Resources · Queensland
What is a payment schedule, and what to do when it comes back short
A payment schedule is the respondent's written response to a payment claim. It must identify the claim, state the amount they propose to pay, and, if that is less than claimed, say why, including their reasons for withholding. In Queensland they have 15 business days. If it comes back short you have 30 business days to apply for adjudication.
- Reviewed
- Jurisdiction
- Queensland, Australia
- Reading time
- 7 min
- For
- Subcontractors who have had a claim certified down
Current as at 5 August 2026, under the Building Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017 (Qld).
What a payment schedule must contain
| Requirement | Why it matters to you |
|---|---|
| It identifies the payment claim it responds to | A schedule that does not identify the claim may not be a schedule at all, which puts the respondent in the “gave nothing” category. |
| It states the amount the respondent proposes to pay | This is the “scheduled amount”. If they do not pay it, that is a different and shorter adjudication window than disputing it. |
| If the scheduled amount is less than claimed, it states why | Including the reasons for withholding payment. This is the part that constrains them later. |
Source: BIF Act s 69
Read it properly before you react
- 1.Find the scheduled amount and diarise the due date. If they scheduled an amount and then do not pay it, you have 20 business days from the due date, the shortest window in the Act.
- 2.List every reason they gave, verbatim. That list is the entire universe of arguments available to them later.
- 3.Match each reason to a line in your claim. Reasons that do not attach to a specific line are weak, and reasons attached to lines you can evidence are the ones to answer first.
- 4.Separate valuation disputes from entitlement disputes. “We say that variation is worth $4,000, not $9,000” is a valuation argument you win with rates and measurement. “There was no instruction, so there is no variation” is an entitlement argument you win with correspondence.
- 5.Check what they did not dispute. Anything unmentioned is effectively conceded for that claim.
Your windows, and which one you are in
| What happened | Your window | Runs from |
|---|---|---|
| Schedule for less than you claimed | 30 business days | The day the payment schedule was given |
| Schedule given, scheduled amount not paid | 20 business days | The due date for payment |
| No schedule, not paid in full | 30 business days | The later of the due date, or the last day a schedule could have been given |
Source: BIF Act s 79
Before you spend money on adjudication
Adjudication is fast and comparatively cheap, but it is not free and it costs you a relationship you may want next year. Two questions worth answering honestly first.
Can you evidence the disputed lines today? Not “could we find it”: can you produce, this week, the instruction, the marked-up drawing, the site diary entry, the dayworks sheet signed by someone on their side? An adjudicator decides on the material in front of them within a very short timetable. A strong entitlement with no contemporaneous record loses to a weak defence with one.
Is the gap valuation or entitlement? Valuation gaps often close with a properly built claim and a conversation. Entitlement gaps rarely do, because someone has already decided you were not entitled, and no amount of rebuilding the claim changes their mind.
Sources
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