Why General Contractors Need a Specialized Payment Processor
General contractors in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware have the most complex payment processing needs of any trade.
You are not collecting a single payment for a single service call. You are managing a billing schedule across a project that might span weeks or months: a deposit at contract signing, a progress payment when framing is complete, another when rough-in inspections pass, and a final payment at project completion.
Square, PayPal, and most flat-rate processors were designed for retail. They process one payment, one time, for one transaction. They do not understand project billing schedules, deposit collection, or the difference between a $500 service call and a $150,000 commercial renovation.
That creates specific problems for general contractors.
---
The Four Biggest Payment Processing Problems for General Contractors
1. Holds on large project invoices.
A $50,000 commercial renovation. A $25,000 residential addition. These are normal invoices for a general contractor. Square's fraud systems flag them. Funds get held for 24–72 hours — or longer — while you wait for a manual review.
A dedicated merchant account, underwritten individually for your business, eliminates this. Large project invoices are expected and processed without holds.
2. No support for deposit and progress billing.
Square processes one payment at a time. It has no concept of a billing schedule. If you want to collect a 30% deposit at contract signing, a 30% progress payment at framing, and a 40% final payment at completion, you are doing that manually — sending three separate payment requests and tracking them yourself.
A virtual terminal with payment links supports any billing schedule. You send the deposit link at signing, the progress link at the milestone, and the final link at completion. Everything is tracked automatically.
3. No ACH for large commercial invoices.
Commercial clients — property managers, developers, HOAs — often prefer to pay large invoices by bank transfer rather than credit card. ACH bank transfer processing is significantly cheaper than card processing for large invoices.
4. Account termination risk.
Square can terminate your account at any time, for any reason, with 30 days notice. If you are in the middle of a large project and your account gets terminated, you have a serious problem. A dedicated merchant account has contractual protections.
---
EDGE Dual Pricing for General Contractors
The EDGE program is well-suited to general contractors for residential work. For a $20,000 kitchen remodel at flat rate (2.9%), you pay $580 in processing fees. Under EDGE, you pay $0–$35/month in program fees.
On a $300,000/year residential remodeling business, that is $8,280–$8,700/year in savings.
For commercial work, ACH bank transfers are often more appropriate than EDGE — commercial clients paying large invoices by bank transfer pay significantly less than card rates.
---
Billing Tools for General Contractors
Virtual terminal — Process invoices by phone, email, or at client meetings. Ideal for collecting deposits at contract signing and progress payments at milestones.
Payment links — Send a link via text or email for any payment in the billing schedule. Customers pay online from any device.
PAX A920 Pro — 4G cellular wireless terminal for job-site payments and client meetings.
ACH bank transfers — Lower-cost processing for commercial clients and large invoices.
Recurring billing — Automate billing for maintenance contracts and service agreements.
---
About Custom Payments LLC
Robert Staschak has been helping general contractors in southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware since 2002. He is based in Devon, PA — Chester County — and handles every account personally.
Call (484) 393-1576 or visit custompayments.biz