Progress Claim vs Payment Claim vs Invoice

If you’ve ever sat there wondering whether the thing you’re about to send the builder is a “progress claim,” a “payment claim,” or just an invoice — you’re not alone. Most subbies use the words interchangeably, and so do most builders’ admin staff.

A progress claim is the contractual document you submit under your building contract, claiming payment for work completed to date. A payment claim is the same document doing extra work — it’s the formal trigger under your state’s Security of Payment legislation, which comes with statutory deadlines and consequences a plain contract claim doesn’t have. An invoice is different again: it’s the tax document that records a GST transaction, usually issued after the claim has been assessed and approved.

In practice, one piece of paper can be all three at once. But the three labels aren’t interchangeable, because each one activates a different set of rights — and that matters most on the one day you actually need it: the day a builder goes quiet, disputes your number, or tries to slow-walk payment. If you haven’t put one together before, our guide to writing a progress claim walks through building one from scratch.

Progress claim vs payment claim vs invoice: the quick comparison

	Progress claim	Payment claim	Invoice
What it is	Contractual request for payment for work completed to a point in time	A progress claim that also meets your state’s Security of Payment Act requirements	Tax/accounting document recording a GST sale
Where it comes from	Your building contract’s payment clause	State Security of Payment legislation (varies by state)	Australian tax law (GST)
What it triggers	The builder’s contractual obligation to assess and pay	A legal deadline for the builder to respond with a payment schedule, or risk owing the full amount	Nothing statutory — it’s a record for accounting purposes
When it’s issued	On the claim date set in the contract (e.g. monthly, or on stage completion)	Same document as the progress claim, submitted at the same time	Typically after the claim is certified/approved, for the certified amount
Who has to respond	The builder or head contractor, per the contract terms	The respondent under the Act, within a fixed statutory window	No formal response required — it’s a payment record
Can you skip it	No — it’s how you get paid under the contract	No, if you want statutory protection — but the same document can serve both roles	Yes, functionally optional until the claim is approved and you need to record the sale

Same document, two different hats

Here’s the part that trips people up: a progress claim and a payment claim aren’t usually two different documents. It’s normal — and usually smarter — to write one document that does both jobs.

When you submit your monthly claim under the contract, it’s a progress claim. If that same document also meets the requirements set out in your state’s Security of Payment Act — describing the work, stating the amount claimed, and identifying the relevant contract — it also counts as a payment claim under the legislation. One submission, two hats.

Why bother making sure it wears both hats? Because the contractual side and the statutory side behave completely differently when things go wrong.

Under the contract alone, if a builder disputes your claim or just doesn’t respond, you’re often stuck negotiating, chasing, or eventually taking it to a dispute resolution clause that might sit dormant for weeks. Under Security of Payment legislation, the builder is on the clock. They have a defined window to issue a payment schedule — a formal document setting out what they intend to pay and, if it’s less than you claimed, exactly why. If they miss that window, the consequences can be serious: in most states, the whole claimed amount becomes a debt they owe you, full stop, no arguing the merits.

That’s a genuinely different outcome to “well, we’re still reviewing it.” It’s the reason the payment claim side is worth protecting even if you never expect to use it — it’s leverage you’re carrying for free, as long as your document actually qualifies as one.

Why the distinction matters when a builder goes quiet

Most subbies never think about which hat their claim is wearing until a builder stops responding. That’s exactly the wrong time to find out your claim didn’t meet the requirements to count as a statutory payment claim.

If your document is only ever treated as a plain progress claim under the contract, a builder who goes silent has, in effect, stalled you. You chase, you follow up, maybe you escalate through whatever dispute process is in the contract — and none of it moves fast.

If the same document also qualifies as a payment claim under your state’s Act, silence works against the builder, not you. They either respond with a payment schedule inside the statutory window, or they don’t — and if they don’t, the legislation is built to punish that, not reward it.

The exact rules — what has to be on the document, how long the builder gets to respond, what happens if they miss it — differ from state to state, and they’ve changed over time in more than one jurisdiction. Don’t rely on a mate’s advice from a different state or a different year. Check your state’s Act, or start with our Security of Payment for subbies guide for the plain-English version before you go to the legislation itself.

Payment schedules, in brief

Once you’ve submitted a document that counts as a payment claim, the builder’s move is a payment schedule — their formal response, stating what they’ll pay and, for any shortfall, their reasons. It has to happen inside a set timeframe that comes from your state’s Act, not the contract.

Two things matter here for a subbie:

• A late or missing payment schedule isn’t a minor admin slip for the builder — most states treat it as a serious problem for them, precisely because it’s designed to stop builders sitting on claims indefinitely.
• If they do send a payment schedule that pays less than you claimed, that document is what you argue against — not the original claim. It becomes the record of what’s actually in dispute, which matters a lot if it ends up in adjudication.

This is deliberately a light-touch summary. The mechanics — deadlines, what a valid schedule has to contain, what your options are if one doesn’t show up — vary by state and are worth getting right, so we’ve covered them properly in the SOPA guide rather than compressing them into a paragraph here.

Where retention fits

Retention doesn’t change what you claim — it changes what you get paid. You claim the full value of work completed to date. The contract then allows the builder to hold back an agreed percentage (commonly split between practical completion and the end of the defects liability period, though the split varies contract to contract) before releasing the balance.

A clean claim shows this clearly: value of work done, less retention held, equals amount payable now. If your claim buries the retention calculation or gets it wrong, you’re the one who has to chase the correction — and a builder isn’t in a hurry to fix a mistake that’s currently in their favour.

A worked example, in dollars

The definitions above are easier to hold onto with real numbers attached. Say you’re running a $180,000 window and facade subcontract, and this month’s assessment puts you at 60% complete.

Line	Amount
Contract sum	$180,000
Work completed to date (60%)	$108,000
Plus: approved variation	$6,500
Total claimed this month	$114,500
Less: retention (say your contract holds 5%)	−$5,725
Amount payable	$108,775

That $114,500 figure is what goes on your progress claim — and, if the document meets your state’s Act, it’s also the number on your payment claim. Retention is a contract term, not a fixed rule; some subcontracts hold 5%, some 10%, some none at all, and the split between practical completion and defects liability release varies too. Check your own contract before you assume this example’s numbers apply to your job.

Where WNDW fits

That worked example above is arithmetic anyone can do on paper — the harder part is trusting the 60% figure it starts from. WNDW builds that number from the stages your crew has actually marked off on site, not a spreadsheet reconciled at the end of the month, then bundles in approved variations and shows retention clearly on the PDF your builder already pays against. Take a look at the progress claims page.

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