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Work out your four
payment dates.

Put in the end of the valuation period and set the periods your contract uses. It returns the due date, the payment notice deadline, the pay less deadline and the final date for payment, drawn on one line with the rule behind each. Nothing is sent anywhere.

01Your job
02Which periods apply
The Scheme only fills gaps. On a JCT or NEC form your contract almost certainly sets its own periods, so read the payment schedule and move the sliders to match. Moving one switches this for you.

Worked out in your browser as you move the sliders. No valuation date is sent to Unibuild, stored, or logged.

Final date for payment —24 days after the valuation periodin 24 days
The timetable, to scale
Today
    How the timetable works If the money does not arrive
    Past the spreadsheet

    Every application,
    with its own clock.

    These four dates belong to one application. Across every live job they are a separate timetable each, and the one that slips is the one nobody was counting.

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    The timetable

    Four dates, and
    what each one does.

    What the due date actually means, why the Scheme’s figures are only a fallback, and the notice that decides whether the sum can still be reduced.

    A worked example, on the Scheme defaults

    Take a relevant period ending 30 April 2026, with the Scheme supplying the periods because the contract is silent.

    • Due date, 7 May 2026. Seven days after the end of the relevant period.
    • Payment notice deadline, 12 May 2026. Not later than five days after the due date. This is the payer’s last chance to state the sum it considers due.
    • Pay less notice deadline, 17 May 2026. Not later than seven days before the final date.
    • Final date for payment, 24 May 2026. Seventeen days after the due date. The money has to be with you.

    Now the part that decides disputes. If the payer serves nothing by 12 May, your own application becomes the notified sum. If it then serves nothing by 17 May either, that sum is payable in full on 24 May, whatever anybody thinks the work was worth. Seven days is a short window, and payers miss it more often than subcontractors expect.

    How to read the result

    The four dates run in a fixed order and each one does a different job. The due date is when the payment becomes due and it starts the clock; it is not when you get paid. The payment notice deadline is the last day the payer can state the sum it considers due, which fixes the notified sum. The pay less notice deadline is the last day the payer can serve notice that it intends to pay less than that sum. The final date for payment is when the money has to be with you.

    The consequence of the third date is the one worth internalising. If no valid pay less notice is served in time, the notified sum falls due in full on the final date, whatever the payer thinks the work was worth. A pay less notice that arrives a day after the deadline is not a weak notice. It is not a notice at all.

    Why the defaults are what they are

    The Scheme for Construction Contracts supplies terms where a construction contract fails to provide compliant ones. Its defaults are seven days from the end of the relevant period to the due date, and seventeen days from the due date to the final date for payment. The payment notice comes not later than five days after the due date, and the pay less notice not later than seven days before the final date.

    Those are the figures this tool starts with, and they are the fallback the industry is measured against. They are not what your contract says unless your contract is silent or non-compliant. JCT and NEC subcontracts each run their own timetable, and a bespoke amendment can move the dates again, which is why the four periods are yours to move.

    What this does not do

    It counts calendar days, because that is how the Scheme counts them. Where your contract counts business days, or excludes a Christmas shutdown, enter the periods your contract actually uses rather than the defaults.

    It also assumes the Act applies to your contract at all. It does not where your customer is a residential occupier, and it may not where the work is the assembly or installation of plant on certain process sites. Both exclusions are explained in what the Construction Act actually gives you.

    This is a calculator, not advice on your contract. If a payment is already in dispute, the dates matter more than anything on this page and they are worth checking against the document itself.

    Pay less deadline

    Miss it, and the notified sum is payable in full.

    Final date for payment
    Asked most often

    The four dates,
    and what each one does.

    The Act is the floor. Your contract can set different periods, and most do.

    How long does a client have to pay under the Construction Act?
    The Act itself sets no maximum. It requires an adequate mechanism for determining what is due and when, and a final date for payment. Where a contract has neither, the Scheme for Construction Contracts supplies seventeen days from the due date. Thirty and sixty day terms are both lawful if the contract says so, which is why the contract rather than the Act is the document to read.
    What is the difference between the due date and the final date for payment?
    The due date is when the payment becomes due and it starts every other clock: the payment notice runs from it and the final date is measured from it. The final date for payment is when the money actually has to be with you. Confusing the two is the most common reason a firm chases too early, or serves a notice a week after the window closed.
    What is the notified sum?
    The amount that has to be paid on the final date unless a valid pay less notice reduces it. Normally it is the sum in the payer’s payment notice. Where the payer serves no payment notice in time, and the contract allows the payee’s application to stand as the default notice, the applied-for sum becomes the notified sum instead. That is the mechanism behind a smash and grab adjudication. The free payment notice template states it with its basis of calculation.
    What happens if no pay less notice is served?
    The notified sum falls due in full on the final date for payment. Not a reduced sum, not the sum the payer believes the work was worth, the notified sum. A pay less notice served after the deadline is not a late notice, it is no notice at all. The payer’s remedy is to correct the position at the next valuation rather than to withhold now. The free pay less notice template sets out the sum and the basis the Act requires.
    Do the Scheme periods apply to my contract?
    Only where the contract has no compliant payment terms of its own. JCT and NEC both set their own timetables and a bespoke amendment can move the dates again. Use the Scheme figures as the fallback the industry is measured against, then enter your own contract’s periods to get dates you can rely on.
    Does the Construction Act apply to every construction contract?
    No. It does not apply where the other party is a residential occupier contracting for work on their own home. It may also not apply to assembling or installing plant on certain process sites, such as power generation, water treatment and chemicals. Outside those exclusions it applies whether or not the contract is in writing.
    Next step

    Have the dates on the job, not on a calculator.

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    The module
    Applications for payment
    The other tool
    Retention calculator