Your holdback, held on every claim and asked for when it is due.

Each progress claim withholds holdback before tax, at the job's rate. That rate starts at your own default from Settings. If you have not set one, it starts at your province's figure, and the screen names the act it came from and tells you to check it against your contract. You can set a different rate on any job.

Every claim shows the holdback to date, and the job's Billing tab shows what the client still holds: on sent claims, on drafts not yet sent, and released so far.

• Manitoba: 7.5 percent, from The Builders' Liens Act, s. 24.
• Ontario, Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador: 10 percent, each read from the province's act.
• Prince Edward Island: 15 percent on work over $15,000, from the Mechanics' Lien Act, s. 14, which sets 20 percent at $15,000 and under.
• Quebec and the territories: Ridgepole asks for the holdback your contract sets rather than assume one. See below.

Enter the job's substantial performance date. Ridgepole adds the holdback period and shows the release date, with a count of the days left. The period is the job's own if you set one, else your default from Settings, else your province's period, with its source stated.

On the morning the release date arrives, with holdback still held on sent claims, your owners and admins get a notice. It is your money, and nothing else reminds you to ask for it. The Invoices page lists the holdback owed on every job, with each release date.

• Periods pre-filled from each act: Manitoba, Ontario, Alberta, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island 60 days; BC 55 days; Saskatchewan 40 days; Newfoundland and Labrador 30 days.
• The periods run from different events: substantial performance in most provinces, a certificate of completion in BC, completion in Newfoundland and Labrador. Check the period against your contract and set it per job.

From 1 January 2026, Ontario's Construction Act, s. 26, has holdback released every year on a contract, not only at the end. For an Ontario company, the job's holdback box shows the contract's next anniversary, the last day the client can publish the notice of annual release, and the last day they can pay it.

The contract date comes from the day the client accepted the proposal, or the job's start date, and the screen says which. A contract entered into before 1 January 2026 starts at its second anniversary after that day. Once the release arrives, the screen reminds you that your sub-trades' share is due to them within 14 days.

Release holdback from the Billing tab: all of it, a dollar amount, or the holdback from particular claims. An amount is drawn from the oldest claims first. Ridgepole raises a draft holdback release invoice for you to check and send.

Each part of the release is taxed at the rates of the claim that withheld it, GST or HST on its federal-taxable part and PST or RST on its provincial-taxable part. Billing the same holdback twice is not possible: a claim's holdback is marked released when its release invoice is raised, and voiding that invoice gives it back.

Holdback runs both ways. Your client holds back from you, and you hold back from your sub-trades. Each subcontract carries a holdback percentage, which starts at your own holdback figure. Every progress payment you log to that sub withholds it, and the job's Subcontractors tab shows the holdback you owe each trade: withheld, released, and still payable.

Releasing a sub's holdback is recorded as a payment to them. If you have no unconditional lien waiver from that sub on file for the job, Ridgepole warns you before you release it, because releasing holdback before the trade has released its lien rights is the risk holdback exists to cover.

On the budget, the sub's work counts at the full amount, holdback included, so the job's cost is right on the day you pay, not the day you release.

Connect QuickBooks Online and holdback keeps its own accounts there too. Each progress claim goes in with its holdback as a negative line to Holdback Receivable, and the release invoice clears it. Holdback you keep back from a sub-trade goes to Holdback Payable, and releasing it pays that off. If you do not have those accounts yet, the setup screen offers to create them.

Holdback withheld before your QuickBooks start date is shown on the setup screen, job by job, for your accountant to enter as an opening balance, and the first release that would pay it out waits for your go-ahead.