How progress claims work

A progress claim is how you get paid during a job rather than at the end of it. You claim for the work completed to date, the client pays, and you do it again next stage.

What a claim is made against

Two things, and your contract decides which:

Contract stages — deposit, base, frame, lock-up, fixing, completion. Each is a fixed percentage of the contract sum, and you claim a stage when you reach it. This is how most domestic building contracts work.

Percentage complete — you assess how far through the work you are and claim that share. More common on commercial work and cost-plus arrangements.

Either way, the claim is a percentage of the contract sum — which is why contract stages and the contract price on the project both have to be set up before claims mean anything.

The life of a claim

1. Reach a stage, or assess progress.
2. Raise the claim against that stage.
3. Include any approved variations.
4. Issue it to the client with your invoice number and payment details.
5. Record acceptance and payment.

Claim promptly

Claims are the difference between a profitable job and a profitable job that bankrupts you. The work is done and paid for by you — materials, subcontractors, wages — before the client pays for any of it. Every week a claim sits unraised is a week you are financing the client.

Raise the claim the day you reach the stage

Not the end of the month, not when you get around to the paperwork. Most domestic contracts give the client a set number of days to pay from the claim date, so a claim raised nine days late is paid nine days late, and you carried the money in between.

What a claim needs before it will work

Needs	Where it comes from	If missing
Contract price	Project Info	Claim values come out as zero
Contract stages	Edit Stage on the project	Nothing to claim against
Client details	Project Info	Claim goes to the wrong place
Bank account	Set on the claim	Client cannot pay you
Approved variations	Variations module	You under-claim

The first two are the usual cause of a claim that will not produce a sensible number. Check them before assuming something is broken.

Claims and variations

Approved variations change the contract sum, and so change what every remaining stage is worth. Unapproved variations cannot be claimed at all.

This is the practical reason to chase variation approvals — see Including variations.

In this section

• Raising a claim
• Claiming by percentage complete
• Including variations
• Issuing a claim
• Tracking payment