# Get your 10% holdback back the day the law allows

On any Ontario job that carries statutory holdback, the last tenth of your money sits in someone else's account until lien rights run out. Ten percent of every invoice, on every project, all year: on $400,000 of billings that is $40,000 you earned and cannot touch yet. The trap is that nothing reminds you when the waiting ends: no cheque arrives on release day, no notice says the money became claimable. Unclaimed holdback just sits there, and in this trade it sits there a lot.

This page shows you how to run holdback so none of it lives in your head: the 10% comes off each invoice automatically and shows your client exactly what is payable now, every held dollar sits in one tracker with a countdown, and when a release date arrives you claim the money with one click. By the end you will have the holdback toggle working on your invoices, a release date on every held dollar, and a tracker that turns red the day you are allowed to collect.

## How contractors describe the problem

The people dealing with holdback every month describe it as a management burden first and a legal rule second:

> "We build custom home in Ontario (38 years worth) and sometimes use the 10% when the client requires it but normally just use 4% (because it's more manageable)."
>
> [an Ontario custom home builder on r/Construction](https://old.reddit.com/r/Construction/comments/n67vct/anyone_not_use_the_standard_10_holdbacks_for_new/)

Thirty eight years in, and the statutory rate still gets traded down because tracking it is too much work. On the subtrade side, the same clock reads as a threat:

> "The GC is entitled to hold back 10% for 45 days to wait for the lien rights to clear. However if the GC does not pay me anything by day 31, I'm putting a lien on the property. At that point in time I don't care who pays what is owed as long as I get paid."
>
> [an Ontario subtrade on RedFlagDeals](https://forums.redflagdeals.com/construction-holdbacks-2102371/)

> "There is talk of extending the lien rights time to greater than 45 days which would be a very welcome option to anyone in the construction industry who has been screwed by a GC or home owner. (which is pretty much everybody)"
>
> [the same subtrade, in the same thread](https://forums.redflagdeals.com/construction-holdbacks-2102371/)

"Pretty much everybody" is the honest summary. Holdback is money you have already earned, on work already inspected and billed, and the only person watching whether it comes back to you is you.

## Put the 10% on the invoice automatically

Start where the money starts, in the [invoice builder](/ops?tab=invoices&view=builder). The **Construction Act Holdback** toggle in the Details panel is on by default, at 10%, because on Ontario construction work that is the default reality. Add your line items and the math happens where your client can see it.

![The invoice builder with the Construction Act Holdback toggle on: the totals card shows the subtotal, HST on the full value, the 10% holdback deducted, and the net payable](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/construction-act-holdback-ontario/builder-holdback.png "Holdback on by default: 10% of the pre-tax value comes off, and the client sees exactly what is payable now.")

Two details in that totals card do real work for you:

- **The holdback is calculated on the pre-tax value of the work.** In the frame above, $18,200 of work carries a $1,820 holdback, not 10% of the tax-inclusive total. That matches how holdback is actually reckoned, and it means your quote and your invoice agree.
- **The HST line is calculated on the full value of the work,** including the tenth being held. That is the squeeze Ontario contractors complain about most: depending on how you file, tax can come due on money you have not received. No invoicing tool makes that rule or can unmake it. What this one does is keep the number visible on every invoice instead of letting it surprise you at filing time, and your accountant decides the rest.

Flip the toggle off for jobs that genuinely carry no holdback, like small service calls. Everything else, leave it alone and stop doing this arithmetic by hand.

## See everything being held on you

From the [Invoices tab](/ops?tab=invoices), the **Holdbacks** button sits above the invoice list. The list itself is already honest about holdback: each invoice shows its full value and, under it, the amount due now with the held tenth netted off.

![The Invoices tab in Ops with the Holdbacks button above the invoice list, where a progress billing shows a due amount already net of the 10% holdback](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/construction-act-holdback-ontario/invoice-list-entry.png "The Invoices tab. The Holdbacks button opens the tracker, and every due amount is already net of the held 10%.")

The tracker adds up every unreleased dollar across every job: how much is held, how much has been released, and how many releases are urgent. Each row is one invoice, with the amount, the job, the client, and whether it is a final release or an annual one for longer contracts.

## Set the release date once

The Construction Act ties holdback release to the expiry of lien rights, and that date comes from the paperwork on your job: the certification of substantial performance, its publication, your contract terms. No invoice tool can see those events, so this one does not pretend to. You learn the date from the job, and the day you learn it, you record it once.

![The Set Release Date dialog on a tracked holdback, with the invoice number, the held amount, and the release date filled in](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/construction-act-holdback-ontario/set-release-date.png "The day you learn the release date, record it once. The tracker counts down from there.")

That is the whole discipline asked of you: one date, typed once, per held invoice. The forgetting, the part that actually costs money, is taken over by the tracker.

## Release it the day it is allowed

From then on the countdown runs by itself. A release months away sits quietly with its days remaining. Inside two weeks it turns amber and counts into the Urgent tile. Past the date, it turns red, and a **Release** button appears on the row.

![The Construction Act Holdbacks tracker showing $8,316 held across two invoices, one past its release date in red with a green Release button and one with 75 days remaining](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/construction-act-holdback-ontario/tracker-countdowns.png "Every held dollar with its countdown. The red one is past its release date, and the Release button is waiting.")

One click on **Release** marks the holdback released: the held amount becomes collectible on the original invoice, and the row moves to the Released section so your held total only ever shows money still waiting. No rebuilt invoice, no redoing the math from months ago.

The countdown works the same from the truck:

![The holdback tracker on a phone, with pending releases and their countdown badges visible](https://ardhbbgplznadlvhywms.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/guide-assets/construction-act-holdback-ontario/tracker-mobile.png#portrait "The same countdowns on a phone. The money that is about to become claimable is one tap away.")

## What this handles, what it does not

The platform fee is 2.5% of each invoice processed through AEC Stack. There is no monthly charge for the holdback toggle, the tracker, or releases.

Be clear about the boundaries. This is bookkeeping for holdback, not law: it does not calculate your lien or release dates from the Act, does not publish certificates, and does not preserve or file liens. The countdown is exactly as good as the date you gave it, and the release click records that the money became collectible; collecting it is still a conversation with your client. For what the Act requires on your specific contract, and for how HST on held amounts lands in your filings, ask your lawyer and your accountant. What you will no longer be doing is discovering, a year later, a tenth of a job that nobody ever asked for back.

> **On AEC Stack:** every holdback invoice posts into [Books](/books) automatically, where money owed to you and HST set aside are tracked in plain words, so the held tenth shows up in your monthly picture instead of hiding in a spreadsheet column.

Start with the [Holdbacks view](/ops?tab=invoices&view=holdbacks) on your own invoices. If you do not run your business on AEC Stack yet, [open the demo business](/start-your-business) and look at the tracker with real numbers in it: the countdown you are missing is the one on money you have already earned.
