A payment schedule is your answer to a claim served on you. What the law requires of it, and what happens if you do not serve one in time, is in responding to a payment claim. This page covers doing it here.
Issuing a schedule serves it. When you issue, the platform generates the schedule document and emails it to the subcontractor in the same step. There is no separate send.
Starting a schedule
From the Schedule queue, choose Prepare schedule on the claim. The claim you are answering has to be recorded first. The page shows how long is left before the deadline.
Assessing each line
The schedule is a grid of the lines they claimed, with these columns:
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Claimed, Claimed retention | What they claimed on the line, as recorded. |
| Accepted this period | What you accept for the line. |
| Less retention withheld | The retention you withhold from what you accepted. |
| Reject | Rejects the line outright. |
| Reason | Why, wherever the line is not accepted as claimed. |
A reason is required on any line that is:
- rejected;
- accepted at anything other than the amount claimed; or
- withholding different retention from what the claim shows.
Retention withheld can never exceed the accepted value on its line.
Beneath the grid are the totals: Accepted this period, Less retention withheld and the Scheduled amount (excl. GST), which is what you propose to pay. There is also an optional Reasons summary for anything that belongs to the schedule as a whole rather than to one line.
Draft, review, issue
- Save draft keeps your work without checking reasons. The schedule shows as Draft.
- Review checks every line that needs a reason has one, and moves the schedule to Awaiting issue so you can read it through. Back to draft returns you to editing.
- Issue schedule issues and serves it.
⚠️ A draft does not answer the claim. The claim stays in the schedule queue and the deadline keeps running until the schedule is issued.
If you issue after the deadline has passed, you are asked to confirm that you understand the schedule is late before it goes.
What issuing does
- The schedule document is generated from your figures and reasons. It states the figures excluding GST, and lists the elements the act requires of a payment schedule. It does not certify that your schedule meets them: the content is yours.
- It is emailed to the subcontractor, as a PDF attachment, from your company's name. It goes to the contacts on the contract who hold the Claims role, or to every active contact on their side if none does. Their Project Manager and Accounts contacts are copied, and so are the addresses your company copies on everything it serves (Settings → Copy your team on claims and schedules). The email states the claimed, accepted and retention figures, and the scheduled amount, all excluding GST. A reply goes to your company's reply-to address. If your company has none set, it goes to whoever issued the schedule, so that person's email address is visible to the subcontractor.
- The schedule is Issued, and the claim leaves the schedule queue. An issued schedule cannot be edited.
Check the subcontractor's contacts on the contract before you issue. The platform sends to whoever is recorded there, and it cannot tell whether that person is the right one to serve.
When the platform will not issue
- The contract is set to manual service. Issuing is refused if the contract's email service setting is off, exactly as serving a claim is. Either turn email service on for the contract, if the contract allows service by email, or serve the schedule outside the platform.
- The subcontractor has no active contact on the contract. Add one, then issue.
- The contract is not under the Western Australian act. Issuing is available for Western Australian contracts only for now, because the document states what the act requires and that has been settled only for Western Australia. On any other contract you can record the claim and prepare a draft, but you will need to serve the schedule outside the platform.
- The head contractor features have been switched off for your organization. Nothing already recorded is lost, but a new schedule cannot be issued.
In every one of these cases the deadline still runs. Serve the schedule another way rather than waiting.
What the platform does not do yet
- There is no re-send. A schedule is served once, when it is issued.
- Delivery is not reported back to you. If the email bounces, nothing on the claim tells you.
- The time it was sent is recorded but not yet shown.
- Your company's reply-to address cannot be changed in settings yet. It can only be given when you first sign up, for your first company. Until you can set one, replies go to whoever issued the schedule.
Until those arrive, keep your own evidence of service. Asking the subcontractor to confirm receipt is the simplest way.
Who can do this
Owners, admins and members can prepare and issue a schedule. paymentclaims.ai staff cannot issue one on your behalf, including when they are helping set your account up.