California lien & preliminary notice tools
Free, no-signup tools to help California subcontractors, suppliers, and small construction businesses protect their payment rights. Every result is grounded in the California Civil Code, with the statute cited so you can verify it yourself.
20-day preliminary notice deadline calculator
Enter the date you first furnished labor or materials and see your statutory deadline, days remaining, and what lien rights are at risk if you serve late.
Calculate my deadlineDid I already lose my lien rights?
A quick diagnostic for when you think you missed a deadline: see what's still protected, what may be gone, and what to do right now.
Check my lien rightsDo I need a preliminary notice?
Four quick questions to find out whether you need to send a California 20-day notice to protect your payment, and exactly what to do next.
Take the quizUnpaid invoice? Get your next move
Enter a past-due construction invoice and get the right escalation path, reminder, demand letter (drafted for you), preliminary notice, or lien, mapped to California's deadlines.
Get my action planBulk CSLB license checker
Paste a list of subcontractor or vendor license numbers and check license status, bond, and workers' comp for all of them at once. Export to CSV or a due-diligence PDF.
Check a list“License Verified” badge
Look up your CSLB license and copy a free, embeddable badge for your website that links to your public Prelien compliance profile.
Generate my badgeStart a notice by contractor name
Search the contractor you're owed money by and start a 20-day preliminary notice with their license and address auto-filled.
Find a contractorProof of service declaration
Generate a California proof of service declaration (Civil Code §§8100–8118) for a preliminary notice, ready to print and sign and keep with your records.
Generate the declarationCounty compliance snapshot
Neutral aggregate stats for any California county and trade: bonding rate, workers' comp posture, and license tenure, from public CSLB records.
View the snapshotLien rights calendar (.ics)
Enter your first day on the job and download your day-15, day-18, and day-20 preliminary notice deadlines (plus your lien window) to Google, Apple, or Outlook.
Build my calendarTurn an invoice into a notice
Paste your construction invoice and we extract the parties, job address, amount, and dates, then draft your preliminary notice from it.
Extract from an invoiceBuild a sub bid list
Search the directory and build a bid list of subs and vendors with live license, bond, and workers' comp flags on each. Export to CSV or PDF.
Build a bid listEmbeddable lookup widget
Add a free CSLB contractor lookup box to your own website with one iframe line. Maintained by Prelien, sourced from public records.
Get the embed codeCounty compliance heatmap
Visualize compliance across a county's cities: bubbles sized by licensee count and colored by bonding, workers' comp, tenure, or a documentation index.
View the heatmapDocumentation index by city
A per-city Documentation Index (0–100) scoring how completely each city's contractors document bond, workers' comp, and tenure. Aggregate only.
Build the indexClaim or correct your profile
California contractors: claim your Prelien profile or submit a correction to how your public CSLB record is displayed. Free, goes to a review queue.
Claim your profileThese tools provide general scheduling information based on the California Civil Code and are self-service aids, not a substitute for an attorney. Verify critical deadlines with qualified counsel.