Introduction

Siteline’s Lien Rights Tracker is built for commercial subcontractors working on projects with progress billing. It helps you preserve your right to get paid by making lien requirements clear and trackable. The real power of this feature lies in its ability to apply state-specific lien laws and guide you through the actions needed to stay protected so you never lose your leverage.

A few very important notes before you begin:

This content is focused on commercial subcontracting, not residential construction.
The feature protects lien rights for progress billing, but does not apply to retention—rules around retention can be different in some states.
This feature does not currently support Government projects (including federal, state, and Native American reservations). These jobs often have different lien and bond requirements, which are not accounted for in the tracker at this time.
The tracker assumes you are working as a subcontractor. It does not currently account jobs where you are operating as a prime, sub-subcontractor, or supplier to a subcontractor.

Getting Started with Lien Rights Tracking

To access the Lien Rights Tracker, follow these steps:

From the Siteline navigation bar, go to Compliance.
Select Lien Rights Tracker.

The Tracker View will open as your default screen. Here you’ll see a list of your projects along with their lien rights status (protected, at risk, missing information, or not tracking if you haven’t begun using the feature yet.)

From this starting point, you can:

Begin tracking lien rights for a project.
Click on a project to open its Project Page for deadlines, milestones, and notes.
Switch to the Look Ahead View to focus on upcoming deadlines and overdue actions across all projects.

Enabling tracking by default:

You can choose if you'd like to turn on lien right tracking project by project, or if you would like it to be enabled by default on all projects. To turn on tracking by default. Go to the company settings, hit Edit, and change the setting for Default lien rights tracking from Disabled to Enabled.

At the time you turn this on or off, you can choose if you'd like for the change in setting to apply to all existing active projects. Disabling lien rights tracking, either overall or on individual projects, does not remove work already done. If you enable tracking on that project in the future, your previous work will be preserved.

Begin Tracking Lien Rights for a Project

Start Entering Key Dates

On the Project Tracker View screen, select the white box labeled “Start tracking lien rights for this project” on the right-hand side.
In the dialog box, hit Confirm.
- The text in this dialog will vary depending on the state where the project is located.
From the tracker, you can add relevant dates and documents related to upcoming lien rights related milestones. To add a date, click +Confirm filing and add the relevant date. You also have the option of uploading the document that you sent.
You can also indicate from the tracker if an owner has filed a document that changes your lien-related deadlines. To do so, click on the three dots on the right hand side of the project entry, then choose the relevant notice. Note: If the state does not have owner notices that change lien-related deadlines, this option will not appear in the three dot menu.
Once you've added relevant dates, you'll see that projects have various statuses:
- Date missing: A key date that we need to calculate your lien rights deadlines must be added to determine your true status.
- Protected: The project is ongoing, or you're more than 30 days away from the next relevant lien rights deadline.
- At Risk: You are under 30 days away from an important lien rights deadline.
- Rights Lost: You've missed a deadline and your right to place a lien to force payment has been lost. If you have filed a document and you are simply late adding it to Siteline, you can add it later with the correct filing date and we will re-calculate your upcoming deadlines.
If you click on the name of the project, you can access a page that includes more project info and the ability for you to update all related deadlines and documents in one spot.
Under Key Dates, click the +Add date icon to enter any required dates.
- These dates are vital because deadlines will be automatically tracked in the Lien rights milestones section below, based on that state’s lien laws.
- To the right, you’ll also see Additional notes for the state. These will usually appear if there are additional things to consider that Siteline may not automatically apply, such as:
  - Situations where additional documents must be filed when pre-liens or liens are filed
  - Noting when lien enforcement deadlines are possible, but not accounted for in the tracker
  - Flagging actions that are not required, but may be strongly recommended
Once you enter dates under Key dates, the deadlines related to your lien rights will populate. These deadlines will also begin to appear in your daily and weekly emails from Siteline.
- You can later add the actual filing date once that action has been completed, if needed.
From this page, and from the tracker, you can indicate that work has stopped on a project. Click Stop work, then indicate the date that work was stopped.
- The project will also have a label that makes it clear that work has stopped. You may still create and send pay apps on these jobs.
- Once work has started again, simply indicate this in the same place.

Collections and Activity Tracking

The Project Page doesn’t just show lien deadlines; it also helps your team stay aligned by tracking collections and activity.

Track Collections

Scroll down to view any outstanding collections tied to the project.
Click on a pay app row to jump directly into the Collections module on the project page within Billing, where you can view detailed collection progress.
Within Collections, you can now also see a summary of the lien laws for that project's states.

Track Activity

Back on the Lien Tracking page, in the lower right, you’ll see the Activity log where you can add updates and collaborate with your team.
Leave comments to track progress or decisions.
Use “@” mentions to tag teammates and send them notifications so nothing slips through the cracks.

Staying Ahead of Deadlines

The Look Ahead View helps you stay proactive by surfacing upcoming deadlines and required actions so you never miss a critical step. This ultimately becomes your task tracker.

How to Use the Look Ahead View

From the Lien Rights Tracker, click the Look Ahead button.
At the top, you’ll see projects that require action because they are missing a date needed to calculate a lien deadline, or something that can be submitted late is overdue.
Scroll through upcoming weeks to view required actions. Treat this list like a task tracker.