70.7%
of Canadian construction businesses had cash for the next three months in Q3 2026, against 75.8% of all businesses. Statistics Canada
FinTech thesis · Canadian construction payments
Canada put a legal clock on construction payments. Trade contractors still can't see it.
Proper would tell an electrical or mechanical contractor when each invoice is legally due, which one protects the next payroll, and what to do when it's late. Later, it could pay them early on invoices the law has already made payable.
The problem
In Ontario, an owner has 28 days to pay a proper invoice, and each tier below has 7 days to pass the money on. Since January 2026, an invoice counts as proper unless the owner disputes it within 7 days. Most trade contractors still run cash from an aging report and a credit line.
28 + 7
days for the owner to pay the GC, then for the GC to pay the trade. A contract can't extend them. Ontario Construction Act, via OAA
10%
of every progress payment is held back by statute. Ontario now requires that holdback to be released every year. Bennett Jones, Osler
269
adjudications started in Ontario in FY2023, in a province with about 34,700 trade-contractor locations, so few trades use the process. ODACC via Mondaq; StatCan
The clock
Check one draw against your payroll
Enter the day the owner received the GC's invoice that includes your work. The bar shows the latest date the law allows at each tier, and where your payroll falls.
Simplified Ontario prompt-payment rules for illustration. Disputes, notices of non-payment and contract terms can change the dates. This is not legal advice.
Prototype · synthetic data
Larkfield Electrical's week before payroll
Larkfield Electrical is a fictional 34-person contractor in Ontario. Today is April 9. Payroll runs on April 17. Step through what Proper would show the owner.
Larkfield Electrical Ltd.Fictional · 34 staff · Ontario
Thursday, April 9
C$31,500 shortfor payroll on Friday, April 17, if nothing else arrives.
Cash today
C$64,700
Supplier bill, Apr 15
−C$12,000
Payroll, Apr 17
−C$84,200
Larkfield has C$88,100 owed by three general contractors and C$61,300 in holdback. Two of them are legally due before payroll, and one of those two is already late.
Receivables ranked by what they do for this payroll
| GC and draw | Legal date for you | Status | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northbridge Builders Draw 7 · Riverside medical office. GC's invoice reached the owner Mar 10. | By Apr 14 28 days + 7 days | Due before payroll Covers the whole gap. Paid 6 to 11 days late on the last 4 draws. | C$46,800 |
| Kestrel Construction Draw 3 · Elm St. school addition. Owner paid the GC Mar 19. | Was due Mar 26 7 days after the GC was paid | 14 days past legal date Covers 71% of the gap. | C$22,400 |
| Halden Group Draw 2 · Queensway retail. Reached the owner Mar 28. | By May 2 | After payroll | C$18,900 |
| Holdback, Northbridge project 10% accrued since the contract anniversary. | Annual release Jun 30 | After payroll | C$61,300 |
Dates follow simplified Ontario prompt-payment timelines. Proper shows dates and documents. The owner decides what to do with them.
Pick what you would do. Step 4 shows the effect.
Cash from April 9 to payroll on April 17
Market size · my scenario model, not a published forecast
The Canadian market is small. It gets large only with U.S. expansion and early-pay revenue.
Buyers are specialty trade contractors with 10 to 99 staff: 18,436 locations in Canada (June 2026) and 88,062 U.S. firms (2022). The pool is buyers × fit × paid adoption × price, plus early-payment fees. Fit, adoption, price and take rate are my assumptions, which is why the range is wide.
In the base case Canada is about C$6M today. Reaching C$1M ARR would take 278 Ontario customers, about 11% of the contractors who fit.
North America, CAD. 2040 in 2026 dollars. Workbook: Diagram_Market_Sizing.xlsx (StatCan table 33-10-1174, U.S. Census SUSB 2022).
Competition
Funded competitors exist, and none I found tracks Canadian legal dates for the trade.
Siteline
Pay applications, compliance documents and receivables tracking for trades.
Closest product and the most likely to copy this. Built around US pay apps and retainage.
Earlytrade
An early-payment marketplace for subcontractors, funded through GCs.
Early pay on its own is already taken. It depends on GCs opting in.
Billd
Materials financing and early-pay programs for subcontractors.
Sells financing without statutory leverage. Canadian availability unverified.
GC portals
Payment workflows run by the general contractor.
They serve the GC, and a trade has to log into each one separately.
Horizontal tools
Forecasts, collections and payments for any small business.
Strong substitutes, with no construction legal dates or holdback.
Ontario niche
Invoicing for Ontario trades that knows the prompt-payment rules.
Shows local demand and is a direct threat. Maturity not assessed.
First four weeks
Nothing here is validated yet
I have not spoken to a customer about this. The first test costs close to nothing:
- 20 interviews with owners or controllers of Ontario commercial trades, found through trade associations and construction bookkeepers.
- A C$500 concierge audit for five firms. I would compute the legal date of every invoice from six months of receivables, by hand.
- Go if at least 8 of 20 had a late invoice force a costly move, at least 3 pay or sign a C$300/month letter of intent, and the audits find 15% or more of receivable value past its legal date.
What would make me stop
- Trades say they won't use their statutory rights at any price because they fear losing the GC. I would then test selling compliance to GCs, or stop.
- GC portals already show legal due dates for most invoices by value.
- Setting up a customer's data takes more than an hour, which breaks the economics.
- No lender will price early pay below about 2%. Proper would stay a smaller software business.