In Mississippi, the law changed so that rental companies can lien for rented equipment.  Accordingly, all of our deadlines for the state were changed to accommodate “Equipment Lessors.”

In Alaska, the lien law changed so that claimants have 120-days from last furnishing labor and/or materials to file a lien.  This is an increase in time from the previous 90-day period.   The database has been changed to properly calculate this period.

Want to stay up to date with Mechanic Lien Law Changes?   Check out our sister-blog, the Construction Lien Blog’s section on Lien Law Updates.

Here is a little clip as to what has been published:

Zlien decided to create a solution, the LienPilot – is a Web-based application that allows contractors or suppliers to enter the state, project type, and important dates, and the technology calculates the notice and lien requirements for the project. The application will display deadlines, as well as send email reminders.

The remainder of the article mentions the Lien Application and how it helps simplify the process of managing mechanic lien deadlines and preliminary notice requirements across the country.

The ConstructTech article closes with this summary, which identifies some real positives to choosing a cloud-computing platform over traditional desktop software:

Overall, cloud computing helps construction companies focus on what they do best–construction–while lessening the burden of deploying and managing IT. In times where cost control is paramount to success, contractors should at least be investigating whether or not such an option would be an ideal fit for their organization.

Most of the web-applications discussed in this article are of the project management sorts.  And these are important to help manage construction projects.

When it comes to getting paid, though, how does your company manage its preliminary notices and notices to owner?   How does your company manage and organize the lien requirements that vary by state?   And how does your staff know when its time to file a mechanic’s lien?

Likely, you’ve been flying by the seat of your pants.   Or, maybe worse, you’ve been working with clunky out-of-date software that is unreliable, and stuck on that ex-employee’s computer for years.

As ConstructTech states in its article, cloud-computing is changing the way construction companies are managed…and for the better.

The LienPilot is a cloud-based application that can help your company manage its receivables, delivery preliminary and notices to owner, and simply Lien Smarter.   Learn how here.

To make the Legal Center even more productive, we’ve partnered with Avvo.com, the world’s largest legal directory, to provide content from construction law attorneys around your project. Still can’t find what you’re looking for? You can ask an attorney from Avvo.com for legal advice…for free!

Take a look:

Chart Specific To Your Project

Aren’t you sick of charts and mechanic lien law digests that show you all the information you could possibly want to know about liens….but nothing about your specific project? The LienPilot’s legal center solves this problem. It learns about your project, and displays only the relevant info. Starting with this chart.

The chart displays the Mechanic Lien Law and Preliminary Notice Requirements relevant to your project in an easy-to-read chart.

Free Forms

Underneath the chart in your project’s legal center are Mechanic Lien, Notice, Release and Lien Waiver forms that are applicable to your project (again, only stuff that applies to your project). Download them with the click of a button, or don’t – they’ll always be there.

Ask A Lawyer For Free Legal Advice

Our Legal Center is not designed to be a substitute for good legal advice. The Legal Center is providing you with information about mechanic lien laws in the project’s area, but you may still have some questions. Well, through our partnership with Avvo.com, you can ask for legal advice from construction attorneys in your state. The legal advice is absolutely free of charge, and you can ask your legal questions from right within our Legal Center.

Find Construction Attorneys Near Your Project

Is it time to raise the stakes and hire an attorney to collect your debt, or resolve your dispute? Well, the Legal Center displays to you the Top 10 Construction Attorneys near the construction project. The rankings are provided by Avvo. The Legal Center helps you hire great construction attorneys who are familiar with the laws and procedures near your project.

Deadline Explanations

The Legal Center also provides you with a list of deadlines calculated for your project, and explanations for each.

There’s More!

There’s even more to our Legal Center – we just couldn’t fit it all here. Sign up for Free to get a Legal Center for your project, and Lien Smarter.

No-Nonsense Navigation

We’re building a web application that your business can use to calculate and manage the Mechanic Lien and Preliminary Notice requirements across the United States. The first order of business should be a navigation system that is productive and intuitive. Check out #1 in the above-image, and our new Main Navigation Bar. From any screen you can easily switch from one project to another by selecting it from the drop down, or access system-wide settings and information. Want to go back to the home screen? Just click on the LienPilot logo.

Get Help

Every page has these two icons: The Help Chat and the Help Video. Click on the video link to see a video tutorial on how to use the features of that particular page. Click the chat icon to chat with someone from the Zlien team anytime during business hours. If it’s after business hours, leave a message and someone will get right back to you.

Project Nicknames

Perhaps this was the most requested feature from users. Sorry it took so long, but we finally delivered. You can nickname any project by clicking on the “Set a Nickname For This Project” link. Wherever the project is displayed in the Pilot, this nickname will appear.

Deadline Notification Improvements

Our deadline notifier is already an industry leader, notifying you of upcoming deadlines via email, by allowing you to download the deadlines into your calendar, or by letting you subscribe via RSS Feed. The new deadline calculator screen makes it easier than ever to read the deadlines, it allows you to dismiss deadlines…and, for the biggest improvement, allows you to order any notice or lien document due with just one-click.

Click on the “Order This Document Now” link, and you’ll be sent straight to the Lien Wizard’s check out after confirming the order information.

In-Project Navigation

Previously, everything about your project was crammed on one page. We’ve created in-page navigation with tabs, so you can get a clear and clean picture of what’s going on with your project. Only look at the information you want to see. Our next blog post will highlight our new Legal Center tab – one of the more robust improvements we’ve launched.

More Improvements Planned…

We’re excited to hear your feedback about the new look. We consider this to be the start of many improvements. We’re currently designing an easier way for you to get help when you need it and we’re also working on a number of performance improvements to make the LienPilot even faster.

Let us know what you think!

Not already using the LienPilot to manage the LienLaws across the country and manage your company’s deadlines and notice requirements?   Sign Up Now — It’s Free.

LienPilot3 is loaded with new features and improvements, including:

•  Completely redesigned interface that’s easier to use and more productive.

•  Launch of Legal Center.  This page features the lien and notice requirements applicable to your project, based on the project criteria you entered.   This gives the user great information about the lien laws..but only the information relevant to that project.   Through a API Partnership with Avvo.com, we also provide the Top 10 Construction Attorneys near the project, help materials written by construction attorneys near the project, and a place where users can ask construction attorneys for legal advice…free.

•  Previously, all projects were referred to by the address.  Users can now provide nicknames for their projects.

•  One-Click Ordering of Due Documents.    We’ve significantly enhanced the ease of ordering liens, notices, releases, bond claims and more that are due on your project.   Now, next to every deadline is an “Order This Document” link.   Click on that link to quickly confirm your information and place the order.

•  In-frame calculation of deadlines.   Previously, the page re-loaded when adding deadlines.   Now, the deadlines are calculated immediately after the date is associated with the project.

•  Help Tutorial Videos accessible within the LienPilot, offering web help for each page.

•  Enhanced Login page, that offers ever better security encryption

Like what you see?  Don’t like it?   Leave your comments and let us know what you think of the re-design.

The Lien Pilot is not new – it’s been developed for over three years by Zlien, the company behind the application.   However, the application has always been bundled with the Zlien document filing service and never offered as a stand alone product.   So while those using Zlien to file preliminary notices and mechnaics liens had one awesome lien deadline manager…the rest of the world really didn’t.

That’s all changing.

We’re launching the Lien Pilot as a stand-alone product, so anyone with an Internet connection can sign up and manage their preliminary notice and mechanic lien requirements.    Coupled with this launch comes a complete overhaul of the Lien Pilot’s interface, including a new “Legal Center,” which brings to our users in-depth content about construction law attorneys and mechanic lien laws (all powered by our API partnership with Avvo.com).

Let’s not forget the launch of this new blog, which will focus on Mechanic Lien / Preliminary Notice compliance tools, web-based applications for contractors, and the continued development of our product.

Thank you for visiting the site.   Subscribe to our RSS Feed, and get ready to be blown away by the web’s most progressive, and most comprehensive, mechanic lien manager.