Security of Payment: Schedules Drafted Before the Deadline
Every Progress Claim Answered With a Reasoned Schedule Before the Window Closes
Under Australia's security of payment laws, a respondent who receives a payment claim has a fixed number of business days to serve a payment schedule. Miss it and you can owe the full amount claimed. In NSW the limit is 10 business days. In Queensland it is 15, and in both states a contract can set a shorter period.
The deadline is usually lost in the work between receipt and sign-off: reading the claim, matching it to the contract sum, previous claims, approved variations and the schedule of rates, then getting a schedule with reasons drafted and signed. An extraction and matching step can do the reading and matching as each claim arrives. It drafts the schedule for a contracts administrator to approve, so every claim is logged on the day it lands and nothing is served without a person's sign-off.
This guide is for the contracts administrator, commercial manager or finance manager at the head office of a contractor or subcontractor. Claims arrive every month, across many projects, by email to site inboxes and shared mailboxes. The trigger is usually a backlog the business can see: claims waiting for assessment while the business-day count runs.
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How Many Business Days You Have to Serve a Payment Schedule
Each state and territory has its own security of payment Act, and the timeframes differ. The two below are confirmed from official sources. If you work in Victoria, Western Australia or elsewhere, check that state's Act and regulator before relying on these numbers.
In NSW, the Security of Payment Guide from NSW Fair Trading (2021) sets out the rules under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW). A respondent must provide a payment schedule within the time in the contract or within 10 business days after the claim is served, whichever is earlier. If it does not, the guide states that it is liable to pay the amount requested in the payment claim. The NSW Government's security of payment page cites section 14(4) for the same limit.
In Queensland, the QBCC's guidance on responding to a payment request (2021) covers the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017. If you will not pay the full amount claimed, you must give a payment schedule within 15 business days after you are given the claim, or earlier if the contract says so. The QBCC states it is an offence not to pay the full amount by the due date, with a penalty of up to 100 penalty units.
Payment schedule rules in NSW and Queensland
| Metric | NSW (SOP Act 1999) | Queensland (BIF Act 2017) | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to serve a payment schedule | 10 business days after the claim is served, or earlier under the contract | 15 business days after the claim is given, or earlier under the contract | The contract period wins when it is shorter |
| If no schedule is served in time | Liable to pay the amount claimed (NSW Fair Trading) | Offence not to pay the full amount by the due date, up to 100 penalty units (QBCC) | A missed day costs the whole claim |
| What the schedule must contain | The claim it answers, the scheduled amount, why it is less, reasons for withholding | The claim it answers, the amount to be paid, all reasons for paying less or withholding | Reasons are written, line by line |
| Claim frequency | One payment claim per month under each contract, or earlier if the contract allows | Check the contract and the Act | A monthly peak at every head office |
| Head contractor claims | Must attach a supporting statement | Check the Act and contract | Missing statements flagged on arrival |
Two dates sit behind the schedule. In NSW, the guide says a progress payment to a subcontractor is due 20 business days after the claim is served, and a head contractor's claim on a principal is due after 15 business days, unless the contract sets an earlier date. The schedule deadline comes first, and it is the one that carries the full-claim exposure.
Where the Business Days Actually Go
The clock starts when the claim is served, which is often the day it reaches an inbox nobody at head office watches. A claim emailed to a site engineer on Monday may reach the contracts administrator on Thursday. Three of the ten NSW business days are gone before anyone has read it.
Then the reading starts. A typical claim is a PDF or spreadsheet with dozens of lines, each needing a match against something held elsewhere:
- The contract sum and the schedule of rates or trade breakdown.
- Every previous claim and what was certified or paid against each line.
- Variations: which are approved, which are pending, which were never instructed.
- The site team's view of work actually completed this period.
That information lives in different places. The contract sits in Aconex or a document register. Prior claims sit in Procore, Jobpac, Viewpoint or a cost report spreadsheet, and approved variations may only exist in an email chain. When the same person handles claims for eight projects in the last week of the month, the backlog is predictable.
The drafting step adds its own delay. A schedule that pays less than claimed needs reasons, and the QBCC says it must state all of them. A contracts administrator writing "work not complete" against forty lines, with references, is slow work done under a deadline. Our guide to AI in Australian construction documentation covers the wider document load that sits around it.
Claims Read and Matched the Day They Arrive
The fix is to start the matching when the claim lands, before anyone opens it. An extraction step reads each claim, logs the date it was received and starts the business-day count. A matching step lines every claim item up against the contract and prior claims, and the result is a draft for a person to approve.
How a progress claim becomes an approved payment schedule
The matching sorts each line into one of a few buckets and leaves the payment decision to a person. The reviewer spends their time on the lines that disagree.
What happens to each claim line
Each draft carries its working. The reviewer sees the claimed figure, the contract figure, the previous cumulative amount and the source document for each line. A missing NSW supporting statement from a head contractor is flagged on arrival, so it is raised before the schedule goes out.
The data has to come from where it already lives. That usually means connecting a claims mailbox, the document register and the cost system so the matching step can read them. Our system integration work covers that part, whether the source is Procore, Jobpac, Dynamics 365 Business Central or a shared drive of spreadsheets.
A Register That Shows Which Claim Is Closest to Its Deadline
Once every claim is logged on arrival, head office can see the whole month at once. A simple register shows each open claim, its project, the date served, the contract period and the business days left. That is the view a commercial manager needs in the last week of the month.
The same register feeds reporting. Claimed against certified by project, variation exposure and schedules served by day of the window can sit beside cost and progress. Our guide to construction project reporting in Power BI shows how that reporting layer is usually structured.
What head office gets from the matching step
Nothing Served Without a Person's Sign-Off
A wrong schedule is a legal document with your business's name on it, so the safety mechanism matters more than the model. The approach runs in three phases, each fixed price with an exit point where you can proceed, pause or stop and keep what was delivered.
From first claim to approved schedules
In shadow mode, the drafts are compared with what your team actually served. You set the accuracy threshold in Phase 1, and the drafts only reach a reviewer once they meet it. Even then, the system never serves a schedule on its own.
It runs inside your own Microsoft 365, Azure or AWS environment in an Australian region. Contract documents and claim data stay in your tenant, and the model is not trained on them. Code and credentials are handed to your IT team at the end of Phase 3.
The approach comes from operational reporting work. The lead on every engagement spent 18 years on operations and data systems for BHP, Rio Tinto and Senex Energy, gained while working with previous consulting employers. These companies are not Solve8 clients. Solve8's own client work includes carbon reporting in Power BI for a Tier 1 infrastructure contractor. More on construction work is on our construction solutions page.
Know Which Claims Are at Risk This Month
If claims across your projects are assessed by hand and the deadline is tracked in someone's calendar, the claims register is the place to start. Bring a recent month of payment claims and the schedules you served. You will leave with a straight answer on where the business days go and whether a matching step is worth piloting.
Book a 30-minute scoping call. The work runs as a process automation engagement.
Common Questions
How many business days do you have to serve a payment schedule in NSW?
Under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW), a payment schedule is due within the time set by the contract or 10 business days after the claim is served, whichever is earlier. NSW Fair Trading's guide states that a respondent who misses it is liable to pay the amount claimed.
How many business days do you have in Queensland under the BIF Act?
The QBCC says that if you will not pay the full amount claimed, you must give a payment schedule within 15 business days after you are given the payment claim, or earlier if the contract sets a shorter period. Not paying the full amount by the due date without one is an offence.
What must a payment schedule contain?
It must identify the payment claim it answers and state the amount you propose to pay. If that is less than the amount claimed, it must give the reasons, including reasons for withholding. The QBCC says a Queensland schedule must state all reasons for paying less or withholding payment.
Can AI decide how much to pay on a progress claim?
It should not. The matching step reads the claim, compares each line with the contract, prior claims and approved variations, and drafts a schedule with reasons. A contracts administrator reviews, edits and approves every schedule before it is served, and the business keeps that decision.
Which systems can the claim matching read from?
It works from the systems you already run, as long as the data can be reached by API, database or export. Common sources are a claims mailbox, Aconex or another document register, Procore, Jobpac or Viewpoint, Dynamics 365 Business Central, and cost report spreadsheets.
Do security of payment timeframes differ in other states?
Yes. Each state and territory has its own Act, with its own timeframes and content rules. This guide confirms the NSW and Queensland periods from NSW Fair Trading and the QBCC. Check your own state's Act and regulator, and your contract, which may set a shorter period.
Related Reading
- AI in Australian Construction - The wider document load in project management and site administration, where claims are one stream of many.
- Construction Project Reporting in Power BI - How cost, progress and claim data come together in one report across projects.
- Automated Invoice Processing in Business Central - The same read, match and approve pattern applied to supplier invoices.
- AI for Payment Times Reporting Compliance - Another payment obligation with a reporting deadline, built on the same invoice and payment data.
Sources: NSW Fair Trading, Security of Payment Guide (February 2021, file updated July 2025); NSW Government, "About Security of Payment for construction contractors" (accessed October 2026); Queensland Building and Construction Commission, "Respond to payment request" (last reviewed August 2021).