The Progress Claim Draft Build Standard

1. What this standard covers

A builder or subcontractor working under a construction contract with a schedule of values and monthly progress claims. Each month the build drafts one claim per contract: every line of the schedule with its value, the percent complete your project manager entered for that month, the value to date, what was claimed before, and what this claim adds, plus each signed variation. Then it holds the draft for the project manager.

Out of scope. Everything that makes a draft into a claim and everything after it: reviewing and signing it, serving it, the timing of it under your contract and your state’s Act, any payment schedule you receive or reply to, retention, and adjudication. The build never values work and never decides percent complete. Work that is not under a progress claim contract is billed by Invoice Out as a stage invoice.

What cannot meet it. A build where no person enters percent complete. A percent taken from hours booked, costs to date, last month’s figure or a model’s estimate fails check 3 by design. Any system that can hold a schedule of values per contract and a dated percent per line per month can meet it, and a spreadsheet can.

No product runs it. Office Voice has no progress claim tool and does not draft claims. The standard runs on your own systems: the sheet, Microsoft 365 or your own code, in section 8.

2. The waiver you accept first

Nothing is drafted until the account owner, or someone with authority to bind the business, has recorded acceptance of this wording: their name, their role, the date and the version. A new version needs a new acceptance. That is check 1, and every build made to this standard holds it.

1. What you are accepting. You are using a template, or a build made to the Progress Claim Draft standard, that prepares a draft from figures you and your team enter. A draft is not a payment claim. It becomes one only if you review it, change it as you see fit, and give or serve it yourself.
2. You are responsible for every claim. You accept sole responsibility for the content of any claim you make from a draft, including the amounts, the description of the work, the percent complete, the variations included, and anything your contract or the law of your state requires a claim to contain. You also accept sole responsibility for whether, how and when a claim is given or served, and for everything that follows, including any payment schedule, any reply to one, and any adjudication.
3. It is not legal advice. Nothing in the template, the standard, or anything the provider says about them is legal, financial or contract advice. The provider does not check that a draft complies with your contract or with any Security of Payment Act. Get advice from a lawyer or your industry association before you rely on a claim.
4. You check the figures. The template only does arithmetic on the figures you enter: the contract sum, the schedule of values, what was claimed before, each percent complete and each signed variation. You check every figure in a draft before you use it.
5. Release. To the extent the law allows, you release the provider, FOUR MILE BEACH PTY LTD ACN 612 213 288 trading as AI Pathway, from any claim you may have against it for loss arising from a claim prepared with the template or a build made to the standard.
6. Indemnity. To the extent the law allows, you indemnify the provider against any loss, cost or liability, including reasonable legal costs, arising from a claim prepared with the template or a build made to the standard, including a claim against the provider by your client, a subcontractor or anyone else.
7. Rights that cannot be excluded. Nothing in this wording excludes, restricts or changes any right or remedy you have under the Australian Consumer Law or any other law that cannot lawfully be excluded.
8. Who accepts, and when it must be accepted again. The account owner, or another person with authority to bind the business, accepts this for the business. The acceptance records that person's name, their role, the date, and the version of this wording. When the wording changes, it carries a new version, and nothing is drafted again until the new version has been accepted.

3. The draft, in the shape your developer needs

Five records a person fills, and the draft the build writes. Money is whole cents. Nothing here is a payment schedule, a due date or a certificate, on purpose.

acceptance                        # the account owner, once per version
  - name, role, accepted_on
  - version                         # must equal the wording published

contract                          # from the signed contract
  - contract_id, client, project_manager
  - contract_sum                    # the schedule must add up to it
  - schedule[]
      line_code, description
      scheduled_value
      claimed_before                # value to date at the last claim

site_assessment                   # a person, every period
  - contract_id, period, line_code
  - percent_complete                # 0 to 100, entered, never derived
  - assessed_by, assessed_on

variation
  - variation_id, value             # the value on the signed acceptance
  - signed_acceptance               # absent = the draft parks

claim_draft                       # written by the build, one per
  - contract_id, period             #   contract per period
  - marker      "DRAFT: not a payment claim until reviewed and served by you"
  - status      held | parked | released
  - park_reason?
  - lines[]
      scheduled_value, percent_complete
      value_to_date                 # scheduled_value x percent
      claimed_before
      this_claim                    # value_to_date - claimed_before
      assessed_by, assessed_on
      signed_acceptance?
  - totals                          # sums of the lines
  - waiver_version, held_for
  - released_by?, released_on?      # only a person

There is no field for a due date, a payment schedule, retention or adjudication, and no status for served. A draft is held or parked until a person releases it, and then it is theirs.

4. The checks, in order

The order is the argument. The waiver comes before anything is drafted. The contract’s own figures come before any arithmetic, and a person’s percent before any value to date. A draft with a gap is parked, not filled in, because a claim that looks finished and is wrong is worse than no draft.

1. Nothing is drafted until the account owner has accepted the waiver and indemnity, at the version now published. Before any draft, the build reads the acceptance on file. It counts only when it names a person, their role and a date, and carries the version of the wording now published. With none, or one recorded for an earlier version, nothing is drafted and the account owner is told, with reason no_waiver_acceptance.
2. The contract sum, the schedule of values and what was claimed before come only from the contract record. Every scheduled value and every figure claimed before is the contract record's, read at draft time. A schedule whose lines do not add up to the contract sum parks the draft with reason schedule_mismatch. No figure is typed, recalled or adjusted to make it fit.
3. Percent complete comes only from a person's site assessment for this period, with who and when. Each line's percent complete is the one a named person entered for this claim period, with the date they assessed it. The build never estimates it, carries last period's figure forward, or works it out from cost or time. A line with no entry for this period, or an entry with no name or date, parks the draft with reason no_assessment.
4. A variation is included only with the client's signed acceptance attached. A variation line is drafted only when its signed acceptance is attached to the draft. Without one, the draft is parked with reason unsigned_variation and the project manager is told. A variation's value is the one on the signed acceptance, never a quote or an estimate.
5. This claim is the value to date less what was claimed before, shown line by line and checked to the cent. Each line shows its scheduled value, the percent complete, the value to date (scheduled value times percent), what was claimed before, and this claim (value to date less claimed before), in cents. The totals are the sums of the lines. A line whose value to date is below what was claimed before parks the draft with reason below_previous: the build does not decide a credit.
6. One draft per contract per claim period, written once and updated on a second run. The draft is keyed to the contract and the claim period. A second run in the same period updates that draft or does nothing; it never makes a second claim. A null id back is a failed write, not a success.
7. Every draft carries the draft marker, and only a person takes it off. Every draft carries the words "DRAFT: not a payment claim until reviewed and served by you". No build write drops or changes it. It comes off only when a named person releases the draft, and the record says who and when.
8. The build drafts and holds: it never serves, sends, values work, dates a payment, or touches a payment schedule. No draft is served, sent, lodged or certified by the build. No draft or note states a due date, a payment schedule or a reply to one, a retention release, or anything about adjudication. Those are the builder's, under their contract and their state's Act.
9. Every draft is held for the contract's named project manager, with its reason when parked. Ready or parked, every draft is put in front of the project manager the contract names, a parked one with its reason. Nothing goes to the client, and nothing parked is released by the build.
10. The contract, the period, every line's figures, where each percent came from, the signed variations and the waiver version are retrievable by contract and period. When the client or an adjudicator asks how a figure was reached, the record shows the contract, each line's arithmetic, who assessed each percent and when, each variation's signed acceptance, the version of the waiver accepted, and who released the draft.
11. It survives the builder. Someone other than the builder can explain what it does, and it runs on an account the business owns.
12. The pass test passes. On the builder's own contract records and site assessments: the waiver accepted, one contract drafted twice in the period, one line with no assessment this month, one unsigned variation, and one draft released by the project manager.

A parked draft is still written, with its reason in plain words, and held for the project manager. It cannot be released until the gap is fixed and the month is drafted again.

5. One contract at the end of November

An illustration, not data. A $500,000 house: the slab was claimed in full last month, the frame was claimed at half, and lock-up has not started. On 27 November the project manager walks the site and enters frame at 100% and lock-up at 40%. One variation, an extra window, was signed by the client.

The draft is held for the project manager with DRAFT at the top. Had the project manager not entered lock-up this month, the draft would have been parked with reason no_assessment rather than reuse October’s figure. Had the window not been signed, it would have been parked with reason unsigned_variation. Once you have checked the figures, you release it: the marker comes off, your name goes on the record, and you sign and serve the claim yourself.

6. What the law says, and what we leave to you

A progress claim under a construction contract is a payment claim under your state’s Security of Payment Act, and what it must contain, when it can be made and what happens after it differ by state. The response windows, payment terms and adjudication deadlines for every state are on our Security of Payment deadlines table, read from each Act, and the Queensland rules sit on our Brisbane page. This standard never works out a date from any of them. The draft carries none, and the timing of a claim is yours.

Facts that can change, and when we checked them

7. What stays with a person

• ✓Accepting the waiver and indemnity, as the account owner, at each new version of the wording.
• ✓Walking the site and entering the percent complete for every line, every month, with your name and the date.
• ✓Checking every figure, signing the claim, serving it, and its timing under your contract and your state's Act.
• ✓Every payment schedule, any reply to one, retention, and adjudication, with your own advisor.
• ✓Every parked draft, including what happens to a line that has gone backwards.

8. Run it your way

The same checks and the same pass test on each. Two rules hold whichever you pick: the waiver is accepted before the first draft, and nothing is ever sent from the build to your client.

• Google Workspace. A sheet with six tabs: Contracts, Schedule of values, Site assessment, Variations, Claims and Acceptance. The waiver wording sits on the Acceptance tab, the menu records your acceptance, drafts the month, and releases a claim you have checked. It sends nothing. The copyable sheet is built and its copy link is coming.
• Microsoft 365. The same records as SharePoint lists, a flow that checks the acceptance first and drafts the month line by line, and a release flow a person runs. The Claim Drafts build plan lays out the lists and flows.
• Your own Grok Bot or Claude. To explain a draft, not to make one. Ask it why a line was parked, or to read the draft back against the schedule. Keep the sums in the sheet or the flow, where they are checked to the cent, and never let a chat send the claim.
• Your own code. This page. Hand it to a coding agent: it gets the checks as data, the stub world, and a runner that tells it when the build is right. See running a standard anywhere.

9. Join It to Your Own System: What to Stub, and What Not to Hand-Roll

There is no hosted step, and none is sold: Office Voice has no progress claim tool, and serving the claim is yours. The parts that need care are the waiver gate before the first draft, a percent that only ever comes from a person, and the claimed-before figure that stops the same work being claimed twice. All of it runs against the stub, and the production check runs on your own records.

provider:
  stub:       local.mock_contract_book
  production: none                       # no hosted step; runs on your own systems

the live step                        # none hosted, on purpose
  the claim itself: checked, signed and served
  by the builder, on their own timing

stays local                          # yours, and the standard
  - the acceptance record and its version
  - contracts, schedule of values, claims before
  - the site assessment, entered by a person
  - the arithmetic and the held draft

ports the stub exposes
  period, readAcceptance, readContracts, readClaimFor,
  readAssessment, draftClaim, attachEvidence, holdFor,
  readRecord, escalate

no port exists for
  serving, sending, lodging or certifying a claim,
  valuing work, or any payment schedule

Anyone selling software that does your progress claims should be able to answer one question: show me who entered each percent on last month's claim, and when.

10. A checklist to hold any build or supplier to

Hold a DIY build or a vendor to this. If a box is empty, it is not in production.

• ✓1. Nothing is drafted until the account owner has accepted the waiver and indemnity, at the version now published. Before any draft, the build reads the acceptance on file. It counts only when it names a person, their role and a date, and carries the version of the wording now published. With none, or one recorded for an earlier version, nothing is drafted and the account owner is told, with reason no_waiver_acceptance.
• ✓2. The contract sum, the schedule of values and what was claimed before come only from the contract record. Every scheduled value and every figure claimed before is the contract record's, read at draft time. A schedule whose lines do not add up to the contract sum parks the draft with reason schedule_mismatch. No figure is typed, recalled or adjusted to make it fit.
• ✓3. Percent complete comes only from a person's site assessment for this period, with who and when. Each line's percent complete is the one a named person entered for this claim period, with the date they assessed it. The build never estimates it, carries last period's figure forward, or works it out from cost or time. A line with no entry for this period, or an entry with no name or date, parks the draft with reason no_assessment.
• ✓4. A variation is included only with the client's signed acceptance attached. A variation line is drafted only when its signed acceptance is attached to the draft. Without one, the draft is parked with reason unsigned_variation and the project manager is told. A variation's value is the one on the signed acceptance, never a quote or an estimate.
• ✓5. This claim is the value to date less what was claimed before, shown line by line and checked to the cent. Each line shows its scheduled value, the percent complete, the value to date (scheduled value times percent), what was claimed before, and this claim (value to date less claimed before), in cents. The totals are the sums of the lines. A line whose value to date is below what was claimed before parks the draft with reason below_previous: the build does not decide a credit.
• ✓6. One draft per contract per claim period, written once and updated on a second run. The draft is keyed to the contract and the claim period. A second run in the same period updates that draft or does nothing; it never makes a second claim. A null id back is a failed write, not a success.
• ✓7. Every draft carries the draft marker, and only a person takes it off. Every draft carries the words "DRAFT: not a payment claim until reviewed and served by you". No build write drops or changes it. It comes off only when a named person releases the draft, and the record says who and when.
• ✓8. The build drafts and holds: it never serves, sends, values work, dates a payment, or touches a payment schedule. No draft is served, sent, lodged or certified by the build. No draft or note states a due date, a payment schedule or a reply to one, a retention release, or anything about adjudication. Those are the builder's, under their contract and their state's Act.
• ✓9. Every draft is held for the contract's named project manager, with its reason when parked. Ready or parked, every draft is put in front of the project manager the contract names, a parked one with its reason. Nothing goes to the client, and nothing parked is released by the build.
• ✓10. The contract, the period, every line's figures, where each percent came from, the signed variations and the waiver version are retrievable by contract and period. When the client or an adjudicator asks how a figure was reached, the record shows the contract, each line's arithmetic, who assessed each percent and when, each variation's signed acceptance, the version of the waiver accepted, and who released the draft.
• ✓11. It survives the builder. Someone other than the builder can explain what it does, and it runs on an account the business owns.
• ✓12. The pass test passes. On the builder's own contract records and site assessments: the waiver accepted, one contract drafted twice in the period, one line with no assessment this month, one unsigned variation, and one draft released by the project manager.