NOT EVERY PROVINCE HAS A PROMPT-PAYMENT LAW. CHECK YOURS BEFORE YOU COUNT DAYS.
Pick your province. British Columbia today answers under the Builders Lien Act, R.S.B.C. 1997, c. 45, s. 4: holdback 10 percent, released at 55 days, verified 5 September 2026. The prompt-payment Act passed on 27 November 2025 and is not proclaimed. Deterministic arithmetic. It counts. It does not conclude. No name, no email.
Kentledge, payment deadlines and evidence for Canadian construction
One block is one record. The module that builds the logo builds the interface, the tables and every chart, and this is now literally true in the stylesheet rather than only in the prose. The previous specification claimed the same geometry at three sizes and then shipped CSS at 10px units with a 3px gutter and a 3px datum, which is a module-to-gutter ratio of 3.33 against the mark's 2.00 and a datum-to-module ratio of 0.30 against the mark's 1.33. The motif is now derived from a single custom property so the ratios cannot drift. From the geometry follows the system's hardest rule: nothing here is a curve, a smoothed interpolation, an area fill or a rounded corner. The engine underneath is discrete, deterministic and checkable, and a swooping line would tell the reader something untrue about how it works. The rule is against interpolation, not against lines, which is a distinction the previous draft got wrong and which cost it the two personas who read trends daily.
Same dates, two challenges, two years apart. The record shows what was served and when. It answers for the subcontractor and for the contractor alike.
Two years on, the contractor says the subcontractor never served its claim. The record shows the day it was given and received, 14 March 2026, and the subcontractor is paid. The subcontractor says nothing came down. The record shows the notice served 1 April 2026, inside the seven-day contractor-to-subcontractor window. Neither answer depends on who tells the better story. The record evidences service and its date, on either side of the chain. The only party it fails is the one that did not serve.
Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the federal law all give the owner 28 days from a proper invoice. Three things vary around that.
One of the seven is public contracts only, and it is still under verification. Two more jurisdictions are under verification and are not counted as covered. Manitoba's owner clock is 28 days, the same as Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan and federal. The widely repeated 20-day figure is false, and that correction is dated and logged. Verified 5 September 2026. Statuses and day counts are published here. Section-level citations are held until each has been checked line by line.
Each block is added, never edited, and hash-chained to the one before, so no insertion or removal can hide.
The chain is the mechanism, not the argument. What matters in an adjudication is a contemporaneous record of what was served and when, and an adjudicator is not bound by the strict rules of evidence, so admissibility is rarely the fight. Kentledge does not claim CAN/CGSB-72.34 conformance as a pass mark, because it is a voluntary standard and no statute tests against it. Every date the engine returns carries the provision it counted from and the day that provision was last checked.
Two entries on one certified progress claim: the holdback is carried as a receivable, and no GST or HST is collected on it yet.
QuickBooks Online and Xero have no native holdback. Kentledge holds it as a real account and syncs both ways on independent connections. Where two ledgers disagree on a line, that line is held for you to confirm rather than posted twice. T5018 totals and the ASPE year-end export come out of the same ledger. The worked example above is Ontario at ten percent, counted in that jurisdiction's own arithmetic. The first import is done by us at no charge.
A counterparty sees only the shared record of what was served and when. Neither side sees the other's internal state, ledger or notes.
This is the sentence a bonding agent asks about first, and it is also why a subcontractor can rely on the same record. Visibility runs both ways or it runs neither way. The shared record holds service and its date. Internal state, ledgers and notes stay internal on both sides, and a correction never removes what it corrects.
The Datum Stack. Not a picture of ballast blocks, which would be a literal illustration of the name and would also read as a generic stack icon. The mark is the load test reduced to its two measurements: a column of identical modules above, and a single heavier rule below them. The rule is the datum, the reference line the whole test is measured against. Under load the datum does not move, and the fixed gap between the lowest module and the datum is the deflection that did not happen. It is the only place in the mark where nothing occurs, and that absence is the point. Because the module is the same unit that renders one record in the interface and one value in every chart, the mark is not a logo applied to a product, it is the product's smallest piece of logic drawn at brand scale. Two things changed from the first drawing, and both were changes of substance rather than taste. FIRST, EVERY CORNER RADIUS IS GONE. The original mark put a 1.5-unit radius on every module while the brand's central law was that nothing in the system is a curve. The mark broke its own rule, and it also landed on the same primitive as the incumbent it replaces, whose icon is three rounded bars at rx 1.4 with a warm accent at the terminus. Removing the radius makes the mark obey the law it states, and it removes the resemblance. Radius zero is now a system-wide rule: no button, input, card, badge, chip or unit in Kentledge has a rounded corner anywhere, which is also the sharpest available break from a predecessor that shipped seventy-four rounded-full utilities on one page. SECOND, THE OPACITY STEP IS GONE. The original separated the modules from the datum by dropping the modules to seventy percent, which is again the incumbent's device (opacities 1, 0.55, 0.28) and which destroyed the mark in two of its own nine specified variants: modules at seventy percent paper over oxide composite to roughly #DDBAAE, leaving the datum at 1.60:1 against them, and in dark theme modules at seventy percent over #121110 composite to roughly #ABA9A4 against a #E0784F datum at 1.28:1. Hierarchy is now carried by mass instead of tint. The datum is drawn at eight units against a six-unit module and a four-unit gap, so it is the heaviest element in the mark in every colour condition, at every size, with no compositing anywhere. The same single drawing now works in one colour, reversed, engraved, embroidered, etched and in dark theme, and there is no variant of it that fails a contrast check because there is no variant of it that uses transparency.
| Say | Never |
|---|---|
| The record is built while the job runs. | Get paid faster. |
| Ontario's annual holdback release has been mandatory since 1 January 2026, and Form 6 was repurposed as the annual release notice on that date. | Holdback release is now mandatory, and Form 6 is the notice you need. |
| Deterministic. The same inputs produce the same dates, every time, and each one shows the provision it came from. | AI-powered deadline intelligence that understands your contracts. |
| In seven Canadian jurisdictions a statutory payment clock starts whether or not anyone notices it. In four there is no such statute, and the clock is whatever the contract says. | Every payment obligation in Canada runs on a clock that started before you noticed it. |
| Seven jurisdictions in force, three enacted and not in force, four with no prompt-payment statute. Seven plus three plus four is fourteen, and the table names all of them. | Compare all eleven jurisdictions. |
| Adjudication is available in seven jurisdictions and is interim-binding. ODACC recorded 269 adjudications commenced in FY2023, so most disputes still go to negotiation, lien claims and litigation. Where adjudication is used, it is fast and document-driven. | Canadian construction disputes now go to adjudication. |
| Adjudication is heavily evidence-driven, and the outcome usually turns on the quality, relevance and presentation of the supporting material. The best time to build the file is the moment the dispute arose. | Adjudication is decided on the record that already existed when the argument started. |
| The Canada Evidence Act governs federal proceedings, the Ontario Evidence Act is the provincial analogue, an adjudicator is not bound by the rules of evidence, and CAN/CGSB-72.34 is a voluntary national standard describing what a sound record-keeping system looks like. Kentledge is built to meet those integrity and authenticity tests in the forum where they apply. | Kentledge meets the test the Canada Evidence Act applies to electronic records, under the national standard. |
Give the day a proper invoice was given and received, your province, and your tier in the chain. The same inputs produce the same dates every time, because the engine counts and does not interpret. Kentledge returns each date, the provision it counted from, and when that provision was last checked. If a window has closed it says so first. It counts. It does not conclude.
Check a deadline
QuickBooks Online and Xero have no native holdback. Kentledge holds it as a real account, syncing both ways on independent connections. When two ledgers disagree on a line, it holds that line for you to confirm rather than posting a duplicate. Most Tuesdays it holds nothing. First import free, done by us. If your month-end takes longer after Kentledge, we have failed and want to hear it.
See the holdback entries
Pay-when-paid protects you until the funds land, and then a seven-day turnaround runs at once across every subcontract. Kentledge takes one inbound payment and sets every payable date on that job together, in each jurisdiction's own arithmetic. The same record that proves your sub served on time proves you paid inside the window, and proves who upstream did not pay you. Deterministic arithmetic, defensible to a surety.
See the payables side
Export the whole stack at any time: every document, the audit log, and a verification script that runs without us. It is yours whether you stay or not. Corrections are recorded beside the original, never over it, and only the shared record of what was served ever reaches a counterparty. From $59 to $599 CAD a month, sized by annual billings.
| Jurisdiction | Status | Owner clock | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | In force since 1 October 2019. Amended 1 January 2026. | Owner to contractor: 28 days from a proper invoice. | 5 September 2026 |
| Alberta | In force since 29 August 2022, amended 1 April 2025. | Owner to contractor: 28 days from a proper invoice. | 5 September 2026 |
| Saskatchewan | In force since 1 March 2022. | Owner to contractor: 28 days from a proper invoice. | 5 September 2026 |
| Manitoba | In force since 1 April 2025. | Owner to contractor: 28 days from a proper invoice. Notice of non-payment: 14 days. | 5 September 2026 |
| Federal | In force since 9 December 2023. | Owner to contractor: 28 days from a proper invoice. | 5 September 2026 |
| Quebec | Public contracts only, in force 8 September 2025, phasing to 2027. | Not a simple day count. Shown in the product. | 5 September 2026 |
| Northwest Territories | In force since 1 September 2025. Prompt payment with no adjudication. | Shown in the product. | 5 September 2026 |
| British Columbia | Passed 27 November 2025. NOT proclaimed. Live jobs run under the Builders Lien Act. | None yet. Nothing is computed under an unproclaimed Act. | 5 September 2026 |
| New Brunswick, Nova Scotia | Enacted, awaiting proclamation or regulations. Under verification. | Not published until verified. | Under verification |
Section-level citations are shown in the product, not reproduced on this concept page.
Your data is stored and processed in Canada. So are the backups, the logs and the exports. It is encrypted at rest and in transit, isolated per tenant, and no subprocessor holds it outside Canada. Separately: a read-only link lets Copilot, ChatGPT or Claude report dates the engine already computed. It cannot write or alter anything.
Kentledge computes each deadline from the statute in force and seals the working into one record both sides can read.
Every date carries its provision and the day it was verified.
Typed rules read the statute, no language model sets a date. Seven jurisdictions in force, three enacted, four with none.
One record, both sides, including the side that pays.
A counterparty sees only the shared record of what was served and when, never the other side's internal state.
Export the record at any time, whether you stay or not.
A chronological brief with an indexed exhibit pack, or a plain archive with a verification script that runs without us.
| The subcontractor owner | Am I still in time, answered for the province before anything asks a name. |
|---|---|
| The construction bookkeeper | Holdback as a real account, the journal entry published, and no duplicate postings. |
| The general contractor's controller | Unbilled holdback recovered, DSO for the bonding agent, the right to withhold preserved. |
| The construction lawyer | A dated table of payment and lien deadlines, cited per row, publicly linkable. |
| The CPA in practice | ASPE, T5018 and HST on holdback, worked with real figures, Alberta first. |
The longer argument
Canada has fourteen construction jurisdictions counting the federal regime. Seven run a statutory payment clock, three have passed one and not proclaimed it, and four have none at all. No rule here is universal. Manitoba's periods diverge. The Northwest Territories has prompt payment and no adjudication mechanism. Quebec covers public construction contracts only, phasing to 8 September 2027. British Columbia's Act passed on 27 November 2025 and is not proclaimed, so a job in Surrey runs under the Builders Lien Act today. The table is a dated page of its own, verified per row, with a public changelog.
The Canada Evidence Act, sections 31.1 to 31.8, governs federal proceedings. A Construction Act adjudication is provincial, and the Ontario Evidence Act is the analogue at section 34.1. An adjudicator is not bound by the rules of evidence at all. CAN/CGSB-72.34 is a voluntary national standard, not a statutory test. A hash chain does not make a file immutable. It makes a change impossible to hide. Every deadline shows the provision it came from and the day that provision was last verified, and every correction is recorded beside the original, dated and public.
Every competitor sells the same job in the same voice: get the invoice out, get paid sooner, in blue, at speed. Nobody sells the finished, dated record that decides an adjudication. There is no branded search here either, and two thirds of discovery is spoken, so the site is found through artefacts rather than adjectives: a free deadline check, a proper invoice checker, an annual holdback release calculator, and the jurisdiction table. Law firms publish once and abandon. Maintenance is the moat. Each of the five buyers arrives at a different door, and the phrase they repeat is Am I still in time.
A kentledge is the ballast stacked onto a pile to prove it carries the load, before anything is built on it. The fair objection is that the ballast is craned off when the test ends. What a load test leaves behind is not the iron, it is the certificate, and the certificate outlives the pile. The product is named for the method, not for the mass.