News | FWM Software

Tuesday, December 18th, 2019

A client recently wrote to us asking about what to do about jobs where one of the parties to the job files for bankruptcy.  Well, that depends, but the Mechanic’s Lien laws do give you some option besides simply declaring your bill on your job as uncollectable.  It also depends on who is filing for bankruptcy, and the nature of your debt.

If you have delivered products or services to a property location, you hold a secured debt against the real property of an owner.  This improves your position for collection in the bankruptcy over the unsecured creditors– you have made improvements to the property, and this puts you higher on the list of the bankruptcy creditors.

Remember that filing a Mechanic’s Lien for your secured debt services is a lien against the real property you improved, not solely a claim against the bankrupt party for damages.  For the debtor, it is akin to owing money for his mortgage, and generally must be paid back because of your improvements.  This places you very near the top of the list of parties to get paid in the bankruptcy, assuming there are assets to pay the debts ay the end of the bankruptcy process.  Of course, the mortgage must be repaid first before any property liens, and the Mechanic’s Liens are paid in the order they were put on the property.  Time may be of the essence here because paying lien claims on a property depends on when the claim was filed.  If you have a number of other secured creditors filing their claims before your claim you can still end up “out of luck’.

This also means if the property has no equity in it above the mortgage, or if there are other lien claimants before your claim, leaving no value in the property, there may be nothing left to pay your claim.  But, if the debtor wishes to retain his property, bankruptcy does not relieve a debtor of the obligation to pay his secured debt.  Placing a mechanic’s lien on the property after a bankruptcy filing puts you in the best position to get paid if funds are available.  Let’s look a little deeper.

A bankruptcy filing by either of these parties does not affect your lien claim on an owner’s property at all.  Contact the owner about your claim.

Again, these are not owners of the property, although a bankruptcy by either of these parties may estop you from making a claim on these parties in court for other solutions.  Still, your interest in the real property is not affected.

The owner filing bankruptcy need not affect your secured claim against the real property, although it must be pursued under the bankruptcy court.   To protect your rights, do the following:

A bankruptcy confuses the mix of the already complex lien procedures.  We do encourage, especially on large amount claims, that you include your attorney in your action, or have your attorney recommend a good practicing bankruptcy attorney.  Still, the point is that your claim is secured and has a better chance of being paid by filing a mechanic’s lien against the real property.

It is easy to update Lien Writer®:

You can contact someone to discuss any newsletter subject:

Address:              FWM Software

                             705 Pleasant Valley Road

                             PMB #108

                             Diamond Springs, CA  95619

Telephone:                   530-622-1344

Fax:                      530-622-1385

Email:                   techsupp@fwmsoftware.com

Website:              http://www.fwmsoftware.com

On-Line Help:     https://www.lienwriterhelp.com

Thursday, December 13th, 2018

The following are our Holiday Hours from December 2018 through November 2019.  Mentioned here are the days we will be closed:

December 24th and 25th:                                   Christmas

December 31th and January 1st:                      New Years

January 21st:                                                       Martin Luther King’s Birthday

February 18th:                                                     President’s Day

May 27th:                                                             Memorial Day

July 4th:                                                                Independence Day

September 2nd”:                                                  Labor Day

November 11th:                                                  Veteran’s Da

November 28th and 29th:                                   Thanksgiving Holiday

The vast majority of Pre-lien claims are on commercial State jobs, followed by claims on public State jobs.  Each State has requirements for the preparation and service of each of these documents.  But, federal jobs have different requirements, and they are the same for every location in the U.S.A, Canada and the U.S. Territories.  The following is a short summary of the requirements for making claims on federal jobs as required by the federal Miller Act.  Under project, just click the Federal Job checkbox (the Public Job checkbox will also check- you cannot have a federal job without it also being a Public Job).

Lien Writer®, as we have mentioned before, has the forms for doing a pre-lien notice, better known as a preliminary notice, notice to owner, etc. for every location, including federal jobs.  However, we have included these forms for federal claims mostly just to keep our customers happy- many do not feel their work is done on a new job until a notice has been sent.  But, federal pre-lien notices are not required to establish a claim on a federal job.  All you have to do under the Miller Act is to send the federal public bond claim against the owner, general contractor and the bonding company in the event you have to make a claim for payment on a federal job.  If done properly, and in time, the bonding company will see that you are paid.

If you do choose to send a pre-lien claim on a federal job, expect one of three responses from the public entity:

Still, the correct action is to simply file a federal bond claim on the bonding company in the event you are not paid for your supply or work.  I cannot emphasize this enough as many working on federal public jobs do not request information on the bonding agent of the job!  This is a mistake because the bonding company may be your only source for recovery in the event you are not paid, and there are time limitations to make a claim.  The public entity and general contract know who the bond agent is, so demand the name and address of the bonding agent before you supply the owner and general contractor with your services.

Be aware of this when setting up your federal jobs in Lien Writer®.

It is easy to update Lien Writer®:

You can contact someone to discuss any newsletter subject:

Address:              FWM Software

                             705 Pleasant Valley Road

                             PMB #108

                             Diamond Springs, CA  95619

Telephone:                   530-622-1344

Fax:                      530-622-1385

Email:                   techsupp@fwmsoftware.com

Website:              http://www.fwmsoftware.com

On-Line Help:     https://www.lienwriterhelp.com

Wednesday, November 21st, 2018

When setting up a new Lien Writer® installation most companies opt for a single station under a single user. But, especially in larger companies, that user of the program soon finds it is much more convenient to have multiple users entering data, especially in the busy months of the construction season.  The question is what is the best way to have multiple users entering data into Lien Writer®?

We will be discussing option #2 today, and ways of setting your database up for the best usage by all users.

Choosing the database location – You have to have a common location for the program’s database that all of the Lien Writer® computer stations will access.  Generally, one of your office servers is the best location for the database.  A server is a computer station setup specifically to have common files and databases accessible to all.  You can have a user’s station setup as a server for the network, if you have no free server on your network, but you run risks with a station as a server if the user chooses to reboot their station without advising other uses on the network.  In addition, you can have a remote Citrix or Windows Server setup as a common network location for all the files of the program (and that is a discussion for another newsletter).

Setting up each Lien Writer® station – Once you have a common location chosen for a database,

It is easy to update Lien Writer®:

The Lien Writer® Newsletter
Thursday, November 15th, 2018

ENTERING AND CONTROLLING CURRENT JOBS AND HISTORY DATA

Lien Writer® is famed for how easy it is to use- enter the data, print your required legal document and mail it. But we are often surprised, despite all the features available in the program, that doing the Notices to Owner and General Contractor (preliminary notices, notices of furnishing, etc.) are the only documents most users print. And, that most owners do not maintain the relationship between the Current Jobs and History databases.

The concept is simple. The Current Jobs section of Lien Writer® is where everyone starts entering data to print out a State’s required notice to the owner and general contractor to establish a right to file a mechanic’s or bond claim lien on the real property our clients performed their services upon in the event they are not paid for their services. Without serving this notice on the owner and general contractor a company has no right to seek compensation from the owner in the event their customer does not pay them for their services. Oh, you can still attempt to collect your bill from the customer, if he or she has anything to collect, but all the services you performed on the owner’s property are uncollectable from the owner when you have not established a right to lien the property, and that is how it is done in over 40 states via the Preliminary Notice process.

So, you send the notice, the owner receives it via Certified Mail, and then the owners make sure your customer pays you so they are able to receive a Waiver and Release of Rights of your claim against them. As we said, simple. Often 90% of the total work you need to do via Lien Writer®, costing you nothing more than the time it took to enter the data, print it, and the postage to mail the Certified Mail documents. But there is more to consider.

Often, we have clients, small outfits who have used our Lien Writer® for many years, call us up with a problem- the thousands and thousands of records they have entered into the Current Jobs database, and they find as the record count goes up it becomes harder and harder to manage and find records. On a recent service call one client, a company with one person using Lien Writer®, called complaining she was spending a lot of time searching through her Current Jobs database of more than 8000 jobs when trying to locate a particular job. The first thing we asked was “you have 8,000 active jobs?” to which she answered “no, of course not, I have about 40 active jobs right now, but I have been using Lien Writer® for over 10 years”! Okay, we said, “haven’t you been moving your completed jobs to your History section?”, to which she replied “Oh, I see the History section, but there is never anything in it”. To which we said, “when you finish a job, aren’t you moving the Current Jobs to History?”. “Ah”, she said, “No. Can I do that?”

Yes, of course you can. You should be doing this once a week or month. And, it is easy to do, too. We have number of features to get jobs from Current Jobs to History:

1) DELETE the Current Jobs record – this will automatically move the job to the History file. WARNING – Deleting a job in History removes the job from the program. We might be able to recover those jobs, but you will have to call or write us to be told how to do this;
2) Press the F3 key. This will move the job to History. In History, you can also use the F3 key to move a job back to Current Jobs;
3) When you have done your final Unconditional Waiver and Release for a job, the program will ask if you want to delete it. Pressing “Yes” moves it from Current Jobs to History;

Now, these three options are good for moving one record at a time. But, what if you, too, have failed to move your Current Jobs to History for the last 8 years? Moving one record at a time from Current Jobs to History is going to be a lot of time and work! Well, we have other options to mass move records from Current Jobs to the History file, and this will make it easy to keep your work files up to date.

The Lien Writer® Main Menu option Edit has a section Mass Move Current Jobs to History that is designed to help you keep your database clean. Options include:

1) Marked Jobs – This option allows you to mass move to History every Current Jobs record checked Marked:

The only problem is that you have to mark every record you want to move;
2) Paid Jobs – Selecting this option moves every record marked Paid to the History database. Again, we have to assume you have been marking these records as Paid every time you close a job;
3) Jobs by Next Call Date – This option allows you to send all records to History as of a specified Next Call Date. As mass mover this allows you to set a date when you did your last work;
4) Jobs by Entry Date – This option is the simplest to use but you have to have declared a mass move period that does not move your active Current Jobs. Typically, the program presumes to move records from 2 years through 1 year before the current date:

But it is often safest the first time to move everything from the beginning of your use of the program through 2 years ago:

Then you can use the other options to finish up clean your Current Jobs database.

Keeping your Lien Writer® databases clean is very important to help with your management of your jobs. Doing it on a regular basis makes the clean-up easy.

Keeping Up To Date With Lien Writer®
The current version on the street is our 10.1.1.1 version.

It is easy to update Lien Writer®:

1) If you are using a Lien Writer® version 9.3.2.7 or before, first run Lien Writer®, then go to Help / About Lien Writer and write down your version number and expiration date for verification;
2) Open your Internet or Google Explorer;
3) Go to our website at http://www.fwmsoftware.com/fwm-software-downloads/;
4) Click on Lien_Program_Installer v10.1.1.1;
5) The site will ask where you want the program to download. Put it in a directory location you want, or just download to the Desktop. Normally, it should take less than 5 minutes;
6) Once the program is downloaded, go to the directory site, or the Desktop, and double click on the Lien_Program_Installer v10.1.1.1. The program will begin installing and updating your data files;
7) If the former program was of the 10.x.x.x series, it will simply update. If your version is of the 9.3.2.7 series or less, it will install but you will need to get a update code. Call (530) 622-1344, or write us at techsupp@fwmsoftware.com to receive your new code;
8) A WARNING ON USING LIEN WRITER® VERSIONS PRIOR TO 10.x.x.x. THESE PROGRAMS ARE OUTMODED AND IN SOME CASES HAVE ILLEGAL AND OUTDATED FORMS. PLEASE UPDATE IMMEDIATELY;
9) Once you updated, just use the program as you have always used it

The Lien Writer™ Newsletter
Thursday, November 8th, 2018

THE LIEN WRITER® HELP FILE IS NOW ON THE INTERNET FOR ALL
We have begun posting the Lien Writer® Help file online for the benefit of our customers and every Building Construction Industry company needing to look up information on the Mechanic’s Lien laws for the USA, Canada, and the US Territories. The new website is located at:

and supplies all of the information found in the Help file of Lien Writer®. Let your customers know about the site so they look up what is needed to protect their interests in their jobs. It is accessible via your computer, tablet and cell phone. Check it out the site!

OPPS! ANOTHER NEW VERSION OF LIEN WRITER® ON OUR WEBSITE
Washington State has some new changes we needed to cover. The new 10.1.1.1 version of the program updates:

Washington State Mechanic’s Lien – Update to the Washington State Mechanic’s Lien form, additional changes to conform with new laws.

As always, it is just as simple. Download and upgrade your program (see below).

Keeping Up To Date With Lien Writer®
The current version on the street is our 10.1.1.1 version.

It is easy to update Lien Writer®:

1) If you are using a Lien Writer® version 9.3.2.7 or before, first run Lien Writer®, then go to Help / About Lien Writer and write down your version number and expiration date for verification;
2) Open your Internet or Google Explorer;
3) Go to our website at http://www.fwmsoftware.com/fwm-software-downloads/;
4) Click on Lien_Program_Installer v10.1.1.1;
5) The site will ask where you want the program to download. Put it in a directory location you want, or just download to the Desktop. Normally, it should take less than 5 minutes;
6) Once the program is downloaded, go to the directory site or the Desktop, and double-click on the Lien_Program_Installer v10.1.1.1. The program will begin installing and updating your data files;
7) If the former program was of the 10.x.x.x series, it will simply update. If your version is of the 9.3.2.7 series or less, it will install but you will need to get an update code. Call (530) 622-1344, or write us at techsupp@fwmsoftware.com to receive your new code;
8) A WARNING ON USING LIEN WRITER® VERSIONS PRIOR TO 10.x.x.x. THESE PROGRAMS ARE OUTMODED AND IN SOME CASES HAVE ILLEGAL AND OUTDATED FORMS. PLEASE UPDATE IMMEDIATELY;
9) Once you update, just use the program as you have always used it

The Lien Writer™ Newsletter
Thursday, November 1st, 2018

USING LIEN WRITER® ON NETWORK SYSTEMS – IMPORTANT INFORMATION, DO NOT NEGLECT TO READ THIS ARTICLE!

Folks, many of you have chosen to setup your Lien Writer® systems on network drives so the information database is accessible to multiple users. We encourage this choice as networked users usually have their database automatically backed up by their server system, hence protecting their data against loss- you will never know how important your Lien Writer® data is until you have lost it!

While Lien Writer® does have a manual backup system available (see under File / Backup Data Files and File / Restore Data Files under the File Main Menu option) having the database on a server location just insures the database is automatically saved no matter what the users are doing.

But, some users have reported problems with their Lien Writer® database being backed up due to their network setup, something we at FWM Software cannot control. This article is about getting your tech folks to get the server where the Lien Writer® database resides setup correctly. If nothing more, please send this newsletter to your tech guys and ask them to address the issue. Mention to them also the new 10.1.1.0 version has added features to protect your data (see below), so make sure you keep updated.

Many backup systems for servers- to another server, tape system, drive, whatever- are setup for network drives and regularly maintained by the tech staff. Once setup, the backup is done automatically with the tech staff just adding or removing the backup device as needed. Alas, the tech staff does not always check to make sure all the files on the drives were indeed backed up. Many backup systems, incorrectly setup, do not even advise the techs of files that were not backed up unless they look at the program log. That is the first thing I would recommend your tech folks check out, especially if the following problems occur.

Lien Writer® is very easy to use, one of our big selling points being if you can type you can use Lien Writer®. But, as a database the program does make several assumptions of user behavior including, as with many accounting systems, that the users log out of the system when they leave at the end of the day. Lien Writer® has many protections of your data to prevent damage occurring to the data and, as it tracks the users in the system, you can even clear users out of our program if they have failed to logout at the end of the day, but we cannot tell if your network knows if they have logged out. This becomes a problem when you find that you cannot log into the system when it declares you have too many users in the system, and the program will not let you clear the license table even thorough you have had everyone else log out of the system. This often necessitates a call to our office for assistance, and we often tell the callers they are going to have to reboot their server, then log back in and then clear the license table.

But, that is dangerous in this scenario is that the database may not have been backed up in some time. We had one large user of the program, with 20 licenses, but never more than 15 users in the system, and with one errant user showing logged onto the database via their server system. They never caught it in the year and a half the program was running, and when the server crashed they found that the database which not been backed up for that year and a half was gone. All that data, gone. And we could do nothing to restore it as the hard drive was the component that failed.

A year and a half of data, gone. Think about that.

So, while we can catch this problem when we find that the program will not clear the User table, we cannot catch it if we don’t know the program is not being backed up. But, there is a set of solutions that your tech guys can do to make sure everything in your servers is being backed up:

1) First, if they have not been getting a report from the backup system on the files backed up, have them setup the backup system to start reporting to them every time a backup is done. You get a list of the backed up files, and you know you are good;
2) When and if you find that files have been skipped in a backup, have them find out why the files were not backed up, particularly if the files are in the Lien Writer® database;
3) If they have not been backed up, make sure they are backed up by the next check of the server. Often this is as simple as rebooting the server to reset access;
4) Once they have reset the server, next find out why the files were not being backed up. Usually this is because the server believes the files are still being accessed. If the backup system, before the backup is done, can override the user access on the system, have the backup program set that way. If the backup system program cannot do this, there are other ways to setup servers to log all users out at a certain time every day before the backup program runs. Since there are hundreds of different server systems out there we cannot recommend a particular way to do this for everyone. Your tech guys should know or be able to find out a way to do this.

Protecting your data is vital for all programs on your servers. Actively protect them.

A NEW VERSION OF LIEN WRITER® ON OUR WEBSITE
After some two years of quiet on the Mechanic’s Lien front, some 14 states have made some changes to their laws, two major changes. The new 10.1.1.0 version of the program updates:

1) All Required State Updates
2) The following States have major changes. Please read about the updates in the Lien Writer® Help File – GA, ID, IA, KS, KY, LA, MS, NJ, ND, TX, UT and WY.
3) New Rhode Island Preliminary Notice – There is now a required preliminary notice for all Rhode Island jobs. When you do a job in Rhode Island, always send the Notice of Possible Mechanic’s Lien within ten (10) days of starting the job, both public and private works;
4) Nevada Notice of Intent – It’s back! Nevada now again requires a Notice of Intent to Lien or Bond Claim (under Lien Warning Notices) 15 days prior to filing a lien on residential projects. Sending this notice on commercial projects is still optional, but recommended.

As always, it is just as simple. Download and upgrade your program (see below).

Keeping Up To Date With Lien Writer®
The current version on the street is our 10.1.1.0 version.

It is easy to update Lien Writer®:

1) If you are using a Lien Writer® version 9.3.2.7 or before, first run Lien Writer®, then go to Help / About Lien Writer and write down your version number and expiration date for verification;
2) Open your Internet or Google Explorer;
3) Go to our website at http://www.fwmsoftware.com/fwm-software-downloads/;
4) Click on Lien_Program_Installer v10.1.1.0;
5) The site will ask where you want the program to download. Put it in a directory location you want, or just download to the Desktop. Normally, it should take less than 5 minutes;
6) Once the program is downloaded, go to the directory site, or the Desktop, and double click on the Lien_Program_Installer v10.1.1.0. The program will begin installing and updating your data files;
7) If the former program was of the 10.x.x.x series, it will simply update. If your version is of the 9.3.2.7 series or less, it will install but you will need to get a update code. Call (530) 622-1344, or write us at techsupp@fwmsoftware.com to receive your new code;
8) A WARNING ON USING LIEN WRITER® VERSIONS PRIOR TO 10.x.x.x. THESE PROGRAMS ARE OUTMODED AND IN SOME CASES HAVE ILLEGAL AND OUTDATED FORMS. PLEASE UPDATE IMMEDIATELY;
9) Once you update, just use the program as you have always used it