A three-month renovation. You bought tile, you paid the plasterer, the plumber, and the electrician. The client says the balance is at the end, when they get the key. Until then you are funding their apartment. Every delay on site is also a delay in cash, and you start the next job already short.

Materials are bought in the first half. A subcontractor wants payment when their work is done, not when the painter leaves. If your money arrives only at handover, you are the bank for the job.

A simple schedule you can write on the quote

This is a working shape, not contract language. Fit it to the size of the job. A small job can be two payments. A job of several months can be four.

• At the start, before demolition, a part that covers the first materials and the crew
• After demolition and after rough plumbing and power are in
• After tiling and the wet rooms
• At handover, after your own defect list is closed

Do not leave the last payment so large that you are afraid to ask for a defect to be fixed. And do not leave it at zero, or on handover day you have nothing to hold until the corners are closed. A small part at the end is enough to finish cleanly, without the whole profit waiting there.

What counts as the stage being done

One sentence per stage, in site language, not "when it feels done". For example: "Demolition is done when the apartment is clear of the old fixtures and the waste is out." "Tiling is done when the floor is closed and the skirting is in, with no leftover piles in the room." Without that sentence, the client can say the stage is not done because a cover is missing or because the paint has not started, and that is a different stage.

Photos of that state go with the request. Not a hundred photos. Three that show the room, the floor, and what finished.

The message on the day the stage closes

Three lines, the same day, not at the end of the week: "Tiling in the Herzl Street apartment is finished. From what we agreed, the payment for this stage is due now. Three photos of the floor and the skirting are attached." Also write how many days the money should arrive, if you closed that at the start. "Next week" with no date lasts until handover.

Do not start the next stage on an open bill

Unless you wrote in advance that a specific stage is financed by you. Material for the next stage can wait two days. A crew already on the stairs is harder to stop. So check the payment before you book them, not when they are already on the way.

If the client delays, one reminder with the same three lines and the date of the first request. Do not open a new discount to get the transfer. If a week passes and the next stage needs cash for material, say what stops: "Without the payment for this stage we do not order the tile."

Keep each request with the job: what closed, how much you asked, and what came in. Then you can see what the client paid and what is still open, without searching WhatsApp between photos of tile.