Discover the new app designed to protect tradies’ and client's money during any construction project

Alignment between customers and tradies is crucial for the success of construction projects, yet there is often a lot of uncertainty around negotiating terms of trade, contracts, payment terms and quotes that lead to problems down the line. As the owner of KPA Plumbing, Max Semmons-Russel has first-hand experience of just how detrimental this uncertainty can be, particularly when it comes to payments for jobs.

“We have heard customers claim time and time again that they didn’t understand the quote, which is fair enough. My plumbing quotes would look like a foreign language to most people. That’s why we believe that bringing the conversation of payment to the forefront is crucial to getting paid on time. Quoting a job, completing the job, and then finding out later that there was a misunderstanding or miscommunication often leads to payment delays or non-payments, which is extremely stressful,” Max says.

Late payments slow projects down, Max explains. The tradies will often put their tools down if they’re being paid late with no proof of funds, which causes a lot of stress for small business owners, their families, and their clients.

“Late payments affect you both financially and mentally. Everyone feels it on the building site, and unfortunately it often goes home with you.”

Having personally dealt with a number of difficulties around payments in his career as a plumber, and knowing other tradies have had similar experiences, Max sought to develop a solution that could provide financial security for both tradies and their customers. Launched mid 2023, Green Light Escrow aims to provide tradespeople and their clients with complete transparency around quotes and payments, ensuring customers understand and agree to a quote before the job is completed, and tradies receive payments on time.

While escrow is not a new concept, Green Light Escrow has been designed specifically for tradies, by tradies, to provide a secure and easy to use platform that targets each of the challenges faced in the construction industry.

“In the old school way of working, tradies supply labour and materials upfront and unsecured, sending invoices at different stages of the project. It’s totally backwards, and many people are still working this way. A great analogy is the McDonalds drive-thru — you put your order in, drive to the first window and pay, and if your payment goes through you drive to the second window and pick up your food. But in the construction industry, you put your order in, drive to the first window and say ‘hurry up’, drive to the second window and collect your food and then drive off, coming back weeks or months later to pay when you’re ready.”

Looking at Green Light Escrow through the lens of this analogy, the client puts an order in, drives to the first window to pay, and once the job is completed they receive their ‘food’ and the money is released to the tradie — no waiting for months in uncertainty, and no jobs left unpaid.

“The bigger construction companies have good set-ups to protect themselves, but for small businesses working on independent residential projects, there isn’t the same support. Green Light Escrow ensures tradies are paid upfront and on time, while providing protection for banks, developers, and homeowners. It’s a win-win for everyone,” Max says.

The app has been designed with simplicity in mind. Both parties make a free login, and once they’re ready to engage and start the transaction process, Green Light Escrow does due diligence to make sure there are no bad actors, which verifies the user on the platform. Tradies have access to a ‘get paid’ page, where they can upload their invoice and send it to the customer for approval and payment. The payment is then held securely by a third party ANZ trust account, and only released once both parties are satisfied.

“We often refer to our platform as a community project, as all of our users have had input that has led to improvements. We have changed hundreds of things since we launched, and have some great reviews from both tradies and homeowners.

“I’ve been using it myself for KPA Plumbing and I can say I’m definitely one of the success stories, but we also have a number of day one customers who love our service, and we’re starting to see 100% deposits rolling through the door.”

The future is bright for Green Light Escrow and the community they have developed. Designed to make a difference in the way small businesses get paid, Max sees this project as a global solution. “Late payments aren’t confined to New Zealand, nor the construction industry. We’re currently focused on solving problems for tradies and homeowners here in New Zealand, as that’s the world we work in, but we hope to head to Australia soon, and who knows where we can go from there.”

Learn more about Green Light Escrow.