

Once a variance code is selected, Buildertrend will display a badge within the line item container indicating the ownership of that cost. This provides immediate visibility without needing to reference variance codes. 

 

---

Connecting Change Orders and Related Items

When creating a Purchase Order off a client initiated cost, you may do so from the Purchase Order or Change Order directly. Both workflows will allow you to relate these items to one another. Continue reading to review the workflow from Change Order to Purchase Order. 

To create a Customer Variance PO from a Purchase Order, use the Add From option above the line item container within a Purchase Order, you can add related items such as:

• Change Orders
• Bids 
• Catalog Items

 

Once added, a Related Items column within the line item container shows where the item originated. 

This visibility helps provide context around how costs were generated and keeps financial documentation connected across the project. 

To create a Customer Variance PO from a Change Order, navigate to the Change Order, select New dropdown, then select Purchase Order.

Since this Purchase Order was created from a Change Order, Buildertrend will automatically utilize the assigned "72 – Customer Variance" Cost Code.

These items are now linked and can be found on both feature grids.

Purchase Order grid with Related COs column

Change Order grid with Related COs column

---

Visit the Buildertrend Learning Academy to explore additional learning opportunities — from live group trainings and certifications to on-demand courses and more.

For questions or additional support, contact our Customer Support team via Live Chat, email support@buildertrend.com, or call 1-888-415-7149 — we’re always happy to help.