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4 articles published between August 2026 and September 2026. Where to start is below; the rest follow, newest first.
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Retention Is a Loan You Made Without Deciding To
A percentage of every certificate is withheld, accrues against a cap, and comes back in two instalments years apart. Most systems record the deduction and forget the balance, which is how a contractor ends up unable to say what is owed to them.
Construction12 min read
You Pay the VAT on Retention Long Before Anyone Pays You the Retention
The VAT law never uses the word retention. It gives you four dates in Article 26 and lets your contract and your invoice decide which one fires — which makes the tax point a systems question wearing a tax question's clothes.
1 September 2026ReadConstruction6 min read
The Advance Payment Is a Loan, and Three Numbers Have to Move Together
An advance is money you were paid before you earned it, secured by a bank guarantee and repaid out of your own certificates. The balance, the recovery and the guarantee must stay in step — and in most systems only one of the three is tracked.
18 August 2026ReadConstruction7 min read
Retention Is a Loan You Made Without Deciding To
A percentage of every certificate is withheld, accrues against a cap, and comes back in two instalments years apart. Most systems record the deduction and forget the balance, which is how a contractor ends up unable to say what is owed to them.
18 August 2026ReadConstruction7 min read
Every Contractor Has a Profit Figure. Most of Them Are Reading a Timing Difference
Cost value reconciliation compares what a job has earned against what it has cost, at the same date. It fails almost always for one reason: value and cost arrive late by different amounts, so the margin you read mid-job is mostly lag.
18 August 2026ReadAfter the reading
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