Subcontractor claims
Pages: a job's Job Costs page, Subcontractor Claims tab · the subcontractor's portal link
A subcontractor's payment claim is their bill for work done under their engagement in a period. Under the Security of Payment Acts, a builder who receives one must answer with a payment schedule — what you will pay and why it differs, if it does — within a statutory window. Miss the window and the full claimed amount becomes payable, whatever the work was worth. Base tracks that clock on every claim, lets you certify what the work is worth, issues the payment schedule as a document, and carries the certified amount to the job's costs and the next payment run.
- The subcontractor is engaged on the job with a contract amount and retention percentage (the job's Subcontractors tab). The tab says so if there are no engagements yet.
- The response window is set on Settings → Finance → Payment terms, under Answer subbie claims within. The default is ten business days. Where Base holds a verified rule for the job's jurisdiction, the tab names the Act and counts its days instead.
- The subcontractor has bank details on their record in Contacts if you intend to pay them through a payment run.
A claim arrives one of three ways, and the tab marks each: Lodged via portal, From email, or Entered by builder.
- The subcontractor lodges it from their portal link: the amount claimed ex GST, the period ending, a note.
- You type it in: press Enter claim, pick the Subcontractor engagement, enter the Claimed (ex GST) amount, the Period ending and a note, and press Record claim.
The moment a claim exists, its Schedule due date is set and the days left count down on the row. With the claim-assessment automation turned on, the assistant also opens a task proposing what to certify and why.
Certifying assesses the claim. The subcontractor is not told until you issue the payment schedule.
- Press Certify on a received or disputed claim.
- Enter Certify (ex GST); it defaults to what was claimed. If it differs, a Reason for difference is required.
- Press Certify. Retention is held at the engagement's percentage on the certified amount, capped against the engagement contract; the Net payable is shown; and an approved cost entry for the full certified amount is written on the job.
This is the statutory response. Press Issue schedule on a received, disputed or certified claim.
- The Scheduled (ex GST) amount defaults to the claimed amount, or the certified amount on a certified claim (re-certify first if it should change).
- If the scheduled amount is less than the claim, Reasons are required — the Act requires them on the schedule. A $0 schedule disputes the claim with the reasons given.
- Choose the Delivery: email the PDF, portal only, posted, or handed over.
- Press Issue payment schedule. On a received or disputed claim this certifies it at the scheduled amount in the same step. The PDF lands on the job's documents, goes to the subcontractor's primary contact when you chose email, and the row reads Schedule issued with the date. The decision is recorded on Money → Decide with your name on it. If the amount is over your approval limit, it is not issued; it waits on Decide for someone whose limit covers it.
Press Dispute on a received claim and say Why. The claim is marked disputed. A dispute is not a payment schedule: the clock keeps running until a schedule is issued, and the row keeps counting down.
A certified claim appears as a candidate on the next payment run; marking the run paid marks the claim paid. If you paid by hand, press Mark paid on the row. The claim and its cost entry are stamped paid.
Above the claims, one strip per engagement with retention shows Retention held $X of $Y withheld to date and what can be released now.
- Release PC $X cuts the practical-completion release once practical completion is declared on the job.
- Release final $X cuts the rest once the defects liability period has ended. If defects are still open, Base asks why the final retention goes out anyway; a reason of five characters or more is required.
- Each release is a claim of its own — Retention release (PC) or Retention release (final) — certified, scheduled and paid like any other. A release writes no cost entry: the cost went on when the retention was held.
- The clock starts when the claim is received. Past the due date with no schedule issued, the row turns red and a banner says how many claims are past the deadline and that each is payable in full.
- Certifying writes the approved cost entry and refreshes the job's cost figures.
- Marking a payment run paid marks every claim on it paid, with its cost entry.
- Paying a retention release moves the engagement's held retention.
- With the assessment automation turned on, the assistant reads the engagement, the purchase orders and site progress and proposes a certified amount with reasons. It proposes; it never certifies.
- Certifying is not answering. The subcontractor hears nothing until you issue the payment schedule, and only the schedule stops the clock. A certified claim with no schedule says no schedule issued on its row.
- Disputing does not stop the clock either. Issue a $0 schedule with reasons if you are refusing the claim.
- Business days exclude weekends but not public holidays unless the jurisdiction's rule says otherwise. Treat a deadline that lands on a holiday as the day before.
- The claim's amount is ex GST and before retention. What you pay is the certified amount less retention, plus GST.
- Retention on the subcontractor's side is separate from the retention your client holds on you.