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New to commercial? Start with The Commercial Growth Playbook, the whole commercial motion in one read.

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Getting paid is the number one problem in restoration, ahead of hiring, in the 2026 Cleaning & Restoration (C&R) State of the Industry Report (Chapter 2, 2025 data). Everything in this section helps you bill cleaner, document better, and collect what you earned, calmly and professionally.

Commercial work usually pays slower than residential, and billed on clear terms it pays more predictably than program work. For the broader financial systems behind all of this, the books, cash flow, and job costing, see Money & Admin.

🔵 Level: Core. The systems that turn finished work into collected cash.

Not sure where this fits or where you stand? Take the Audit Your Whole Business: The 20-Minute Self-Assessment first to find your weakest department, then run the work on a Run Your Week on a Sprint Board: A Template You Can Copy.

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Run your numbers: the Slow-Pay Calculator: What Slow Pay Is Costing You shows the cash tied up in your receivables, and the Deductible and Scope Leak Calculator: What Are Your Two Cash Leaks Costing You? shows what uncollected deductibles and under-scoped work cost you each year. Look up any term in The Commercial Restoration Glossary.

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• 📑 Jump to a section

📌 The playbook and the fundamentals

• The Getting-Paid Playbook The core playbook for billing cleaner and collecting what you earned.
• The Getting-Paid Sprint Board The playbook's five fixes as tickable boxes, with the weekly accounts receivable (AR) aging cadence built in.
• The Commercial Operating Scorecard: The Numbers to Run Your Business On The operating numbers to run a commercial business on.
• Documentation That Gets the File Approved the First Time The photo set, line notes, drying log, and signed paperwork that get a file approved and paid the first time.
• Why Commercial Often Pays Cleaner Why commercial work pays cleaner when it is structured well.
• Choosing Your Carriers and TPAs: Pay Speed Is a Business Decision Score and tier your carriers and third-party administrators (TPAs) on pay speed before you decide which work to take.

🧾 Commercial billing and T&M

• How Commercial Billing and Estimating Differs from Insurance Work How commercial billing and estimating differ from residential insurance work.
• AIA, SOV, and Retainage: Commercial Billing for Restorers American Institute of Architects (AIA) billing, schedules of value and retainage in plain language.
• T&M Tracking and Justification That Gets Paid Track and justify time-and-materials (T&M) work so the bill gets paid.
• Defending a Commercial T&M Bill in a Third-Party Audit Defend a T&M bill in a third-party audit.