Claim what you are owed, on time, every month.

You did the work. Whether you get paid for it should not turn on how the claim was laid out, or on whether anyone remembered the reference date. Paystruct takes that part off you.

Create an account See how a claim is built

Your first contract is free.

Claims are knocked back on form, not on the work

Almost nothing that goes wrong with a claim is about whether the work was done. It is a date, a description, or the way the document went out the door.

The reference date

Where the contract says when a claim can be made, that mechanism governs. Where it says nothing, the last day of each month in which you carried out work is the usual position. Paystruct works the date out from your contract and puts it on the claim.

One claim for each date

Only one payment claim may be given for a reference date, although a claim can include amounts you have claimed before. Paystruct knows which dates this contract has already used, so a second claim cannot quietly repeat one.

Work they can answer

The claim has to identify the work well enough for the other side to respond to it item by item. Percentage-only lines with no scope behind them are the pattern the courts have treated as not enough. Quantities, units and rates carry through from your schedule.

Six months

A progress claim generally has to be given within six months after the work it relates to was last carried out. Final claims run on longer windows tied to the contract and the defects liability period. Paystruct counts from the dates you record.

When the schedule comes back short, or never comes

The Act puts a clock on the other side as well. Most subcontractors are not paid late because the Act is silent. They are paid late because nobody counted the days.

A payment schedule is due by the earlier of the time your contract allows and 15 business days after the claim is given.
It has to identify your claim, state the amount they propose to pay, and where that is less than you claimed, say why.
Where they are withholding payment, their reasons belong in the schedule. Reasons held back are generally not available to them later in an adjudication response.
If no schedule comes and the claim is not paid by the due date, the Act leaves you routes: the unpaid amount as a debt, or adjudication.
Those routes close quickly, and the periods run in business days, which in Queensland exclude weekends, public holidays and the period from 22 December to 10 January.
Paystruct records the schedule against the claim, counts from the day you served, and shows what is outstanding and what falls due next.

None of that decides your case. What it does is keep the decision yours, taken while the options are still open rather than found out afterwards. See how the dates are counted.

Set the contract up once, then claim

The contract carries the structure: parties, retention, reference dates and the schedule of works. After that, a claim is a period and a set of figures.

Create an account

Set the contract up

Upload it and have the terms read out of it, or enter them yourself: parties, reference dates, retention, permitted service methods and the schedule of works.

Update the month

Quantities or dollars against each item, variations where they have been approved, and retention calculated rather than remembered. The numbers reconcile as you go.

Check it before it goes

Paystruct runs the checks that can be answered from the record, asks you the handful only you can answer, and shows its reasoning instead of a green tick.

Serve it and record it

Export the claim pack, serve it the way your contract permits, then record the date, the method and the proof against the claim.

Retention is money you have already earned

It comes off every claim and it comes back in parts, months or years later. It is the amount most often written off quietly, because by the time it falls due the job is finished and nobody is watching the date.

Held and capped

Cash retention comes off each claim at the contract percentage, up to the cap on the contract sum. Paystruct calculates it on every claim and keeps the running total of what is being held from you.

Released in parts

Usually half at practical completion and the balance at the end of the defects liability period. Both dates come from the contract, so the release becomes a date you are waiting for rather than one you missed.

Guarantees and trusts

Bank guarantees have expiry dates and have to be asked back. Where the retention trust provisions apply, the party holding your cash retention has obligations about how it is held and about telling you. Record the notice when it arrives.

Retention, bank guarantees and insurance bonds sit in one register against the contract. See how security is tracked.

If it turns into a dispute, the file is the case

Adjudication runs on documents and on short timeframes. An adjudicator reads what was served, when it was served, and what came back. Most of the work in an application is rebuilding that from a year of email, and the rebuilding is where the days go. Paystruct keeps it as you go, so the file is already the file.

See what is kept

Every claim as served, with the date, the method and the proof
The payment schedule that came back, and the day it arrived
What was paid, what was short, and what is still outstanding
Variations with their approvals, against the claim that carried them
Retention withheld and released, claim by claim
The compliance check as it stood when the claim went out

Software, not a law firm

Paystruct is built to the Queensland Act and the cases decided under it, and it shows its reasoning rather than asking you to take its word.

Read the guides

It does not give legal advice, and nothing on this site is legal advice. Whether a claim is valid depends on your contract, your facts and the Act, and no software can promise it. There are points where the right move is a lawyer, and Paystruct says so rather than keep you inside the product:

A claim being contested, or a schedule that puts your entitlement in issue
A final claim, where the windows differ and the stakes are the whole job
A contract that has been terminated, or a respondent that looks to be in trouble
Any adjudication, from the application onwards

Getting advice early is usually cheaper than getting it after a window has closed.

Common questions

I am eight claims into the job. Can I still start?

Yes. Set the contract up, then upload the claims you have already served. Paystruct builds the schedule of works and the history from them, so your numbering carries on where it left off and the claimed-to-date figures are right on the next claim.

The head contractor never gives me a payment schedule. What can I do?

A schedule is due by the earlier of the period in your contract and 15 business days after the claim is given. If none comes and the claim is not paid by the due date, the Act leaves you routes: the unpaid amount as a debt, or adjudication. Both have short windows counted in business days. Paystruct counts them and keeps the record. Which route suits your job, and what it will cost you, is a question for a lawyer.

Can I just email the claim?

Serve it the way your contract permits. Email generally depends on the recipient having expressly agreed to it, and documents are safer attached than linked. Paystruct takes the permitted methods from the contract's notice provisions and records the method, the date and the proof against the claim.

Will it tell me my claim is valid?

No, and treat anything that says otherwise with suspicion. Validity depends on your contract, your facts and the Act. Paystruct checks what can be checked from the record, asks you the questions only you can answer, and keeps the evidence of what was served and when.

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