Sending a claim
- Dates and contents
Claim deadline checker
When the payment schedule and payment are due, for the claim you sent or received, with working days, your anniversary day and the Christmas break. Calendar file, timeline and register row.
Check your dates - Word and PDF
Payment claim builder
A short form that produces a payment claim with Form 1 attached. It won't download until the section 20 contents are there.
Build a claim - Retentions
Retention calculator
Retention held to date and on this claim, using your contract's rates and cap, and when the next retention report is due.
Work it out
Receiving a claim
- For payers
Received-claim check
What a claim you received contains, against section 20 and Form 1, and what the Act requires of you next.
Check a claim - Word and PDF
Payment schedule builder
Answer a claim with a payment schedule. It won't download until the section 21 contents are there.
Build a schedule - Official registers
Check who you're working for
Open the Companies Register or the NZBN register for a company, and know what to look for.
Check a company
The project team, linked
One project file carries the information from site to payment: every tool loads it, adds to it and saves it back. How it all links.
- Engineers and QS
Progress measurement sheet
Contract quantities and rates, quantities measured to date, % complete and value to date, as claim lines for the claim builder.
Measure progress - Everyone
Project file
The site diary, variations, RFIs, orders, transmittals, schedules, payments and retention, each with an ID, on your device.
Start a project file - Daily, weekly, monthly
Reports
From the site daily report to the client's monthly summary, each row with its record's ID, and the gaps listed at the end.
Make a report - Estimators
Tender tracker
Your tenders, the pipeline and win rate, deadlines to your calendar, and a won tender started as a project with its items.
Track tenders - Lost a tender?
Ask for your debrief
A letter asking the buyer why your bid lost, how it scored and where your price ranked, ready to send.
Write the letter - Pick what you need
Build your project
Tick the roles and tools: a starter project file, a workbook with just those sheets, and the monthly plan for the online team version (early access).
Build it
Project controls
- Planners
Working-day calculator
Add or count working days as section 5 defines them, with the right Christmas period for the section, 2025 to 2035.
Count the days - P6, MS Project, calendar
Statutory timeline
A claim's chain of dates, from service to the 5 working days after a suspension notice, as CSV (ID, Name, Start, Finish) and .ics.
Make a timeline - By role
For the whole project team
Which tool fits each role, from site manager and engineer to cost controller and the client's representative, and how the files fit your systems.
See by role
Guides
Plain English, with the section of the Act under every statement. Information, not legal advice.
- Guide
How to make a payment claim that can't be knocked back on the paperwork
The six things section 20 requires, Form 1, the due date, and serving the claim.
Read the guide - Guide for payers
Received a payment claim: what the Act requires of you
The payment schedule, the time, not paying, and suspension of work: sections 21 to 24A.
Read the guide - Guide
What happens when they don't send a payment schedule
What the Act provides when a claim isn't answered in time, and the payee's options.
Read the guide - Guide
Retention money: what the head contractor must do with it
Trust, bank account, reports, use, release and penalties, including the 2023 changes.
Read the guide - Guide
Adjudication: what it is, what it costs, when it's worth it
The steps and time limits, who pays the adjudicator, and how a decision is enforced.
Read the guide
Free templates
Word and Excel. Example rows are made up and marked as such. Check each one against your contract before you use it.
- Payment claim with Form 1 attachedThe section 20 contents set out, and Form 1 word for word. The Excel version works out the claim from a schedule.
- Claims registerEvery claim, sent and received: claimed, scheduled, paid, variance, retention, variations approved and pending, due dates and status. Formulas throughout, with a summary.
- Variations registerOne row per variation and revision: submitted, approved, quoted, approved value and claimed to date, with totals.
- Retention tracker and retention reportRetention held claim by claim, the 3-monthly report log, and a report letter with the section 18FD contents.
- Project workbookItems, Measurement, Claim lines, Claims, Schedules, Payments, Retention, Variations, RFIs, Procurement, Transmittals and Diary index, joined by IDs with formulas, and a summary. Each tool's CSV pastes into its sheet.
- Progress measurement sheetContract quantities and rates, measurements, % complete and value to date, and the claim lines. Formulas throughout.
- Site diaryWeather, labour, plant, work done by item and area, delays and causes, instructions, visitors and photos, with item and diary IDs.
- Variation notice and RFI registerA notice that carries its variation ID, and a register of RFIs and technical queries linked to the variations they lead to.
- Procurement and subcontract registerOrders and subcontracts: committed, claimed, paid and retention held, by order ID, matched to the claims register.
- Document transmittal registerWhat was issued to whom, when and how, against the claim, schedule, variation or RFI it relates to.
- Tender trackerSource and reference, client, scope, value, closing dates, bid or no bid, result, the winner's price and lessons, with the pipeline and win rate as formulas.
- Sample project fileA made-up project to load into any tool and see how it all links.
Want it checked by us?
Check before you send $195, an Unpaid claim pack $295, or a Schedule Check $195 for a payment schedule (plus GST if applicable). Invoiced after delivery, due on the 20th of the month after the invoice.