Customers who can pay over time say yes to bigger jobs. Contractors who offer it carelessly finance strangers. How to take every kind of payment, set deposits and progress payments, handle card fees within the card rules, choose a financing partner, and run your own payment plans with an approval policy, a fraud playbook and a workbook that does the math.
$97
Instant download after payment, also emailed to you
3 files: PDF + Excel + ZIP
Secure card payment by Stripe; sales tax added where it applies
Every way customers pay in 2026, what each one costs you and what can go wrong: check, bank transfer, Zelle, cards, payment links
Deposits and progress payments tied to the work, and the states that cap home-improvement deposits
Card fees: surcharge, cash discount or neither, and the card network rules you must follow if you pass the fee on
Chargebacks: how they happen, the evidence that wins them, and the habits that prevent them
Financing partners: how they work, what they cost you, the questions to ask, and how to advertise financing within the rules
In-house payment plans: when they make sense, the plan types, and where federal and state lending rules start
An approval policy, a fraud and abuse playbook with 18 loopholes and their fixes, and a checklist for your attorney
Running plans: reminders, missed payments step by step, lien deadlines and chargebacks
Workbook: payment plan calculator, plan register, card fee calculator, payment schedule and a 13-week cash forecast
Editable Word templates: approval policy, customer messages, missed-payment letters and the attorney checklist
You get 3 files
The Payments & Financing Guide (PDF)PDF, 53 pages
Payment Plan Workbook (Excel and Google Sheets)Excel, 7 tabs
Policy and Message Templates (editable Word files)ZIP, 293 KB
When you’re done, you’ll be able to
Collect deposits and progress payments that keep you ahead of the work, never behind it
Take cards without letting fees and chargebacks eat your margin
Offer payment options that close bigger jobs, with rules that keep the risk small
Know which questions to bring to your attorney before your first payment plan
A look inside
Figure it out yourself, or start with 20 years of answers
Everything in these guides can be found somewhere: in search results, videos, forums, courses and long AI chats. The question is what finding it, checking it and putting it in order costs you.
Piece it together yourself
Hundreds of hours of searching, watching and asking AI, most of it written by people who have never run a crew or chased a payment
Hundreds of dollars in courses, subscriptions and AI usage before anything works
Answers that sound right but were never tested on a real job, so you find the gaps with real customers and real money
No order to any of it: you still have to work out what comes first
Start with this guide
More than 20 years of running a contracting business, written down: what we use today and what we stopped doing
In the order to do it, with worksheets, templates and copy-paste AI prompts
Plain English, with the official sources listed so you can check anything yourself
One payment, instant download, yours to keep
Not having this is already costing you
One customer who stops paying on a $10,000 job costs more than this guide a hundred times over.
One lost chargeback takes the payment, a fee and your time, and the evidence that wins it has to be collected before the job ends.
Every customer who says “we can’t do it all at once” and walks away is a job you priced, visited and lost.
Made for
Contractors losing jobs to “we can’t afford it all at once”
Owners who want to take cards or offer financing and do it right
Anyone who has been hit by a chargeback, a bounced check or a customer who stopped paying
Not the right fit for
Legal, tax or accounting advice for your state: the guide tells you exactly what to ask, and your attorney and accountant answer
Lenders and banks
Who wrote it
Vision Flooring, Everett, Washington
Written by Alex Babko, owner of Vision Flooring LLC: 20+ years of running a contracting business in Washington, since 2006, and 3,800+ clients. These are the systems we run our own company on today, written for other contractors: what we use, what we tried and dropped, and what we would do first if we started again.
Often yes, but it depends on how the plan is built and on your state. A short plan with no interest and no fees is very different from a 24-month plan with interest. The guide explains where the federal Truth in Lending rules start, the state laws to ask about, and gives you the attorney checklist we use.
Is it legal to charge customers the card fee?
In most states you can add a surcharge to credit card payments if you follow the card network rules (limits, notice, disclosure, never on debit cards), and a few states restrict it. The guide walks through the rules and the alternatives.
We’re not in Washington. Does it still work?
Yes. It is written for contractors anywhere in the US. Washington rules (lien deadlines, for example) are used as examples, with notes on what to check in your state.
How do I get my files?
Right after payment you land on your download page, and the same link is emailed to you. The link doesn’t expire, so you can download again on another device later.
Can I print it?
Yes. The guides are letter-size PDFs made to read on a screen or print at home, and the worksheets are designed to be printed and written on.
Can I get a refund?
Sales are final, because the files are delivered instantly. If a file won’t open or download, contact us and we’ll fix it.
Can I share it?
It’s licensed for your own home or business. Please send friends here instead of forwarding the files. Details in the terms of sale.
Contractor Payments & In-House Financing
Get paid faster and offer financing without getting burned: deposits, card payments and fees, chargebacks, financing partners and in-house payment plans, with a fraud playbook.
Write or update the operating agreement for your contracting LLC: every article explained, succession if something happens to you, the mistakes we found in our own draft, and AI prompts.
The marketing department a contracting company runs on: your numbers, positioning, reviews, Google, ads, social, win-back and a 90-day plan, with a scoreboard workbook and AI prompts.