Every rand of retention, tracked to the day it’s due.
South African subcontractors have millions locked in retention with no clear view of what’s owed or when. Squared tracks every rand, flags what’s overdue, and tells you exactly what to do about it, before cash pressure hits.
Waterfall Ridge · 1st moiety
R1 050 000
63%
of the SA construction industry reports chronic non-payment
R15-20B
estimated retention held from subcontractors at any time
60-120 days
average payment delay on public sector projects
Most subcontractors track retention in spreadsheets, or not at all. When a principal contractor goes into business rescue, that money disappears.
What Squared does
Portfolio triage
See every project’s retention balance, release date, and status in one view. Red, amber, green: instantly know what needs your attention today.
Overdue release alerts
Squared flags retention that’s past its contractual release date and calculates exactly how many days overdue it is. No more guessing. No more chasing in the dark.
Interest calculator
Late payments accrue interest under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act. Squared calculates what you’re owed automatically. Most subcontractors don’t even know they can claim this.
Demand letter generator
Generate a formal retention release demand pre-filled with your contract details, dates, amounts, and the correct JBCC, NEC, or FIDIC clause reference. PDF, ready to send.
How it works
Add your projects
Enter your active contracts: retention percentage, principal contractor, key dates. Takes 5 minutes per project.
See what you’re owed
Squared calculates your total retention portfolio, flags overdue releases, and surfaces forgotten retention from completed projects.
Take action
Generate demand letters, claim interest on late payments, and track every release until the money is in your account.
Built for South African construction
Squared is built on the JBCC, NEC, FIDIC, and GCC contract frameworks, the standards South African construction runs on. Every flag, every interest calculation, and every demand letter references the correct clause and the prescribed rate.
We’re not a generic project-management tool with retention bolted on. Retention tracking is all we do, and we do it properly.
Contract frameworks covered
Retention moieties, defects-liability periods, payment terms and statutory interest, modelled per framework, not approximated.
Built with input from quantity surveyors and subcontractors working on live JBCC and NEC projects.
Questions subcontractors ask
Will the demand letters actually hold up?
Each letter is pre-filled from your contract and certificates and cites the correct clause and the prescribed interest rate for that framework. It’s a professional starting point you review, edit and send. Squared surfaces what your contract records; it isn’t legal advice, so have anything contentious checked before it goes out.
What if my contract deviates from standard JBCC?
Every field in a demand letter is editable before you send: amount, clause reference, days to comply, interest reservation. The frameworks are modelled on the standard JBCC, NEC, FIDIC and GCC forms; where your contract differs, adjust the reference and terms to match.
What happens to my data if I cancel?
It’s yours. Export your entire portfolio to PDF or CSV at any time. Your data is isolated to your organisation by row-level security, and we delete it on request. See the Privacy Policy for detail.
Do I need my QS or accountant involved?
No. Squared is built for the subcontractor to run directly, in plain language. If you’d like your QS or accountant in the same portfolio, shared access is on the way so they can work alongside you.
How current is the interest rate?
Squared applies the prescribed rate of interest in force under the Prescribed Rate of Interest Act (currently 10.25% p.a.), dated from the Government Gazette, so overdue interest is calculated at the correct rate for the period.
Squared surfaces what your contracts and certificates record. It is not legal or accounting advice.
Stop losing money to forgotten retention.
Join the subcontractors who know exactly where every rand is.