Issuing a claim

A claim only starts the payment clock once it is properly issued. Getting the details right is the difference between being paid in fourteen days and having the claim bounced back on a technicality.

Invoice number

Invoice number is your accounting reference for the claim.

Whatever convention you use, keep it consistent and traceable back to the job — many builders use the job code plus the claim number, so 2026-041-03 is the third claim on the Hendricks job. Your bookkeeper will thank you, and so will you when a client pays an amount that matches nothing obvious.

Bank account details

Bank Account and Bank account detail print the payment details on the claim.

Set it and check the first claim you issue carries the right numbers. This is the classic field that is quietly wrong for months — the symptom is a client insisting they paid while your account shows nothing.

Verify bank details on the document, not just in the field

Look at the produced claim before the first one goes out, and confirm the account number as printed. Payment redirection fraud targets exactly this document, so it is worth your client knowing that your details never change mid-job.

Producing the document

The PDF tab builds the claim document. Generate PDF the first time, Regenerate PDF whenever the claim changes, and the result appears in the viewer with Open in a new tab beside it.

The PDF is built from what is saved. If you have edited the note and not saved it, the Notes tab says Unsaved changes — save it before you generate, or the document prints the previous wording.

An approved claim can still be regenerated. Re-printing what the client was sent is exactly what an approved claim is for.

Sending

SmarteBuild does not email the claim for you. Download or open the PDF and send it from your own email, which is also what lets you write the covering note below and attach the variations schedule with it.

The claim does appear on the client’s portal, under Claims, so they can find it later without going back through their email. That removes the most common administrative call on a job — “can you send me that claim again?” See Client portal.

Check who you are sending to — on a couple, send to both; on a company, the accounts address as well as the contact.

Where a lender or a superintendent has to certify the claim, they go on the distribution too. A claim that reaches the client but not their bank does not get paid.

The covering email

Hi Andrew and Jane,

Attached is progress claim 3, for the frame stage, which was completed on Wednesday and inspected Thursday.

Claim: $33,207.00 including GST Total claimed to date: $66,414.00 of the $221,380.00 contract Payment due: 14 days from today

Also attached is the variations schedule to date. Please let me know if anything needs clarifying.

It states the stage, the amount, the running total and the due date. A client who has that does not need to ring, and their lender has what it needs to release funds.

What to check before it goes

1. The stage is genuinely complete, and inspected if the contract requires it.
2. The contract price includes every approved variation.
3. The claim number follows the last one.
4. Approved variations are included, and credits as well as additions.
5. The bank details are correct on the produced document.
6. The total claimed to date matches your records.

Sixty seconds, and it avoids the most common reasons a claim is rejected.

Attachments worth sending

• The variations schedule to date — see Including variations.
• Any inspection certificate the stage required.
• Photographs, where the stage is not otherwise evidenced.

The photographs matter more than they sound on jobs where the client is not local. A frame-stage claim with four photographs of the frame is paid faster than one without.

If a claim is disputed

Deal with it in writing and quickly. Most contracts have a defined period for the client to respond to a claim, and both of you are better off with the disagreement recorded inside that window.

Do not reissue a claim under the same number. Withdraw it, resolve the dispute, and issue the next number referencing what it replaces.