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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