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Insight · Getting paid

An application for payment
that does not come back rejected.

Four reasons account for most rejections, and none of them is the price. What the document has to contain, what has to sit behind it, and the date that matters more than the total.

Published ·Updated ·5 min read·Written by

Technical drawings and tools on a workbench

An application for payment states the sum claimed for a valuation period and the basis on which it is calculated, supported by measure, instructions and records. Where the contract provides for it, a properly made application can stand as the payment notice, which makes the sum in it the notified sum the payer has to serve a valid pay less notice to reduce.

It is not an invoice, and the difference is the whole article

An invoice says you owe me this. An application says this is what has been built, here is what it is worth under the contract rates, and here is the evidence.

That distinction has a statutory consequence. Under the Construction Act, the notified sum for a payment cycle is the figure in whichever payment notice validly stands. Normally that is the payer's notice. But where the payer fails to give one, section 110B allows the payee's notice to take its place, and where the contract provides for the payee to make an application, that application can be the notice.

So a well-made application is not a request that somebody may or may not grant. It is the document that sets the number the other side must actively knock down, in writing, before a deadline. A badly made one is a request. The difference costs nothing to close and it is worth a great deal.

Firms rewrite their application every month and never once read the clause that says what an application has to be. That clause is where the money is.

What it has to contain

Six things, and the order matters less than the completeness.

  1. The reference and the period. Application number, the valuation period it covers, and the date it is made. The date drives every subsequent deadline, so it is not administrative.
  2. The sum claimed, and how it was reached. Not a total. The build-up: measured work against contract rates, variations valued separately, materials on site if the contract allows them, less previous payments, less retention. The statutory language is the sum and the basis on which it is calculated, and a total with no basis fails that test.
  3. Measured quantities that somebody can check. Cumulative to date and this period, against the rate. Where the work was quoted through a priced schedule, the application should be measured against those same sections rather than re-described.
  4. Variations, itemised with their instruction reference. Each one separately, with the date and source of the instruction, not folded into a general uplift.
  5. Retention shown, not netted silently. The percentage, the sum this period and the cumulative figure held. A retention figure that only appears as a smaller total is a figure nobody is tracking.
  6. The supporting pack. Signed dayworks, delivery notes, timesheets, site records, photographs where they evidence progress. This is the half most applications are missing and the half that decides whether it is argued.

The four reasons applications come back

In our experience the reasons cluster, and none of them is the price.

  • It was late against the contract dates. An application submitted after the period the contract allows can be treated as belonging to the next cycle, which moves your money a month and hands the payer a clean answer that has nothing to do with your work.
  • The measure is unsupported. A quantity with no record behind it invites a lower quantity from the other side, and the argument is then between two assertions rather than about a document.
  • A variation has no instruction behind it. The commonest single rejection, and the subject of a separate article on getting paid for variations, because the answer is about evidence rather than entitlement.
  • The labour is not evidenced. Hours claimed with no signed record. Where operatives clock in and the record carries a date and a job, this stops being arguable.

The date matters more than the total

Worth stating plainly because it is counter-intuitive: getting the application in on the contractual date, slightly under-claimed, is almost always better than getting it in three days late with a perfect build-up.

A late application starts a later cycle. A slightly light one can be corrected next month. The contract's dates are not a courtesy, and they drive the whole notice timetable that decides whether you get paid in full. If you are not certain what your dates are, the payment timetable calculator works them out, and pay less notices, and the timetable behind them explains why they matter.

Where this touches the platform

This is the document Unibuild produces. Applications are held against the project with their dates, receipts against them, and retention withheld captured against the receipt it came off, so the cumulative figure held is arithmetic rather than archaeology. Where the project was quoted through the platform, the works schedule draws on the priced sections of that quotation with their tendered values, so the measure has a documented origin rather than being retyped from a spreadsheet. Gross applied and gross balance are calculated as at each row's own date rather than only as at today, which is what lets you answer a question about March in November. Hours come from clock-ins with a date and a job attached, which is the evidence behind the labour line. Read the clause once, and the application format is set to match what your contract requires.

Applications for payment Rate valuations Construction timesheets Advanced Estimating

Where to start, on Monday

Read one clause: the one in your subcontract that says what an application must contain and when it must be made. Then compare it against the application you sent last month, line by line. Most firms find at least one requirement they have never met, and it is usually the basis of calculation.

Then fix the template rather than next month's application, so the improvement applies to every job you have.

Sources

Checked against the source rather than against commentary. Where a schedule, a rate or a threshold is definitive on a government site, read it there.

Asked most often

The follow-up questions.

The rights behind all of this are in what the Construction Act actually gives you.

What should a construction application for payment include?
The application reference and valuation period, the date it is made, the sum claimed with the basis on which it is calculated, measured quantities cumulative and for the period against contract rates, variations itemised with their instruction references, retention shown separately, and the supporting pack of dayworks, delivery notes, timesheets and site records. A total with no stated basis fails the statutory test.
Why do main contractors reject applications for payment?
Four reasons account for most of them, and none is the price: the application was late against the contract dates so it falls into the next cycle, the measure has no record behind it, a variation has no instruction behind it, or claimed labour is not evidenced by a signed or timestamped record. All four are document problems rather than commercial ones.
How much detail should an application contain?
Enough for the assessor to agree it without asking you anything. Measured quantities against the contract items, variations listed separately with their instruction references, materials on site identified, and the retention and previous payments shown. Detail is not padding. Every line the assessor cannot verify is a line they will reduce, and an application light on detail is reduced by default rather than by argument.
When should an application for payment be submitted?
On the date the contract names, and not a day later. Most subcontracts set an application date each month tied to the valuation cycle, and the due date, the notice periods and the final date all run from it. Submitting early is generally harmless. Submitting late frequently pushes the whole application into the following cycle, which costs a month of cash for a document that was ready on time.
What happens if an application is submitted a day late?
Usually it is treated as an application for the next cycle, and the current one passes with nothing valid in it. That is the ordinary consequence rather than a harsh one, because the payer's notice deadlines are calculated from the application date. Some contracts are stricter still and treat a late application as no application at all. Either way the money moves back a month, and nothing about the work being done on time changes that.
Is it better to submit a late application or an under-claimed one?
Under-claimed, almost always. A late application can be treated as belonging to the next valuation cycle, which moves the whole payment a month and gives the payer an answer that has nothing to do with your work. A slightly light application is corrected in the following period at no cost.
Can an application for payment be amended after submission?
You can submit a revised application before the deadline passes, and after that it stands. What you cannot do is correct a figure once the payer's notice period has started running, because both sides are working to the sum in front of them. An error found afterwards is dealt with in the next valuation rather than by reissuing the last one. That is why a check before sending is worth more than any correction after.
Can my application for payment count as a payment notice?
Where the contract provides for the payee to make an application, it can. Section 110B allows the payee to give a default payment notice when the payer has failed to give one, and a compliant application can serve that purpose. Whether yours qualifies depends on the contract wording and on how the application is put together, which is exactly why the format is not administrative housekeeping.
What makes an application a valid default payment notice?
It has to state the sum the payee considers due at the due date, and the basis on which it is calculated. It also has to be submitted in accordance with the contract. Where the payer then fails to serve its own payment notice, that application becomes the notice and the sum in it becomes the notified sum. Applications drafted with that possibility in mind are the ones that turn a payer's silence into cash.
What is the difference between an application for payment and an invoice?
An invoice asserts a debt. An application states what has been built, what it is worth under the contract rates, and what evidences it. The practical difference is statutory: where the contract provides for it and the payer fails to serve its own payment notice, a properly made application can stand as the payment notice, making the sum in it the notified sum the payer must serve a valid pay less notice to reduce.
Next step

Build it from work already measured.

The four rejection reasons come down to one thing: the measure, the instruction and the labour record were not in the same place when the application went in.

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