Resources · Progress claims
The progress claim document,
laid out block by block.
The structure of a residential progress claim, in the order it appears on the page, with a worked example you can hold your own claim against. Built to be copied into whatever you raise claims in, or downloaded as an editable spreadsheet of the same blocks. The values are left blank, because they are the parts that come from your own contract. General information, not legal or tax advice.
Written by Brad Caldon, Founder, VIABUILD. Licensed builder (NSW) · Registered Building Practitioner (Class 1 to 9) · B.Construction Management (Hons) · Last reviewed 20 September 2026
The six blocks on this page as an editable sheet with the values left blank, and the worked example on a second sheet.
Excel spreadsheet (.xlsx), 23 KB. No form, no email address.
01 / How to use this
A structure to copy, not a form to fill
A progress claim is the document that asks the client for the money a completed stage has earned under the contract. It is a short document and it fails in predictable ways, so what follows is the structure that does not fail, block by block, in the order the blocks appear on the page.
Set this up once as a saved template in whatever you already raise claims in and reuse it every time. That is deliberate. Most claim problems are not arithmetic; they are lines left off, because the claim was rebuilt from scratch under time pressure and the variation that was approved three weeks ago did not come to mind. A fixed structure removes that failure by making the blank line visible.
The reference for what a progress claim is, and the payment cycle it sits inside, is the progress claims reference. The statutory layer, which differs by state and can attach a clock to the day you serve, is in the security of payment by state lookup. Everything here is general information, not legal or tax advice, and the definitions that govern are the ones in your contract.
02 / The document
The six blocks, in order
Every block answers a question the client would otherwise have to ask. A claim carrying all six can be approved by someone who was not on site and did not attend the meeting, which is the actual test, because that is often exactly who approves it.
1. The header block, who and what this is
- Builder and client, as the contract names them. Legal entity names and the builder's licence number, not trading names and first names. If the claim ever has to stand on its own, it has to identify its parties.
- Contract reference and date, and the job address. Anyone picking the claim up should be able to trace it to its contract without asking.
- Claim number and claim date. Sequential per job, never reused, and dated the day it is served. The date matters more than it looks; contractual payment terms and any statutory clock run from it.
2. The contract block, what the job is worth today
- Original contract sum. The figure signed, stated once, so every claim is anchored to the same starting number.
- Approved variations to date. The running total of signed variations, positive and negative, from your variation register.
- Current contract sum. The two figures added. This is the number the client actually wants and almost never gets, and putting it on every claim prevents the conversation where the total arrives as a surprise at the end.
3. The stage block, what is being claimed
- The stage, named exactly as the claim schedule names it. Base, frame, lock-up, fixing, practical completion or whatever your contract defines, and claimed only once the stage meets its contract definition rather than the site's feeling of nearly done.
- The stage amount or percentage the schedule fixes. Taken from the schedule, not recalculated. Where the contract works in percentages, show the percentage and the dollars it produces.
- The date the stage completed. A one-line fact that answers the first question a careful client asks, and one that your site diary can support if it is ever contested.
4. The variations block, what else belongs on this claim
- One line per approved variation. Variation number, short description, date approved, amount. Credits appear as negatives on their own line rather than netted invisibly into another figure.
- Prime cost and provisional sum adjustments. Where the contract brings an allowance to account at this point, show the allowance, the actual and the difference, so the adjustment explains itself.
- Nothing unapproved. An unsigned variation on a claim does not just risk that line, it gives the client a reason to hold the whole claim while they think about it.
5. The totals block, the arithmetic in public
- Subtotal excluding GST, being the stage amount plus the variations block.
- GST, on its own line, at the rate applying to the contract.
- Total claimed, the amount actually being asked for.
- Claimed to date and contract balance. The cumulative position and what remains under the current contract sum. These two lines are what turn a claim from a request into a statement of where the job is, and they are the lines most claims leave off.
6. The payment block, and the evidence index
- Due date, calculated. The date the payment falls due under the contract's terms, worked out and written down rather than implied by quoting the terms.
- Payment details. On the claim, so paying it requires no further information from anybody.
- The evidence index. A short list of what is attached, photos, certificates, signed variation documents. The index matters as much as the attachments, because it tells the approver that nothing is missing before they go looking.
03 / Worked example
The same structure, filled in
Illustrative only, with invented figures, on a fixed-price new home. Hold your own claim against it and look for the lines you do not currently carry.
Header
- Builder: Example Homes Pty Ltd, builder licence number as issued.
- Client: A. and B. Client, as named in the contract.
- Contract: fixed price residential building contract dated 4 February 2026.
- Job: Lot 14, Example Street.
- Progress claim number 4, dated 10 September 2026.
Contract position
- Original contract sum, excluding GST: $650,000.00
- Approved variations to date, net: $3,650.00
- Current contract sum, excluding GST: $653,650.00
This claim
- Stage claimed: lock-up, as defined in the claim schedule. Completed 8 September 2026.
- Stage amount, 20% of the original contract sum: $130,000.00
- VO-07, upgrade to 2400mm internal doors throughout, approved 21 August 2026: $4,850.00
- VO-09, omit rear pergola, approved 29 August 2026: credit $1,200.00
- Subtotal, excluding GST: $133,650.00
- GST: $13,365.00
- Total claimed, this claim: $147,015.00
Cumulative position
- Previously claimed, excluding GST: $325,000.00
- Claimed to date including this claim, excluding GST: $458,650.00
- Balance of current contract sum remaining: $195,000.00
Payment and evidence
- Due under the contract's payment terms on 17 September 2026.
- Payment details as stated in the contract.
- Attached: eight dated lock-up photographs; the frame inspection record; signed variation documents VO-07 and VO-09.
Two things in that example do more work than they look like they do. The credit for the omitted pergola appears as its own line rather than being quietly deducted, which is what makes the claim readable as a record of what happened rather than just a request. And the cumulative block turns three numbers the client would otherwise have to assemble from four previous claims into one line they can check in seconds.
04 / The wording
Four habits that stop queries before they start
A claim is queried for one of two reasons: something is missing, or something needs interpreting. The checklist handles the first. These handle the second.
Name the stage in the contract’s words
Claim "lock-up" if the claim schedule says lock-up, even if everyone on site calls it something else. A claim describing a stage in the builder’s vocabulary asks the client to do a translation, and the moment a client has to interpret a claim they start examining it.
Show the arithmetic, do not assert the total
Stage amount, then each variation on its own line, then the subtotal, then GST, then the total. A single figure with no working invites the question "how did you get that", and answering that question by email takes longer than printing the lines would have.
Reference the variation, do not re-argue it
Each variation line carries its number, its short description and the date it was approved. The claim is not the place to justify a variation; that argument was had and won when the client signed. A claim that re-explains an approved variation reopens it.
State the due date, do not imply it
Write the date the payment falls due under the contract, calculated, on the claim. Leaving the client to work it out from the payment terms produces two different answers, theirs and yours, and the gap between them becomes a conversation about lateness.
05 / The sequence
From template to claim served
Six steps. The check in step five, this claim's cumulative figure against the last one, is the cheapest error-catching in the whole process and it takes about ten seconds.
- 01
Copy the block structure once, into your own system
Set it up as a saved template in whatever raises your claims, accounting software, a document template or your construction system. Building the layout once and reusing it is the whole point; rebuilding it per claim is how lines get left off.
- 02
Fill the contract block from the contract, not from memory
Parties, contract date, job address, contract sum. These change only when a variation moves the contract sum, so once they are right they stay right, and getting them wrong on claim one propagates through every claim after it.
- 03
Take the stage amount from the claim schedule
The figure comes from the schedule the client signed, in the schedule’s own words and its own amount or percentage. A number that does not reconcile to the schedule is the single most common reason a claim gets held up.
- 04
Add every approved variation that belongs with this stage
One line each, with the variation number, description, approval date and amount, including credits as negatives. Variations left off are revenue delivered and never billed; unapproved variations added on are the claim being disputed as a whole.
- 05
Run the totals block and check it against the previous claim
Subtotal, GST, total, then claimed to date and contract balance. The claimed-to-date figure on this claim should equal the last one plus this subtotal. If it does not, something was missed or double-claimed, and finding that now is free.
- 06
Attach the evidence index, then run the checklist and send
List what rides with the claim, photos, certificates, signed variations, then work the sibling checklist before it goes. Building and verifying are different jobs, and doing them in one pass is how claims go out incomplete.
06 / The variable layer
What you must change, and what you must not
The block structure above holds nationally. Four things inside it come from somewhere else and must not be inherited from any template, including this one.
- The stage names and amounts. These come from your contract's claim schedule and nowhere else. The stages in the worked example are common residential stages, not a standard, and a claim built on stage names your contract does not use is unclaimable however tidy it looks.
- The payment terms. The number of days, and what starts them running, are contractual. Copying a due-date calculation from a template is how a builder ends up chasing a payment that was never late.
- The statutory overlay. Where security of payment legislation covers the work, serving a claim can start a response window that differs by state and can be shortened by the contract, and whether the scheme reaches a homeowner client at all varies. Diarise the window for the specific job the day the claim is served, in both directions. The per-state positions are in the security of payment by state lookup.
- The GST treatment. Progress payments on a taxable building contract generally carry GST, and how the timing lands depends on the contract and on whether your accounting is cash or accruals. The mechanics are covered in GST and BAS for builders, and the treatment for your business belongs with your accountant against current ATO guidance.
One further note on where to start. If you are drafting a contract rather than a claim, current standard-form contracts from HIA and Master Builders carry claim schedules maintained against each jurisdiction's legislation, and inheriting a compliant schedule is far easier than repairing one. A claim can only ever be as clean as the schedule behind it.
07 / FAQ
Common questions.
Six blocks, in this order. A header block identifying the builder, the client, the contract and the job address, with a sequential claim number and the date of the claim. A contract block carrying the original contract sum and the current contract sum after approved variations. A stage block naming the stage exactly as the contract’s claim schedule names it, with the amount or percentage the schedule fixes for it. A variations block itemising every approved variation being claimed, each with its number, description, approval date and amount, credits included as negatives. A totals block showing the subtotal, the GST, the total claimed, the value claimed to date and the contract balance remaining. And a payment block stating the due date the contract’s terms produce, together with the payment details. An evidence index listing what is attached finishes it. Anything else is presentation; a claim missing one of those six blocks will generate a query.
Send a PDF, whatever you build it in. A spreadsheet sent as a spreadsheet is editable by the recipient, which is a problem you will only notice once, and a Word file carries the same risk with worse formatting on someone else’s machine. Build it wherever the numbers already live so you are not re-keying, then issue the PDF. The format matters far less than two other things: that the same layout is used every claim, so the client learns to read it in ten seconds rather than reading it properly every time, and that the claim is issued as its own document rather than as a paragraph inside an email, because an email is not a record anyone can find in eight months.
The structure is the nationally consistent part and the compliance layer is not. What a residential progress payment may be claimed for, and how the claim schedule itself must be set out, comes from domestic building contract legislation in your state or territory, and that is settled when the contract is signed rather than when the claim is raised. Separately, where security of payment legislation covers the work, serving a claim can start a statutory clock with a defined response window, and whether the scheme reaches a homeowner client at all differs by state. This template does not attempt to satisfy either regime for you; it lays out a claim that is clear and checkable. Confirm the current requirements for the state where the work is performed, and note that current standard-form contracts from HIA and Master Builders already carry claim formats maintained against each jurisdiction’s legislation. General information, not legal advice.
Show it as its own line rather than folding it into a total. On a taxable building contract, progress payments generally carry GST, and a claim that states the amount excluding GST, the GST, and the total leaves nothing for the client or their accountant to reconstruct. Keep the claim and the tax invoice distinct as documents: the claim is made under the contract and usually passes through the client’s approval, and the tax invoice is raised once the claim is approved, which on most residential jobs is what starts the payment terms running. How the timing lands depends on your contract and whether your accounting is on a cash or accruals basis, so confirm the treatment for your business with your accountant against current ATO guidance.
This page is the document and the checklist is the verification pass. Use this when you are building a claim and the question is what goes where. Use the checklist immediately before you send, when the claim exists and the question is whether it is complete. They fail differently, which is why they are separate pages: a claim can be laid out perfectly and still go out missing the signed variation paperwork behind it, and a claim can carry every piece of evidence and still get queried because the stage was described in the builder’s words rather than the contract’s.
Yes. The download near the top of this page is an editable spreadsheet of the six blocks with the value column left blank, the worked example on a second sheet, and the list of what you must change on a third. The values are blank on purpose, because a pre-filled claim form would be wrong somewhere the moment it left this page. The stage names and amounts come from your contract’s claim schedule, the payment terms come from your contract, and the statutory overlay differs by state, so the parts that need to be filled in are exactly the parts that decide whether the claim works. What is portable is the structure, which is what this page and the file give you in a form you can copy into your own system in a few minutes. If the part that keeps failing is assembling the claim itself, that is an administration problem software genuinely solves, the claim built from the job with its variations and evidence already attached, which is what the VIABUILD progress claims feature does.
08 / Keep reading
The references behind this template
The knowledge nodes, calculators and sibling resources each block draws on.
09 / Cite this
How to cite this page
To reference this page, use the wording below and link the page rather than copying it, so readers reach the current version. Corrections to hello@viabuild.au.
Citation
Brad Caldon, VIABUILD, Progress claim template, laid out block by block, https://www.viabuild.au/resources/progress-claim-template, last reviewed 20 September 2026.
Or stop rebuilding the claim each time.
VIABUILD assembles the claim from the job itself: the stage value from the claim schedule, the approved variations already priced and signed, the evidence attached, the cumulative position current, and a tax invoice on approval without re-keying. The template becomes the system.