---
title: "Retention, CIS & Applications for Payment | Fynex"
description: "For subcontractors: every application tracked to the payment notice, retention chased, CIS deducted, subcontractors paid against the job, posted to Sage or Xero."
url: "/uk/construction"
---

Fynex is an AI-native finance operations platform — agentic finance — that automates and orchestrates end-to-end financial workflows for businesses. This page covers a specialty subcontractor's job money: pay apps tracked to what the GC paid, retainage receivable and payable, sub-tiers paid with lien waivers, and job cost in the books. Fynex works alongside Procore, Buildertrend, Sage and QuickBooks rather than replacing them. This page is relevant when a subcontractor tracks pay apps, retainage and lien waivers across GCs in spreadsheets and only finds out a job's margin at close-out.

# Know what every job made *while you can still act on it*

Applications, retention, CIS and suppliers tied to the job — and posted to Sage or Xero.

*For specialist contractors and subcontractors.*

## You fund the job *while the main contractor holds your retention*

Every main contractor runs its own portal and its own payment cycle. Your side is still spread out: applications on every portal, payment notices and pay less notices by email, retention held for the defects period, CIS on every subcontractor you pay, and a job cost that lands in Sage after the fact. So the real margin shows up at the final account, and the retention months after that.

## Each part of the job's money, with its own guide

Start with subcontractor payments — CIS deducted and retention tracked to its release date.

- **Subcontractor payments, CIS & retention** — Pay every subcontractor against the job — CIS deducted, retention tracked to its release date.

## See what an application leaves you

The main contractor holds 5% retention on a £186,000 application and pays £176,700. Here's where that goes.

Contractor pays £176,700:

| Party | Amount | |
|---|---|---|
| Your subs | £121,400 | paid, CIS deducted |
| Suppliers | £38,700 | paid against the job |
| Your margin | £16,600 | this application |

[Run your own numbers](/uk/split-payment-calculator/)

## From the application to the margin

Every application, every retention line and every subcontractor payment, tied to the job it belongs to.

1. **Every application tracked to the payment** — Each application matched to the payment notice and what landed — a pay less notice flagged the day it arrives.
2. **Retention you can see, job by job** — Retention owed to you and held from your subcontractors tracked per job, with practical completion and end-of-defects dates chased, not forgotten.
3. **Subcontractors and suppliers paid against the job** — Subcontractors and suppliers [paid by Faster Payments](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/payouts), CIS deducted and the payment and deduction statement issued.
4. **True margin per job, in your books** — Every receipt, payment and cost posted to the job in Sage or Xero, so the margin is a number at every valuation, not a guess at the final account.

## Your portals run the job. Fynex runs the money it produces

What still happens in spreadsheets around your main contractors' portals and Sage, and what Fynex does with it.

| The problem | Other platforms (Your PM tool + Sage + a spreadsheet) | Fynex |
|---|---|---|
| Know what every main contractor owes you | Applications, payment notices and pay less notices spread across portals and email. | Every application, notice and payment in one list, by main contractor and job. |
| Track retention | A spreadsheet of what's held and when it's due. | Retention per job, release dates chased. |
| Pay subs and suppliers | A transfer per party, CIS worked out by hand. | Paid against the job, CIS deducted, statement issued. |
| Job cost in your books | Re-keyed into Sage or Xero; cost-value reconciliation built in Excel. | Posted to the job as it happens; margin live at every valuation. |
| See true margin per job | Known at the final account, not while you can act. | Margin per job as costs and payments land. |

## Already on Sage, Xero or Eque2? *Keep it*

They record the valuation. Fynex runs the money behind it — across every main contractor and into your books.

- **Sage** — Stays your books. Fynex posts every receipt, payment, CIS deduction and cost to the job, nothing re-keyed.
- **Xero** — Stays your books if you run on Xero. Fynex matches every payment to its job and bank line, CIS included.
- **Eque2** — Records valuations and applications. Fynex follows each payment after the application goes, against the payment notice, and chases retention to its release date.
- **Main contractor portals** — Where applications go and notices come back. Fynex keeps one list of what every main contractor owes you, across all of them.

## The rest of the job, also handled

The rest of the job's money, from the first application to the retention release.

- **Retention owed and held** — Tracked per job, chased at practical completion and end of defects.
- **Payment and pay less notices** — Every notice logged against the application it answers, deadlines tracked.
- **Pay subs and suppliers against the job** — By Faster Payments, CIS deducted, matched to the job.
- **CIS returns, ready to file** — Every deduction recorded by subcontractor and tax month, so the monthly return builds itself.
- **Variations priced into the job** — Approved variations added to the job's budget and the next application.
- **Works with Sage, Xero and Eque2** — Reads the job, the applications and the books from the systems you run, with one API.

## Your bank, your books and the tools you run the work in, kept in agreement

Your bank, your accounting system and the tools you run the work in. Fynex reads them, does the finance work between them, and writes the result back.

100+ integrations.

**Accounting stack** — Every payment, fee and payout lands in your ledger, coded and reconciled — nobody re-keys it.

QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks, Sage, NetSuite, Wave.

**Banks & business accounts** — We read your balances and pay out of whichever account is cheapest — no bank portals, no copy-paste.

Revolut, Wise, Mercury, Brex, Airwallex, Ramp.

**Job management** — The job is where your profit is decided. We read it, then pay the crew against it.

Jobber, ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, PaintScout, JobNimbus, Workiz.

**Construction & projects** — Pay apps, subs, retention and change orders — read from the system your PMs already live in.

Procore, Buildertrend, Autodesk Construction Cloud, CoConstruct, Knowify, Contractor Foreman.

**Lead sources & marketing** — Where the jobs come from and what each channel costs — so every won job is attributed back to the ad that bought it, and ROAS stops being a spreadsheet.

Angi, Thumbtack, Yelp, Google Ads, Meta Ads, Nextdoor.

**Phone & customer comms** — Calls matched to the lead that triggered them — speed-to-lead becomes a number you can see, not a guess.

Quo (OpenPhone), RingCentral, Dialpad, CallRail, Aircall, Twilio.

Your customers pay however they already pay — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Faster Payments, bank transfer and open banking — through the provider you run today or through us.

## Find what you're leaking, for free

Send us your setup. We run a free diagnostic and show you what your payment stack costs you today.

> One recent diagnostic found £2M in hidden fees across 10 processors for a proptech client.

## Your money, held under a licence, not a promise

Fynex is Merchant of Record, so the payment risk on every application and subcontractor payment sits with us, not your company.

- **Your funds, safeguarded** — Customer funds are held by Fondy Ltd, an FCA-authorised e-money institution (FRN 900705).
- **PCI DSS Level 1** — The highest card-data security standard, on by default.
- **Audit logs** — Every movement traceable and ready for review.
- **Built-in KYC / KYB** — The switch that turns the business on.

## Questions, answered

### What does Fynex do for a specialist contractor or subcontractor?

Fynex runs the money side of every job for a specialist contractor — paid by a main contractor and paying subcontractors and suppliers of its own. It tracks each application to the payment notice and what landed, chases retention job by job, pays subcontractors by Faster Payments with CIS deducted and the payment and deduction statement issued, and posts every receipt, payment and cost to the job in Sage or Xero.

### How does Fynex track retention?

Retention runs both ways: retention held by the main contractor on each application, and retention you hold back from your own subcontractors. Fynex tracks both per job and per party, shows what's held and when each half is due — usually at practical completion and at the end of the defects period — and chases the release instead of leaving it in a spreadsheet.

### Can Fynex track payment notices and pay less notices?

Yes. Each payment notice and pay less notice is logged against the application it answers, with the dates the Construction Act sets, so a notice that arrives late or a payment that doesn't match its notice is flagged the day it happens — not discovered at the final account.

### Does Fynex show job costing and margin per project?

Yes. Every application, receipt, subcontractor payment and supplier cost posts against the job in Sage or Xero, so true margin per job is a live number at every valuation — not something you reconstruct at the final account. You see which jobs actually make money while you can still act on it.

### Does Fynex work for subcontractors, not just main contractors?

Yes — the subcontractor is who it's built for. A specialist contractor is paid by a main contractor and pays its own subcontractors and suppliers, so it carries both sides: applications and retention coming in, subcontractor payments, CIS and retention going out. Fynex runs both sides on the same job, so the margin is the difference between them, not a guess.

### Does Fynex handle CIS deductions on subcontractor payments?

Yes. For every subcontractor under the Construction Industry Scheme, Fynex applies the rate from their HMRC verification — 20%, 30% or gross payment status — to the labour part of the invoice only, not materials or VAT, pays the net by Faster Payments, and issues the payment and deduction statement. The deductions build up into the monthly CIS return.

### Does Fynex work with Sage, Xero or Eque2?

Yes. Sage or Xero stays your books and Eque2 can keep holding valuations and applications. Fynex reads them and your bank, matches every payment to its job and application, deducts CIS on subcontractor payments, and posts the job cost back — nothing re-keyed.

### Can Fynex prepare our monthly CIS return?

Yes. Every deduction Fynex takes on a subcontractor payment is recorded against the subcontractor and the tax month, so the monthly CIS return is ready to file from the same numbers that went on each payment and deduction statement — not rebuilt from bank statements before the 19th.

### Can Fynex track applications for payment and interim valuations?

Yes. Each application for payment is logged with the interim valuation it's based on, then matched to the payment notice and the money that lands, so you can see per job and per main contractor what was applied for, what was valued, what was paid and what's still held as retention.

### How fast can we start, and what does it cost?

You can test the full flow — applications, subcontractor payments, CIS, retention and reconciliation — in a sandbox before going live. Pricing is public: card payments from 1.4%, payouts at 0.5% each, and larger flows priced on volume, corridors and risk ([pricing](/pricing/)). Start with a free diagnostic of what your current application-to-payment process is costing you.

### Can payments connect to our job costing system?

Yes. Payment runs can be raised from the system that already holds the job — the [Payments API reference](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs) documents [payment runs](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/payouts) and [holding each subcontractor's verified bank details](https://docs.fynex.ai/payments-api/v1/docs/payees).

## Run the job. *Know what it made before the final account*

---

The AI finance layer for platforms and operators. It runs the money chain and keeps more of it in your business. One platform instead of a dozen.

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