The Complete Guide to Construction Project Management

Oct 27, 2026 · Nic

A guide for a working carpenter becoming a project manager at a residential and small-commercial general contractor in Santa Barbara and Montecito: the money, the schedule, the paperwork and the California rules, from the first site walk to the last warranty call.

How to use this guide

Read it in order the first time. After that, keep the checklist (section 16) and the formula sheet (section 19) within reach, and work the practice problems (section 18) with a calculator before you trust the formulas.

• The business: 1. Start here · 2. Win the work · 3. Money in · 4. Money out
• The schedule and the crews: 5. Time · 6. Buy-out and subcontractors
• Paper, law and safety: 7. Paper · 8. California law · 9. Safety · 10. Permits and inspections
• Running and finishing the job: 11. Running the job · 12. Finish strong
• Tools and risk: 13. Tools and software · 14. AI for PMs · 15. Why small GCs fail
• Practice and reference: 16. Checklist · 17. First 90 days · 18. Practice problems · 19. Formula sheet and glossary · 20. What we could not confirm, and the sources

1. Start here: what a project manager does

A project manager makes the money, the schedule and the paperwork agree with each other on every job. You still need to know the work. What changes is that you stop doing it and start making it possible for others to do it well.

The job comes down to five things:

• Price it so it earns a profit you can keep (margin, not markup).
• Schedule it so each trade arrives when its work is ready.
• Buy it: subs, materials and long-lead items, in writing, before the ground breaks.
• Document it: every change, decision, delivery and inspection.
• Close it: punch list, lien waivers, warranty.

Three questions to ask every week on every job:

1. Is next week's work ready (drawings, materials, access, the task before it, the owner's decision)?
2. Are we being paid for the work done, and how deep is our cash?
3. Is anything on the critical path at risk?

How a master thinks

• Protect the critical path. Know the three to five tasks that move the finish date and check them first each week.
• Write it down. Verbal approvals are how contractors end up paying for extras. In California, a home improvement change order must be written and signed by both sides before the work starts.
• Cash is a constraint, not a result. Profit on paper does not pay the crew. Section 4 shows a profitable $400,000 job that still needs $70,500 of your money at its lowest point.
• Bring bad news early, with a fix. An owner told in week 2 is a partner; told in week 12 is an adversary.
• Give every decision a date. A tile choice that arrives late is a schedule delay with a price.

Companion pieces

The Project Math Workbench has 17 live scenes with sliders for the math in sections 3 to 5 and the California clock in section 8. The eight-page PM Math Field Guide PDF is the printable version. Every example in them uses the same numbers as this guide.

Education, not legal or financial advice. Teaching numbers are invented and labeled. California rules were checked against CSLB documents and secondary summaries; the statute pages themselves were not opened, so confirm before relying on them (section 20).

2. Win the work: scope, estimate, proposal and contract

Most money is lost before the first day on site, in a scope that was never pinned down and a price that assumed it.

The site walk

• Photograph existing conditions, including anything hidden you can see (water stains, old wiring, out-of-plumb walls).
• Write down your assumptions and exclusions. Every unknown that is not written down becomes yours.
• Confirm scope, allowances and the owner's budget in writing before you price.

Quantity takeoff and waste

Measure net (what ends up in the wall), add waste, then round up to the unit you can buy. Waste applies to material only, not to labor hours.

Those waste percentages are common rules of thumb. We found no authoritative table, so replace them with your own actual waste from past jobs. For special-order stone or millwork that cannot be reordered, buy a spare lot and price the lead time.

What goes in the estimate

• Direct cost: labor, materials, subs, permits and rented equipment that exist because of this job.
• General conditions: job-specific support costs such as the superintendent's time, dumpsters, temporary power and fencing, plan printing and the job's insurance.
• Home-office overhead: carried in your markup (section 3).
• Contingency: money held for unknown but likely things. A common starting point is about 5% on new work and 10–15% or more on remodels of old buildings, shrinking as walls are opened. These are rules of thumb, not sourced standards.
• Allowances: a stated dollar amount for something not yet selected (tile, fixtures). The contract should say that a selection above or below the allowance adjusts the price by the difference plus markup and any labor difference.

Keep allowances and contingency separate. An allowance covers a selection; contingency covers a surprise.

Try the two cushions side by side in Contingency and Allowances.

The contract

A California home improvement contract has required contents, a down-payment cap, a right to cancel and a change-order rule. They are in section 8. Use the CSLB sample contract as your starting point and have a California construction attorney review your forms.

3. Money in: markup, margin, overhead and contract types

Markup is profit divided by cost. Margin is profit divided by price. Your bank account only knows margin.

On a $100,000 cost, "cost plus 20%" prices the job at $120,000 and keeps $20,000, which is a 16.7% margin. To actually keep 20%, price it at $100,000 ÷ 0.80 = $125,000, a 25% markup. The difference is $5,000 per $100,000 of cost.

Overhead

Home-office overhead is the cost of the company that is not charged to any one job: office, staff not on jobs, general insurance, software, license fees, marketing.

• Overhead rate = yearly overhead ÷ yearly direct job cost. Example: $180,000 ÷ $1,200,000 = 15% of direct cost (12% of $1.5 million revenue). Pick one base and use it every time.
• Stacking: 15% overhead then 10% profit is 1.15 × 1.10 − 1 = 26.5% markup, 20.9% margin. Adding them (25% markup) gives only a 20.0% margin. Know which one your spreadsheet does.
• Overhead is paid out of margin. Overhead of 12% of revenue plus an 8% profit target needs a 20% margin.

Break-even

Break-even revenue = overhead ÷ margin. At a 25% margin, $180,000 of overhead needs $720,000 of work. At 20% it needs $900,000. Cutting margin to win a bid quietly raises the volume the company must sell.

What an hour really costs

A wage is not a cost. This teaching example uses a $38.00 wage, 2,080 paid hours, a 14% workers' comp rate, $600 a month of health insurance and 168 paid hours a year that cannot be billed (vacation, holidays, sick).

We did not find a California workers' comp class rate for carpentry. Use your own policy and experience mod, and confirm payroll rates with your provider.

Contract types: who carries the risk

A percentage fee rewards higher cost, so owners often prefer a fixed fee or a GMP. A fee is a markup on cost, so convert it to margin before judging it. In the Workbench, try Markup Is Not Margin, Break-Even Volume and What an Hour Really Costs.

4. Money out: cash flow, billing, retention, WIP and earned value

A job can be profitable and still run you out of cash. You pay crews and suppliers as work happens; the owner pays 30 days after you bill, and holds back retention.

Six months on a $400,000 remodel

Teaching assumptions: $340,000 total cost, $60,000 profit, you invoice at month end, the owner pays net 30, 5% retention is held until completion and paid in month 7.

You fund up to $70,500 (about 17.6% of the contract) at the end of month 3. With no retention the peak is $64,000; with 10% it is $77,000. Plan a line of credit or reserve of roughly 15–20% of contract value, more if owners pay late. Your $60,000 profit shows up in month 7. Try it in The Peak You Fund.

Schedule of values and progress billing

The schedule of values (SOV) splits the contract price into line items (demo, framing, rough electrical, drywall, finish carpentry) that add up to the contract sum. Each period you report percent complete per line.

• Amount due = (total completed and stored × (1 − retention %)) − amounts already paid.
• The AIA G702 (summary) and G703 (continuation sheet) are a common format, not a requirement on small residential jobs. G703 totals must tie to G702.
• Front-loading (inflating early lines to collect cash sooner) gets sent back by owners and architects. The honest version is billing real up-front costs, such as a deposit on special-order stone or windows, as their own lines with receipts.

Retention

Retention is a percentage of each payment held until completion. Private contracts have historically used 10%, sometimes stepping down to 5% at the halfway point. California SB 61 (Civil Code 8811) caps private retention at 5% for contracts entered on or after January 1, 2026, but law-firm summaries say purely residential projects of four stories or fewer are exempt. A Montecito single-family remodel is probably outside the cap; a small commercial job is probably inside it. Verify the statute text before relying on this (section 20).

Job cost reports and WIP

A job cost report shows, for every cost code, the budget, what is committed, actual to date, the estimate to complete and the projected final cost. It only works if every invoice and timecard is coded and the estimate to complete is updated, not just actuals.

Work in progress (WIP) compares what you billed to what you earned:

1. Revised contract = original + approved change orders.
2. Percent complete = cost to date ÷ estimated total cost.
3. Earned revenue = revised contract × percent complete.
4. Over/(under) billing = billed to date − earned revenue.

Example: $400,000 + $12,000 of change orders = $412,000. Estimated cost $345,000, cost to date $230,000, so 66.67% complete and $274,667 earned. You have billed $300,000, so you are overbilled by $25,333. That is the owner's money you are holding, and a risk if the remaining work overruns. Projected gross profit is $412,000 − $345,000 = $67,000 (16.3%). Banks and sureties read WIP closely. Try Over and Under Billing.

Earned value

Earned value answers two questions: are we getting what we pay for, and are we on schedule? Terms: BAC (total budget), PV (planned value to date), EV (value of work actually done), AC (actual cost).

Example, halfway through the schedule on the $400,000 job: PV $200,000, EV $170,000, AC $190,000.

• CV = EV − AC = −$20,000. SV = EV − PV = −$30,000.
• CPI = 0.895 (you earn 89 cents per dollar spent). SPI = 0.85.
• Three forecasts of the final cost: $447,059 if current cost efficiency continues, $420,000 if the overrun was a one-time event, $492,422 if both cost and schedule performance affect the rest.
• TCPI = 1.095: you would have to perform 9.5% better than budget from here on to finish on budget. If the cause is systemic, that is not realistic.

Get EV from field percent complete by cost code, not from hours spent. Try Earned Value.

Change orders: price the ripple

A change order has four parts: direct cost, ripple cost (lost productivity on unchanged work, re-sequencing, extended general conditions), overhead and profit, and days added to the schedule.

Example (assumed rates): a built-in cabinet wall. 24 labor hours × $48 = $1,152, plus $1,850 of material = $3,002 direct. Ripple at 10% of labor = $115.20. Subtotal $3,117.20. Overhead 10% = $311.72. Profit 10% of that = $342.89. Price: $3,771.81, plus a stated time extension. Mark up sub change orders (commonly 5–10%) and keep their backup. See The Three Prices of a Change.

What overtime really buys

The Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) shows 60-hour weeks losing 10%, 12% and 15% of productivity in weeks 1–3 (index 0.90, 0.88, 0.85). At 0.90, a 60-hour week yields about 54 effective hours, only 14 more than a 40-hour week, while you pay 20 hours at overtime rates. California daily overtime after 8 hours makes it worse. We did not get the full MCAA table. Try What Overtime Buys.

Congestion (trades stacked in one room), rework, fatigue and material shortages also cut output. Document them with daily logs and photos if you want to claim them as a change order impact.

Bonding capacity

A surety bond guarantees you will finish and pay your subs. Capacity is set by the surety from character, capital and capacity. A common rule of thumb is about 10 times net working capital for your total program ($60,000 of working capital suggests roughly $600,000). Sureties vary. Most private residential work does not require bonds; public work and some commercial owners do.

5. Time: breakdown, durations, critical path, PERT and compressing the schedule

Work breakdown structure

A WBS chops the job into pieces until each is something one crew can own and you can put a duration on. A common rule of thumb is "one trade, one place, a few days at most" (practice, not a standard). If a task is not in the WBS, it is not in the schedule and not in the price.

Durations from production rates

Round up. Example with an illustrative rate of 80 lf per person-day: 640 lf of base and casing takes 640 ÷ (80 × 2) = 4 days with two people, or 640 ÷ (80 × 3) = 2.67, so 3 days with three. Crews get in each other's way, so more people is not always proportionally faster. Your own timecard history is the best source of rates; we found no citable table. Try How Long Will It Take?.

Durations are working days. Put weather as its own line or buffer instead of hiding it inside every task. We found no authoritative Santa Barbara rain-day count; use your own job logs.

Logic ties

• Finish-to-start (FS): B cannot start until A finishes. The default. Drywall finishes, then paint.
• Start-to-start (SS): B cannot start until A starts. Paint can begin once drywall has started the first rooms.
• Finish-to-finish (FF): B cannot finish until A finishes.
• Lag adds waiting (FS +3 = start three working days after, such as paint dry time). Lead (negative lag) overlaps tasks.

When two ties apply, the tighter one wins. Drywall is 8 days from day 0. Paint is 5 days with SS+4 and FF+2. SS+4 alone finishes paint on day 9, but FF+2 says it cannot finish before day 10, so it finishes on day 10.

Critical path method

The critical path is the longest chain of tied tasks. It sets the earliest finish; delay anything on it and the job finishes later.

• Forward pass: early start (ES) = the largest early finish (EF) among predecessors; EF = ES + duration.
• Backward pass: late finish (LF) = the smallest late start (LS) among successors; LS = LF − duration.
• Total float = LS − ES. Zero float means critical. Free float = how long a task can slip before the next task's early start moves.

Worked example, a 12-activity kitchen and bath remodel (working days, all finish-to-start):

The job is 34 working days. The critical path is A–B–E–G–H–I–K–L (3+5+4+1+2+8+5+6). The electrician, not the plumber, controls rough-in: if electrical slips 2 days the job slips 2 days; if plumbing slips 1 day nothing happens, and 2 days slips the job 1 day. Cabinets are near-critical with 1 day of float. Treat float as a shared account: when one crew spends it, nobody downstream can. Try The Critical Path.

Three-point estimates (PERT)

When you are unsure, ask for an optimistic (O), most likely (M) and pessimistic (P) duration.

Tile a shower with O=3, M=5, P=10: expected (3+20+10)÷6 = 5.5 days, SD 1.17. Chain three tasks, (3,5,10), (4,6,12) and (2,3,6), and expected time is 5.5 + 6.67 + 3.33 = 15.5 days. Variances add (1.36 + 1.78 + 0.44 = 3.58), so the path SD is 1.89 days. Roughly 68% of the time you finish within 15.5 ± 1.9 days, assuming independent tasks. Try Three-Point Estimate.

Compressing the schedule

Crashing adds resources (crew, overtime) to critical tasks and costs money. Fast-tracking overlaps tasks that were planned in sequence and costs risk and rework. For crashing, the cost per day saved is:

Example (invented costs) on the 34-day network: drywall normal 8 days at $4,800, crash to 6 days at $6,000 ($600/day). Tile normal 5 days at $3,000, crash to 4 days at $3,400 ($400/day). Cabinets crash at $400/day but have 1 day of float, so crashing them alone buys nothing.

1. Cut tile one day: 33 days for +$400. Now the cabinet path is also critical, so there are two critical paths.
2. To reach 32, crash drywall by one day, since it sits on both paths: +$600.

Two days saved for $1,000. After you crash the cheapest task, a second path becomes critical, and the next cheapest move may be a task both paths share. Try Buying Days Back.

Look-ahead and pull planning

A look-ahead is a rolling 3–6 week schedule pulled from the master. Its job is to find and remove obstacles before a crew arrives. For each task ask: do we have the drawings, materials, labor, equipment, access, permits and the predecessor work done? Keep a constraint log with an owner and a needed-by date for each blocker.

A simple three-week version: week 1 is firm (everything ready), week 2 is confirming deliveries and inspection bookings, week 3 is ordering, submitting and scheduling subs.

Percent plan complete (PPC) = tasks fully completed this week ÷ tasks promised, with no partial credit. 15 of 20 is 75%. Record why you missed (late material, not ready, rework) and fix the top reason. One vendor source gives about 54% as an industry baseline and the 70s as good; we could not confirm that with a primary source. Try Percent Plan Complete.

Buffers and why schedules slip

• Parkinson's law: work expands to fill the time available.
• Student syndrome: people wait until the deadline is close to start seriously.
• Together they burn the padding hidden in each task. The fix is to estimate at realistic times and keep visible buffers at the end and before big inspections or deliveries, and never let early tasks spend them.
• Common causes of slips: late owner selections, long-lead items ordered late, failed inspections, double-booked trades and hidden conditions in old houses.

Resource leveling

If the plan needs two electricians on a day when you have one, stretch the plan. Smoothing keeps the end date and uses float. Leveling respects resource limits and lets the end date move. Run the critical path first, then delay non-critical tasks within their float.

Delay claims basics (not legal advice)

• Excusable delays (unusual weather, owner changes, differing site conditions) can earn time; compensable ones can also earn money, depending on the contract.
• Concurrent delays overlap in time. The usual outcome is a time extension but not delay damages. Contracts should say how concurrency is handled.
• Written notice deadlines are in your contract (the AIA A201 form uses 21 days). Send written notice even if you talked about it.
• Keep dated daily logs, photos and schedule updates that show which task was on the critical path when the delay hit.

6. Buy-out and subcontractors: scopes, clauses, insurance and a scoreboard

Buy-out means locking in your subs, materials and long-lead items in writing before the ground breaks, then comparing each to your estimate line by line. The difference is your buy-out savings or your problem. Quality starts with selecting subs: check the license and workers' comp status on the CSLB license lookup, ask for references, and keep a bench of two per trade.

Lead times and ordering backwards

Order date = date needed on site − lead time − a one to two week cushion for freight and damage. The only lead-time data we found came from an Arizona remodeler's 2026 tracker, so treat it as indicative and get written quotes from your own suppliers.

Custom items such as shower glass and countertops can only be measured after the base work is in. That is a built-in wait: model it as finish-to-start with lag. We found no figures for tile, appliances or custom millwork; ask your shop.

To find your order and submittal dates, work backward from the install date in Order-By Date.

Key subcontract clauses

1. Scope: exactly what is in and out, tied to drawings and spec sections, with exclusions. Unclear scope becomes a change-order fight.
2. Flow-down: the sub is bound to you as you are bound to the owner (schedule, quality, insurance, disputes).
3. Price and payment: schedule, invoice requirements, and a lien waiver with each pay application.
4. Insurance: general liability, workers' comp and auto, with you named as additional insured. Get the certificate of insurance before they set foot on site and calendar its expiry.
5. Indemnity: California Civil Code 2782.05 voids, for construction contracts from 2013 on, a sub promising to cover the GC's active negligence or matters outside the sub's scope. It does not apply to residential construction governed by Civil Code Title 7 (section 895 on). Have counsel reconcile your forms.
6. Pay-when-paid, not pay-if-paid: the California Supreme Court (Wm. R. Clarke v. Safeco, 1997) held pay-if-paid clauses unenforceable because they effectively waive lien rights. Write pay-when-paid with a firm outside date. B&P 7108.5 requires paying subs within 7 days of receiving payment for their work, with a 2% per month penalty, unless agreed otherwise in writing.
7. Retention: see section 4 and the 5% private cap.
8. Back-charges: the right to deduct the cost of fixing a sub's defective or abandoned work, after written notice and a chance to cure, backed by photos and invoices.
9. Also: schedule and delay terms, safety compliance (your written injury and illness prevention program), warranty, change-order notice, termination, dispute resolution, and a right to withhold for good-faith disputes (statutes cap withholding at 150% of the disputed amount).

Insurance and bonds

• License bond: $25,000 (or a cash deposit) filed with the CSLB. It protects consumers, not you.
• Workers' comp: required if you have employees. The CSLB sample contract requires you to disclose your status to the owner, and 2026 SB 291 raises penalties for violations.
• General liability: covers injury or damage to others from your work. The home improvement contract must include an insurance disclosure.
• Builder's risk: covers the structure under construction; usually the owner's, so check the contract.
• Performance and payment bonds: a surety guarantees you will finish and pay. The contract must tell the owner they can ask for one. Public jobs generally require them.

Sub scoreboard

After each job, rate every sub on time, quality, cleanliness, communication and callbacks. Keep the good ones. Drop the repeat offenders. Pay on a signed trade checklist, not just an invoice.

7. Paper: RFIs, submittals, change orders, logs and photos

When there is a dispute, the person with dated records usually wins. Most of what follows is practice, not statute. No law tells a residential GC what a daily log must say.

Contract documents

The contract documents are the signed agreement, conditions, drawings, specifications, addenda and later change orders. The AIA A201 form says they complement each other, so something required in one applies as if in all. It has no ranking clause in the text we could read; precedence is normally written in the owner-contractor agreement. A common order is change orders first, then the agreement, special conditions, general conditions, specs and drawings. Confirm this in your own contract. List every attached document by name and date. Keep the current set, approved submittals and all change orders in one binder (digital or paper), with a copy on site.

RFIs: requests for information

An RFI is a written question to the designer when drawings are unclear, conflict, or cannot be built as drawn. The A201 expects you to study the documents, take field measurements and report errors before proceeding with work you know involves one.

Each RFI carries a number, date, sheet or spec reference, the exact question, your proposed answer, a photo or sketch, and a response-needed-by date tied to the schedule. There is no universal response time. Set one in the contract or the first meeting (7 days is a common habit, unverified). A late answer that delays work is the start of a time-extension request, so log the date sent and the date answered. If the answer changes scope, notify in writing right away; it becomes a change order.

Keep one running log: RFI number, date sent, to whom, subject, date due, date answered, and whether it triggered a change order.

Submittals

Shop drawings are project-specific drawings by you, a sub or a manufacturer. Product data are catalog sheets. Samples are physical examples that set the standard for the work. Submittals are not contract documents; they show how you plan to meet the design.

• You check and approve first (field measurements, contract documents), then send to the designer.
• No work that needs a submittal starts until it is approved.
• Designer approval does not excuse a deviation you did not flag.
• If you have no submittal schedule or you are late, you do not get extra time or money for review delays.
• Treat "approved as noted" as a mandatory edit, not a suggestion.

Work backward: submittal out date = delivery needed − fabrication lead time − designer review time − your own checking time. For a finish carpenter that means millwork shop drawings, hardware cut sheets, stain and paint samples, stone and tile samples, and windows and doors. Log submittal number, spec section, dates sent and returned, status, lead time and need-by date.

Change orders

A change order is a written agreement, signed by owner and contractor, that changes scope, price or time. A construction change directive (A201 7.3) lets the owner order work to proceed before the price is agreed, with cost settled afterward; we could not read the full text, so check the actual form.

California home improvement rule: any change in price or scope must be a written change order, signed by both parties before the extra work starts, stating the scope, the cost change and the effect on payments or completion date. Never work on a verbal "go ahead."

A good change order has: number, date, project, description tied to the RFI or request, itemized price (hours and rate, material, sub quotes, markup as the contract allows), days added or "none," the new contract total, new payment amounts, signature lines and attached backup quotes. Put a notice deadline in your sub and owner contracts; the A201 uses a claims window, commonly 21 days, which we could not verify from the form's text.

For private non-residential-type work, new Civil Code 8850 (contracts signed on or after January 1, 2026) sets a claims process: claim by certified mail with documentation, owner responds within 30 days, meet and confer, then mediation, with 2% per month on late undisputed amounts. Confirm scope with counsel.

Daily logs, minutes and photos

Daily log, same format every day: date; weather and temperature (heat rules); crew and sub headcount with hours; work done by area; deliveries; inspections and results; visitors; delays and cause; instructions received and from whom; safety items and tailgate topic; photos taken. Never edit after the fact; add a dated note.

Meeting minutes: attendees, date, decisions, action items with an owner and a due date. Email within 24 hours and ask for corrections in writing within a few days. Cal/OSHA also requires a crew safety or tailgate meeting at least every 10 working days (8 CCR 1509).

Photos: before, during (open walls, plumbing, electrical, framing and waterproofing before cover-up) and after. Date-stamped, organized by room and trade, backed up. Inspectors must approve work before it is covered, so photos plus the signed inspection card are your proof.

8. California law: contracts, cancellation, licensing, liens, waivers and prompt pay

Education, not legal advice. The statute pages on leginfo could not be opened in this research. Facts below come from CSLB documents (primary, where marked), code mirrors and law-firm summaries. Verify against current law, and have a California construction attorney review your contract forms.

Licensing

Since January 1, 2025 (AB 2622), a contractor license is required for work totaling $1,000 or more in combined labor and materials, up from $500. The minor-work exemption applies only if no permit is required and the person employs no one on the job, and it does not apply to anyone advertising as licensed. The CSLB has not told us whether the home improvement written-contract threshold also moved; treat every job as needing a full written contract. A license bond of $25,000 is filed with the CSLB.

Required contract terms (home improvement)

From the CSLB sample contract and B&P 7159. The contract must include:

• Contractor name, address, license number and, new for 2026, email and phone; salesperson registration if applicable.
• A "Home Improvement" heading and a notice that the owner gets a fully signed copy before work starts.
• Price and finance charge; project, materials and equipment.
• Down payment; a progress payment schedule (under that heading) or a statement that there is none.
• Start date, what counts as "substantial commencement," and completion date.
• Extra work and change-order terms; who pulls permits; warranties in writing.
• Lien-release statement; the notice that the owner can ask for a performance and payment bond; subcontractor disclosure; general liability and workers' comp disclosures; the mechanics lien warning; CSLB contact; and the cancellation notice.

Down payment cap

The down payment may not exceed $1,000 or 10% of the contract price, whichever is less (B&P 7159), in boldface type of at least 12 points in the contract. After that, progress payments cannot exceed the value of work done and materials delivered. Violating the payment provisions of 7159.5 is a misdemeanor, and the CSLB says there is no exception for special-order materials. We found no 2025–2026 change to the cap.

Right to cancel

• 3 business days after the owner receives a signed, dated copy with the notice.
• 5 business days if the owner is 65 or older.
• 7 business days for repairs after a declared emergency.
• Refund within 10 days of notice; if you do not pick up goods within 20 days the owner may keep them.

One secondary source notes an exception when the contract is negotiated at the contractor's place of business. Have counsel confirm before relying on it.

2026 changes (CSLB bulletin 25-04, December 29, 2025)

• AB 1327: contracts must include email and phone; owners may cancel by email; a missing cancellation notice lets owners complain to the CSLB.
• SB 517: on request, disclose your subs' names, contact info, license numbers and classifications. The prime stays responsible.
• SB 779: from July 1, 2026, higher minimum civil penalties; unlicensed activity starts at $1,500.
• SB 291: higher penalties for workers' comp violations.

The lien clock

A mechanics lien is a claim recorded against the property by someone who supplied labor or material and was not paid. Dates below come from the CSLB homeowner brochure and a law-firm summary; the statute text was not opened.

We did not find stop payment notice deadlines. Practice the whole clock in The California Clock.

Lien waivers

Civil Code 8132–8138 sets four statutory forms: conditional and unconditional, each for progress and for final payment. A waiver is void unless it substantially follows the form.

• Conditional forms are signed before payment and take effect only if the check clears.
• Unconditional forms are signed only after you have been paid. The form itself warns: "IF YOU HAVE NOT BEEN PAID, USE A CONDITIONAL WAIVER AND RELEASE FORM."
• Waivers carve out retention, unpaid extras and prior unpaid progress payments.
• Your rule: never sign an unconditional waiver before the money is in your account, and collect conditional-then-unconditional waivers from every sub and supplier with each pay application.

Practice choosing the right form in Which Lien Waiver?.

Prompt payment

• Owner to prime, private (Civil Code 8800): undisputed progress payments due 30 days after the payment demand unless agreed otherwise in writing. The owner may withhold up to 150% of a good-faith disputed amount. Wrongful withholding costs 2% per month plus attorney fees.
• Prime to subs (B&P 7108.5): within 7 days of receiving payment, with a 2% per month penalty and the same 150% cap.
• Retention: retention received by the prime must reach the sub within 10 days (Civil Code 8814). Retention owed to the prime is due within 45 days after completion (8812).
• Private retention cap (SB 61, Civil Code 8811): 5% from January 1, 2026, with a reported exemption for residential projects of four stories or fewer. See section 4. Public works retention is capped at 5% under Public Contract Code 7201.

The one-page rules

1. Written contract with every required item, before work starts.
2. Down payment at most the lesser of $1,000 or 10%.
3. Give the right-to-cancel notice and count business days honestly.
4. Change order signed by both sides before the extra work.
5. Waivers: conditional before payment, unconditional only after.
6. Pay your subs within 7 days of being paid.

9. Safety on the jobsite: IIPP, heat, silica and fall protection

Cal/OSHA rules apply to any California employer. These summaries come from the Title 8 pages on the DIR site; read the full text for your situation.

Injury and illness prevention program (8 CCR 3203, with 1509 for construction)

You need a written program with:

• A responsible person.
• A method to ensure employees follow safe practices.
• Communication and hazard reporting without retaliation (employers with fewer than 10 employees may use oral instruction).
• Scheduled hazard inspections.
• Incident investigation and timely hazard correction.
• Training.
• Employee access to the program within 5 business days.

Keep inspection and training records at least one year. Construction employers also need a written Code of Safe Practices and a safety or tailgate meeting every 10 working days (1509).

Heat (8 CCR 3395)

Outdoor construction is covered.

• Shade must be available at all times above 80°F, and on request at 80°F or below, with enough room for everyone on a break to sit.
• Water: free, cool, about one quart per worker per hour.
• At 95°F or more (high heat): communication, observation, emergency contact, a pre-shift meeting and reminders to drink.
• Close observation during heat waves and during a new worker's first 14 days.
• A written plan in English and the workforce's majority language, plus training for workers and supervisors.

The indoor heat standard (3396) was not verified. Put temperature in the daily log.

Silica (8 CCR 1532.3)

Relevant when you cut tile, stone, concrete or engineered stone countertops.

• Permissible exposure limit 50 micrograms per cubic meter (8-hour average); action level 25.
• Table 1 lets you skip air monitoring if you use water-fed saws or HEPA vacuum shrouds and never dry sweep or use compressed air.
• A written exposure control plan reviewed yearly, a competent person, and medical surveillance for those using respirators 30 or more days a year.
• Watch this one: Cal/OSHA is drafting an emergency rule on engineered stone (new section 5204.1) with a 1.0% silica threshold. The latest draft was posted October 22, 2026, comments are due October 30, 2026, and there is no effective date yet.

Fall protection (8 CCR 1670)

Personal fall arrest, restraint or positioning systems are required where workers could fall more than 7.5 feet from edges, openings, leading edges or perimeters, and on roof slopes steeper than 7:12 or other surfaces steeper than 40 degrees, unless otherwise protected. Roofing and steel erection have their own sections.

Your habits

• First toolbox talk on mobilization day; log the topic every time.
• Check every sub's workers' comp status before they start.
• Shade, water and a plan before the first hot day, not after.
• Write down the safety item in the daily log. If it is not written, it did not happen.

10. Permits and inspections in Santa Barbara and Montecito

The City of Santa Barbara and unincorporated Montecito (County of Santa Barbara) are different jurisdictions with different rules. Confirm which one your address is in before you promise a date.

Typical order of work

Design and design review if required, then permit application and plan check, then permit issued (order long-lead items now). Then demolition and site protection, framing and structural, windows and exterior doors, weather-tight. Then rough plumbing, electrical and HVAC, rough inspections, insulation. Then drywall, tile and flooring, cabinets, countertop template and fabrication, trim, paint, finishes, appliances. Last come final inspection, punch list and closeout.

City of Santa Barbara: the permit flow

1. Planning approvals first if needed. Exterior changes may need design review before the building permit.
2. Apply through the Accela Citizen Access portal or at the counter.
3. Plan check runs in parallel across Building, Fire, Public Works, Planning and others. Initial targets: small projects 5 working days, medium 10, large 15, extra-large 28. Corrections take 2 to 4 weeks to resubmit; recheck target is about 5 days. Elsewhere the guide gives 10 to 33 days overall.
4. Permit issues electronically.
5. Inspections: schedule online in Accela. The City's inspections page says same-day requests close at 6:00 a.m. and inspectors call between 7:00 and 8:30 a.m. An older City guide says to request by 5 p.m. the day before; the pages disagree, so confirm with the City. City offices close every other Friday, and a request on a closed Friday goes to the next business day. Inspectors must approve work before it is covered.
6. Expiration: start within 180 days of issuance and pass a milestone inspection at least every 180 days. Planning approvals generally expire after 3 years.
7. Final: "Final Building Inspection Passed" on the Inspection Summary serves as the certificate of occupancy for residential and most commercial projects.

In your schedule, make each inspection its own one-day activity with one to two days of lag before it.

Design review (City)

• The Architectural Board of Review (ABR) reviews multi-unit, mixed-use and nonresidential projects, and projects next to historic resources.
• The Historic Landmarks Commission (HLC) reviews projects on sites with potential or designated historic resources and all projects in El Pueblo Viejo and other landmark districts. A building over 50 years old can be referred for a Historic Resource Evaluation.
• Minor work may be approved administratively. Interior-only work usually avoids review, but confirm with Planning.
• We found no meeting schedules or review durations.

Coastal zone (City)

A coastal development permit is needed unless the project is exempt or excluded; repair and maintenance and some single-family work are exempt. Staff need at least 30 days to review, and a permit with a hearing may take 6 to 12 months or longer. Budget weeks to months, not days, and ask the planner early.

Montecito and the County

Montecito is unincorporated, so County Planning and Development handles it. The Montecito Board of Architectural Review advises on size, bulk, scale and aesthetics and normally meets every three weeks. County pages say a planning permit, exemption or de minimis waiver comes first, then plans go to Building and Safety. We could not find County plan-check turnaround, inspection scheduling, or review times for Montecito. Ask the County and treat any number you hear as unverified until you have it in writing.

Planning your dates

Permit timing and design review are the least predictable lines on your schedule. Put them in as explicit activities with ranges (use the three-point estimate from section 5), give the owner the range early, and do not order special-order items until the permit is approved.

11. Running the job: the weekly rhythm and the owner

These are habits, not law. Most come from trade practice and the Last Planner research; where a source is thin, we say so.

Before you start

1. Pre-construction meeting with the owner, designer and key subs.
2. Pre-job walk with the lead sub and the owner's representative. Photograph existing conditions and mark every unknown. A sub's only chance to flag a bad substrate is before starting.
3. Neighbor, parking, working-hours and dumpster plan.
4. Mobilize: site protection, temporary power and water, toilet, signage, first toolbox talk.
5. Set up the job in your system with cost codes.

The weekly rhythm

Habits of the best project managers

• Only commit work that is truly ready. The weekly plan holds only work whose drawings, materials, access, predecessors and decisions are all cleared.
• Decision-by-date log. For every selection (tile, plumbing fixtures, windows) list who decides, the lead time, and the last date to decide without delaying the job. Send it weekly. A late decision is a schedule delay with a price, so give written notice that the finish date moves.
• Weekly owner update, same day, same format: what was done, what is next, decisions needed with dates, money (billed, changes pending) and photos. Short beats clever.
• Pre-installation meetings for tricky trades (waterproofing, tile, windows, cabinets, finish stone). The installer, you and the designer agree on layout, substrate, tolerances and sequence.
• Mock-up first. One tile niche, one stair rail, one wall finish sample, approved before the rest.
• Quality gates before close-in. Rough inspections signed, photos of every wall cavity, and trade checklists signed by the sub and certified by you before drywall. Subs submit the checklist with the invoice.
• Rolling punch. Walk each room at finish and fix before the painters leave.
• Cash discipline. Keep a rolling 13-week cash forecast. Bill on the contract schedule, never ahead of the work and never late.
• Write it down. Daily log, photos, and an email confirming every phone call.

Talking with the owner

• Bring bad news early, with your fix. An owner told in week 2 is a partner.
• Never start extra work on a verbal approval. Say "I'll price that and send a change order" and mean it.
• Present a decision as a choice with a date and a consequence: "Pick the tile by March 3 or the finish moves two weeks."
• Keep a record of everything you send. If a dispute starts, your calm, dated paper trail is the whole case.

12. Finish strong: close-in, punch list, closeout and warranty

Before the walls close

• Rough inspections passed (framing, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, insulation).
• Trade quality-gate checklists signed by each sub.
• A photo of every wall cavity, and utility locations marked.
• Moisture check on framing and substrates against the manufacturer's and spec limits. We could not retrieve a reliable number for a wood-moisture limit, so use your spec.

Finish phase

• Mock-ups approved before production install.
• Pre-installation meetings for tile, stone, cabinets and finish carpentry.
• Protect finished floors and surfaces.
• Rolling punch walk by room.

Punch list

A punch list is the final list of small defects and unfinished items.

1. Walk with the owner and designer, with the lead tradesperson.
2. Number every item with its location and a photo.
3. Assign each to a trade with a due date.
4. Track to done, re-inspect each item, and photograph the fix.

Substantial completion

Under the AIA A201 (section 9.8), substantial completion is the point where the owner can use the work for its intended purpose with only minor items left. It starts warranty periods and usually releases much of the retention. We could not read the full clause, so confirm in your form. In California, retention owed to the prime is due within 45 days after completion.

Closeout package

• Operation and maintenance manuals.
• Warranties (manufacturer and your own, in writing).
• Product and finish schedules: paint colors, stain, hardware.
• As-built (record) drawings, marked up for field changes.
• Keys, codes and attic stock (extra tile, paint).
• Inspection sign-offs, including the City's "Final Building Inspection Passed" for residential work.
• Sub contact list.
• Lien releases: the CSLB sample contract expects a lien release from you for each portion paid. Final payment is normally exchanged for a final waiver (section 8).

The owner records the notice of completion within 15 days of completion, which shortens the lien filing windows. Make sure the owner knows that.

Warranty follow-up

Call or email the owner at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months. Ask about timeliness, communication and quality. Fix small things fast. It is the cheapest marketing you will ever do, and it turns up warranty problems while they are small.

Post-job review

Within two weeks of closeout, compare budget to actual by cost code, update your production rates and waste factors with real numbers, score your subs, and write down three lessons. Your next estimate gets better because of this page.

13. Tools and software: what a small GC needs and what it costs

Read this first. Most vendors do not publish prices. Every figure below was reported by a third party (often a competitor's blog or a review site) as of October 2026, or came from the vendor's own page where marked. Call the vendor to confirm before you budget. We did not use affiliate links or paid placements.

Pick by company size

This is practitioner judgment built on the research below, not a vendor claim.

Residential and small-GC platforms

These put estimate, proposal, schedule, selections, change orders, daily logs, owner portal and budget vs. actual in one place.

Scheduling

• Microsoft Project: Project Standard 2024 is reported at $679.99 one-time per PC and Professional at $1,129.99. Project Online was retired on September 30, 2026; Microsoft points to Planner and Project Plan licenses, and we did not find their prices.
• Primavera P6: quote only, aimed at large projects. You need it only if an owner's contract requires P6 files.
• Only MS Project-style tools and a few others do true critical-path logic. Smartsheet and Fieldwire are Gantt and task tools, not CPM.
• Pick: under 10 jobs a year, use the schedule inside JobTread or Buildertrend plus a one-page three-week look-ahead. Buy MS Project only for jobs with 20+ linked activities and a hard owner date.

Takeoff and estimating

• Bluebeam Revu (PDF markup and takeoff): Basics $260, Core $330, Complete $440 per user per year, annual only. The default plan-markup tool for GCs and architects. Buy this first.
• PlanSwift: from $2,000 a year for the first seat, Windows only. STACK: $249–$299 per user per month, plus an AI floor-plan add-on at $899 per user. Togal.AI: from $299 per user per month.
• AI takeoff detects walls, doors, rooms and windows from plans, but the output is editable and you must check it. No vendor gave independent accuracy figures, and some tools do poorly on mechanical or civil sheets. Test on your own plans.
• Add paid takeoff only if you bid 3+ jobs a month.

Accounting

• QuickBooks Online, after August 1, 2026 renewals: Simple Start $38, Essentials $85, Plus $140, Advanced $340 per month. Plus is the lowest tier with project tracking; it lacks native progress billing, certified payroll and WIP.
• Sage 100 Contractor: about $115–$200 per user per month plus implementation. Foundation: roughly $500–$1,500+ a month, quote-based, with certified payroll, WIP and AIA billing; suited to GCs of about $3M–$15M.
• Pick: QuickBooks Plus with disciplined job-cost setup until you have a bookkeeper, bonded work or certified payroll. Move to Foundation or Sage when over/under billing matters to your bank or surety.

Field tools

• A laser measure and laser level are cheap and pay back on the first mock-up. We did no price research.
• A dated, per-room phone photo habit (before drywall) covers most small-GC needs. 360 capture tools such as OpenSpace are quote-only with a stated $10,000 minimum.
• Drones used commercially fall under FAA Part 107: a Remote Pilot Certificate (renewed every 2 years) and a registered drone. Check your insurance for drone exclusions and airspace near the Santa Barbara airport (not researched).
• Moisture meters: use the manufacturer's limit and your drywall or insulation spec. We did not retrieve a reliable threshold.

Before you sign anything

1. Ask for the renewal price in writing for years 2 and 3.
2. Ask how to export all your data, and in what format.
3. Ask who owns the data if you cancel.
4. Run one real job in the trial or a demo before moving everything.

14. AI for project managers: what works and what a person must check

What people are doing

A July 2026 survey by Mastt (108 respondents, published by a vendor) found 72% use AI weekly, mostly through general chat tools, and only 3.7% inside Procore or Autodesk. The top barrier was accuracy and trust (29.6%). It is a small, vendor-run sample, so treat it as a hint, not a measurement.

Good uses now

These rest on practitioner consensus and vendor claims, not independent testing.

• Draft RFIs, owner updates and meeting minutes from your notes.
• Summarize long emails, specifications and proposals.
• Turn voice notes into a daily log.
• Cross-check spec text against drawing notes.
• Vendors offer built-ins: Procore RFI and Daily Log agents (private beta, human approval required) and Buildertrend AI client updates.

Limits

• AI will confidently get quantities, code sections and prices wrong. It does not know what the framer actually did.
• A person reads, checks and signs every RFI, takeoff, change order and schedule.
• Never paste owner financials or contracts into a tool without checking its data terms.
• Schedule-analysis tools help only if your logic links are right to start with.
• California contract and lien rules in section 8 are exactly the sort of thing to check against the source, not against a chatbot, including this guide.

A safe routine

1. Give it your notes and ask for a draft in your format.
2. Check every number, date and code reference against the document.
3. Edit it into your voice.
4. Send it yourself, and keep the original notes with the log.

15. Why small GCs fail and the counter-move for each

A popular blog statistic says 96% of contractors fail within 10 years, attributed to the U.S. Department of Commerce without a link. We could not trace it, so do not repeat it as fact.

Warning signs, in order of how early you can catch them

1. Percent plan complete under 60% for three weeks running.
2. Cost performance index under 0.95 on any job (section 4).
3. A job that is overbilled to fund another job.
4. Undocumented extra work building up.
5. Owner selections more than two weeks late.

Those thresholds are this guide's judgment, not published standards. Set your own from your job history.

16. Day 1 to final day: a 40-item checklist by phase

Print this and tick it per job.

Win

1. Walk the site; photograph existing conditions; list assumptions and exclusions.
2. Confirm scope, allowances and the owner's budget in writing.
3. Written home improvement contract with the required California content (section 8).
4. Verify the down payment is not over $1,000 or 10%, whichever is less.
5. Give the right-to-cancel notice where it applies.

Buy-out

6. Bid-level every sub scope against the estimate.
7. Signed subcontracts with insurance certificates and a license check.
8. Order long-lead items; get lead times in writing.
9. Build the decision-by-date log with the owner and designer.

Pre-construction

10. Submit the permit and track plan check.
11. Build the baseline schedule and name the critical path.
12. Set up the job in your system with cost codes.
13. Hold a pre-construction meeting with the owner, designer and key subs.
14. Neighbor, parking, hours and dumpster plan.

Mobilize

15. Site protection, temporary power and water, toilet, signage.
16. Pre-job walk with subs; photo baseline.
17. Safety plan and first toolbox talk.

Build

18. Daily log and photos every day.
19. Weekly three-week look-ahead with the super and subs.
20. Weekly owner update with decisions due.
21. Written change orders before work; update the budget.
22. Monthly cost review: actual vs. budget by code.
23. Bill on schedule; collect lien releases with each payment.

Close-in

24. Rough inspections passed (framing, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, insulation).
25. Quality-gate checklists signed by each trade.
26. Photo every wall cavity; mark utility locations.
27. Moisture check on framing and substrates per spec.

Finish

28. Mock-ups approved before production install.
29. Pre-installation meetings for tile, stone, cabinets and finish carpentry.
30. Protect finished floors and surfaces.
31. Rolling punch walk by room.

Punch

32. Owner punch walk with the lead tradesperson.
33. Written list with owner, trade and due date per item.
34. Re-inspect each item; photo evidence.

Closeout

35. Final inspection and certificate of occupancy or sign-off.
36. Final lien releases from all subs and suppliers.
37. Owner manual: warranties, product data, paint colors, sub contacts.
38. Final payment and signed completion.

Warranty

39. Check-in at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months.
40. Post-job review: budget vs. actual, sub scores, lessons.

17. Your first 90 days and the mastery path

This plan is the author's judgment from the research, not a published standard. Adjust it to the jobs you actually have.

Month 1: learn the money

• Shadow the superintendent and the PM on a live job.
• Read three of your company's contracts in full, with the California checklist from section 8 beside you.
• Learn the estimates: for each active job, find the direct cost, the general conditions, the markup and the margin.
• Build your own daily log template and decision-by-date log.
• Do the math by hand once: markup to margin, an hour's true cost, and a break-even number for your company (Markup Is Not Margin, Break-Even Volume).

Month 2: run a rhythm

• Run the weekly three-week look-ahead on one job. Track percent plan complete and why you missed.
• Start the weekly owner update, same day and format.
• Start the RFI, submittal and change-order logs.
• Build a critical path for that job and name the three to five tasks you will check first each week.

Month 3: close the loop

• Run one buy-out from bid to signed subcontract.
• Take one change order end to end: price it with the ripple, get it signed, bill it, and update the budget.
• Run the monthly cost review and compute CPI and WIP for one job.
• Collect conditional and unconditional waivers on one full billing cycle.
• Do a post-job review on a finished job.

The mastery path

1. Estimate well. Your own production rates and waste factors beat any table.
2. Schedule honestly. Visible buffers, a named critical path, inspections as their own tasks.
3. Document everything. Daily logs, photos, written changes.
4. Manage cash. A rolling 13-week forecast and bills sent on time.
5. Teach your subs. Pre-install meetings, mock-ups and checklists make good crews better.
6. Know the law cold. Re-check the California items every January and after every CSLB bulletin.

When to ask for help

Hire a California construction attorney to review your contract and lien forms, a bookkeeper or CPA to set up job costing and WIP, and your insurance broker to explain your workers' comp and general liability. This guide teaches the concepts; those people take responsibility for your company.

18. Practice problems with worked answers

Work each one on paper first. The numbers are invented for teaching. The answers are further down; each one points back to the section that explains the method.

Money

1. Price to a margin (section 3). A kitchen costs you $84,000. You want a 22% margin. What price do you quote, and what markup is that?
2. Stacked markups (section 3). Home-office overhead is $240,000 a year and direct job cost is $1,600,000. You want 8% profit on top of overhead. What is the overhead rate, the combined markup, and the margin you keep?
3. Break-even (section 3). Overhead is $210,000. How much work must you sell at a 24% margin to break even? At 20%?
4. Change order (section 4). Extra built-ins: 30 labor hours at $52, $2,400 of material, 8% ripple on labor, 10% overhead, then 10% profit on the subtotal plus overhead. What is the price?
5. Work in progress (section 4). Contract $520,000 plus $18,000 of approved change orders. Estimated cost $440,000, cost to date $286,000, billed $380,000. Are you over or under billed, and by how much?
6. Earned value (section 4). BAC $300,000, PV $150,000, EV $120,000, AC $135,000. Find CV, SV, CPI, SPI, the EAC if current efficiency continues, the EAC if the overrun was a one-time event, and TCPI.
7. Down payment (section 8). What is the largest down payment you can ask on a $46,000 contract? On a $6,500 contract?

Time

8. Duration (section 5). 1,200 lf of trim at 90 lf per person-day. How many working days with three people? With two?
9. Three-point estimate (section 5). A task is O = 2, M = 4, P = 12 days. What is the expected duration and the standard deviation?
10. Float (section 5). In the 34-day kitchen network, rough electrical slips 3 days and rough plumbing slips 2 days. How long is the job now? Separately, cabinet install slips 2 days. How long is the job then?

Law

11. Lien clock (section 8). The owner records a notice of completion on March 1. By what date must a subcontractor record a lien? The prime contractor? What if no notice of completion is ever recorded?

Answers

1. Price $107,692; markup 28.2%; profit $23,692. Price = cost ÷ (1 − margin) = 84,000 ÷ 0.78. Markup = 0.22 ÷ 0.78.
2. Overhead rate 15%; markup 24.2%; margin 19.5%. Rate = 240,000 ÷ 1,600,000. Markup = 1.15 × 1.08 − 1. Margin = 0.242 ÷ 1.242. Adding 15% and 8% instead would give 23% markup and about 18.7% margin, so know which your spreadsheet does.
3. $875,000 at 24%; $1,050,000 at 20%. Overhead ÷ margin. The 4 points of margin cost you $175,000 of extra volume.
4. $4,942.61. Labor $1,560 + material $2,400 = $3,960 direct. Ripple 8% of $1,560 = $124.80, subtotal $4,084.80. Overhead 10% = $408.48. Profit 10% of $4,493.28 = $449.33. Total $4,942.61, plus any days added.
5. Overbilled by $30,300. Revised contract $538,000. Percent complete 286,000 ÷ 440,000 = 65%. Earned $349,700. Billed $380,000 − $349,700.
6. CV −$15,000; SV −$30,000; CPI 0.889; SPI 0.80; EAC $337,500 (BAC ÷ CPI); EAC $315,000 (AC + BAC − EV); TCPI 1.09. You are over cost and behind schedule, and you would need to work 9% better than budget from here to finish on budget.
7. $1,000 on the $46,000 contract (10% would be $4,600); $650 on the $6,500 contract (10% is less than $1,000). The lesser of $1,000 or 10%.
8. 5 days with three people (4.44 rounded up); 7 days with two (6.67 rounded up). Always round up to whole working days.
9. Expected 5.0 days; standard deviation 1.67 days. (2 + 4×4 + 12) ÷ 6 = 5.0 and (12 − 2) ÷ 6. The long pessimistic tail pulls the expected value above the most likely 4.
10. 37 days after the electrical slip; plumbing's 2 days change nothing; cabinets add 1 day (35 days). Electrical is critical, so its 3 days go straight to the end. Plumbing has 1 day of float, but it finishes at day 13 and the inspection cannot start before electrical finishes at day 15, so it never becomes critical. Cabinets have 1 day of float, so a 2-day slip costs 1 day.
11. Sub: March 31. Prime: April 30. No notice of completion: 90 days after completion. The recording windows are 30 days (subs) and 60 days (prime) after the notice of completion. This follows the CSLB brochure and a law-firm summary; confirm dates with counsel for a real claim.

19. Formula sheet and glossary

Every formula in one place

Money

Time

California quick numbers (verify; section 8)

• Down payment: the lesser of $1,000 or 10% of the contract.
• Cancel: 3 business days; 5 if the owner is 65 or older; 7 after a declared emergency.
• Preliminary notice: within 20 days of first furnishing.
• Notice of completion: owner records within 15 days.
• Lien: 30 days (subs) or 60 days (prime) after a notice of completion; otherwise 90 days after completion. Sue within 90 days of recording.
• Pay subs within 7 days of being paid; owner pays undisputed progress payments within 30 days of the demand.
• Withhold at most 150% of a good-faith dispute; late payment costs 2% per month.

Glossary

20. What we could not confirm, and the sources

Not confirmed

California law

• The leginfo.legislature.ca.gov statute pages could not be opened. Business and Professions Code 7159, 7159.5 and 7108.5 and Civil Code 8132–8138, 8200, 8412, 8800–8814, 8811 and 8850 came from CSLB documents, code mirrors and law-firm summaries. Verify them on leginfo.
• SB 61 (Civil Code 8811) and its residential exemption were seen only in law-firm summaries.
• Whether the 7159 written-contract threshold changed with AB 2622.
• Stop payment notice deadlines.
• The indoor heat standard (8 CCR 3396).

AIA forms

• A201 sections 7.2, 7.3, 9.8, 9.10 and the 21-day claims notice, and any order-of-precedence clause, could not be read in full.

Santa Barbara and Montecito

• County plan-check turnaround, inspection scheduling, Montecito review times, ABR and HLC meeting schedules, and the Coastal Commission appeal deadline.
• The City's inspection-request deadline: one page says 6:00 a.m. same day, an older guide says 5 p.m. the day before.
• The Montecito structure comes from a 2006 newspaper primer plus a current County page.

Numbers

• Production rates, waste factors, contingency percentages and overhead norms are rules of thumb or invented teaching numbers. Replace them with your job history.
• Workers' comp class rates for carpentry and the 2026 FUTA credit-reduction amount.
• A citable table of lead times for Santa Barbara. Window and cabinet figures come from an Arizona remodeler.
• The full MCAA overtime table.
• The 54% plan-complete baseline came from one vendor blog.

Tools and prices

• Buildertrend, Procore, OpenSpace, Primavera and Houzz Pro do not publish prices; all figures are third-party and unconfirmed. Houzz Pro sources conflict. Microsoft Planner Premium pricing was not found.

Sources

These are the pages the research drew on. Third-party sources are labeled in the text where the figures appear.

California law, licensing and safety (agency pages first)

• CSLB sample home improvement contract
• CSLB: what is a contract
• CSLB progress payment restrictions bulletin
• CSLB: AB 2622 implementation
• CSLB: homeowner's guide to preventing mechanics liens
• CSLB: lien waiver forms
• CSLB: license bond fast facts
• CSLB: Contracting for Success
• CSLB newsletter on change orders, 2014
• Cal/OSHA 8 CCR 3203 (IIPP)
• Cal/OSHA 8 CCR 1509 (construction safe practices)
• Cal/OSHA 8 CCR 3395 (heat)
• Cal/OSHA 8 CCR 1532.3 (silica)
• Cal/OSHA 8 CCR 1670 (fall protection)
• Cal/OSHA silica emergency rulemaking, 2026
• B&P 7159 text (california.public.law)
• B&P 7159 (FindLaw mirror)
• B&P 7108.5 (FindLaw mirror)
• Civil Code 8138 (FindLaw mirror)
• Civil Code 8800 (FindLaw mirror)
• Civil Code 8812 (FindLaw mirror)
• Civil Code 8814 (FindLaw mirror)
• Public Contract Code 7201 (FindLaw mirror)
• Civil Code 2782.05 (california.public.law)
• Bay Legal: California mechanics lien deadlines
• Holland & Knight on the private retention cap
• Hanson Bridgett on the residential exemption
• KTS Law on 2026 payment statutes
• Schorr Law on pay-if-paid clauses
• Insurance Commissioner workers' comp decision, July 2026

Santa Barbara and Montecito

• City of Santa Barbara: building inspections
• City building permit application guide
• City design review checklist
• City ABR guidelines
• City coastal zone review handout
• County of Santa Barbara: Montecito Board of Architectural Review
• Santa Barbara Independent primer on Montecito review, 2006

Scheduling, money and practice

• Planning Planet: calculating float and the critical path
• Deltek: lead and lag time
• PM Study Circle: PERT
• NPTEL course note on crashing
• Mastt: Last Planner System
• Lean Construction Journal, 2019
• Lean Construction Journal, 2012
• Think Insights: student syndrome
• Wikipedia: critical chain project management
• APM: smoothing vs. levelling
• ABA: concurrent delays
• Law firm article on A201 notice provisions
• Phoenix Home Remodeling lead-time tracker
• Buildertrend: margin vs. markup
• Corpay: construction WIP report
• Brightwork: earned value cheat sheet
• FieldPro: AIA pay applications and the schedule of values
• Foley: California private retention cap
• JMCO: bonding capacity
• OnTheClock: California payroll tax
• MCAA: overtime and productivity webinar
• AIA A201 public copy (ETSU, modified)
• Faegre Drinker on A201-2017 Article 7
• JLC: checklists to eliminate the punch list
• Builders Mutual: what's your plan
• Projul: reasons construction companies fail

Tools and prices (third-party unless marked vendor)

• Projul: Buildertrend pricing analysis
• Projul: Procore pricing analysis
• SuperDupr: JobTread review
• JobTread AI connector announcement (vendor)
• Procore AI experience announcement (vendor)
• Buildertrend AI announcement (vendor)
• Drawboard: Bluebeam pricing
• ConstructConnect: AI takeoff guide
• Velosio: Project Online retirement
• Dupple: construction scheduling software
• Dupple: construction accounting software
• Dupple: Houzz Pro review
• SWK Technology: 2026 QuickBooks prices
• Costbench: Monday vs. Smartsheet
• OpenSpace pricing (vendor)
• CMAA: using commercial drones
• Mastt: AI in construction project management, 2026

The worked numbers (CPM, cash flow, change order, labor burden, work in progress and PERT) were recomputed independently in Python and match the Workbench and the PDF.