Remodelers and builders were less likely in 2016 to be a day or more past due on their payments, while the range in their behavior on the best and worst payment months has narrowed over the years, fresh data from BlueTarp suggests.
The data, revealed here today, is based on payments BlueTarp processed from 2,000 dealer customers who together have more than 120,000 accounts. As such, the numbers from the Portland, Maine-based credit management firm help give a high-level picture of pro contractors’ payment propensities.
The data uses BlueTarp’s delinquency rates in June 2012 as the point for indexing all other months. As the chart shows, in only a few months in 2012 were payment experiences better than in June of that year. Every month since September 2012, a higher percentage of pros have been behind on their bills. Here are the numbers:
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | |
| Dec (pvs yr) | 15.13% | 40.30% | 54.53% | 65.92% | 52.55% |
| Jan | 12.59% | 39.63% | 54.04% | 64.62% | 56.65% |
| Feb | 4.15% | 35.28% | 39.99% | 61.00% | 48.10% |
| Mar | -2.74% | 13.93% | 22.89% | 38.82% | 28.22% |
| Apr | -20.12% | 0.81% | 16.42% | 21.47% | 21.61% |
| May | -19.06% | 1.35% | 24.19% | 22.98% | 21.79% |
| Jun | 0.00% | 12.84% | 14.22% | 21.30% | 14.47% |
| Jul | -10.94% | 17.48% | 23.15% | 35.57% | 25.19% |
| Aug | -8.09% | 20.13% | 30.65% | 34.95% | 22.20% |
| Sep | 22.27% | 37.41% | 31.90% | 39.87% | 34.81% |
| Oct | 12.02% | 26.46% | 28.60% | 44.53% | 20.57% |
| Nov | 33.84% | 42.48% | 44.77% | 42.03% | 32.27% |
| Dec | 40.30% | 54.53% | 65.92% | 52.55% | 50.33% |
| Average | 5.35% | 25.19% | 33.06% | 39.97% | 31.35% |
| Range: | 60 | 54 | 52 | 43 | 42 |
On average in 2016, 31.35% more customers were at least one day overdue compared with June 2012, BlueTarp says. That’s an improvement from the average in 2015 of nearly 40%.
The data also reveals that pros are much more likely to be behind in the winter than in the summer. Credit experts say such a range in payment history–there was a 42-point range in 2016–suggest that many pros have trouble generating enough revenue to keep ahead of their expenses. As a result, these experts say, a pro often will use payments from a current job to pay bills due from a completed one.
