Payment & Pay Less Notice Checking & Response
Risk mitigationFixed FeeOngoingFor Subcontractors & Main ContractorsMoney in
I check every payment notice, pay less notice and certificate that lands against the contract and your application, and tell you what to accept, what to query and what to say. Undervaluation rarely arrives as one big cut; it arrives as small ones nobody reconciles.
The problem
A certificate arrives lower than the application. Everyone is busy, the difference is not huge, and the job moves on, but next month the same happens, and by the final account the gap between what was applied for and what was certified has quietly become the biggest number on the job, with no record of anyone disagreeing. There is a second, quieter failure: a notice served late, or one that never states the basis on which its sum is calculated, may not be a valid notice at all, and each one that passes unexamined is a right given away.
The solution
Each cycle I take what the payer sends, payment notice, certificate, any pay less notice, and read it twice: first for validity, served in its window, in the required form, stating the basis the contract demands; second for content, reconciled line by line against your application, so every cut has a name, a size and a reason, or none. You get a short note while the cycle is open: what to accept, what to query, what the reply should say, drafted where needed. Everything queried is carried forward and re-presented in the next application rather than conceded by silence.
What you receive
Every certificate is answered from knowledge rather than resignation: the valid cuts are understood, the weak ones are challenged in writing inside the cycle, and the invalid notices are caught while catching them still changes the money. Month on month the account carries a written record of what was disputed and why, precisely the file a final account negotiation, or any dispute after it, wants to stand on.
The Handover Pack accompanies the work with its dates and sources, likely outcomes and responses, scope boundaries and ready-to-send correspondence where needed.
Available as a one-off Fixed Fee check or Ongoing checking, with the scope and period agreed in writing.
Turnaround: the same or the next working day, per notice.
The working days start when the agreed scope and required inputs are available. Optional items do not hold the start unless the agreed scope says otherwise.
Need it faster? Ask on the first call: an express turnaround is quoted in writing where the diary allows it.
How it works
You tell me about the job and what keeps arriving
One call on the contract, the cycle and what the certificates have been doing to your applications. The first conversation is free and commits you to nothing.
You send me the contract and the cycle's paperwork
The list below, then simply forward each cycle's notices as they arrive; the checking runs on what actually lands, when it lands.
- A
The notice received, as received
EssentialWithout it: There is no document whose validity is even in question, so the review cannot start.
Where to find it: The inbox of whoever the payer sends them to.
Why I need it: The document whose validity is in question
- B
The application it responds to
EssentialWithout it: There is nothing to test the notice against, so whether it answers the right application, for the right sum, cannot be checked.
Where to find it: The payment folder or the sent items of whoever issued it.
Why I need it: What it is answering
- C
The subcontract and every amendment
EssentialWithout it: There are no clauses to test the notice against, so validity cannot be assessed at all, and the application cannot be tested either, so no notified sum can be calculated.
Where to find it: The job's commercial folder or the order email normally holds the signed copy.
Why I need it: The clauses that decide validity: the payment clauses, the notices clause, and the applications clause with any condition precedent wording, which the work tests your own application against
- D
Proof of the dates of service, both ways
ImportantWithout it: The date the notice arrived is taken from what the notice itself says or from your covering email, not from proof, so a validity finding that turns on timing is only as good as an unproven date.
Where to find it: The original sent email with its headers for your own application, and the payer's covering email for their notice; forwarded copies with the headers stripped will not fix the date.
Why I need it: Validity usually turns on a date
- E
The previous cycle's notices
OptionalWithout it: There is nothing to compare this cycle's pattern against; the review still runs on this cycle alone.
Where to find it: The same inbox that received this cycle's notice, one cycle back, if you keep them.
Why I need it: What the pattern was last cycle
Copies are fine. Send what you have and I'll tell you what's missing. Download the client request PDF or editable Word version to pass to whoever holds the files.
- A
I check each notice's validity first
Window, form and stated basis, against the contract's own words. An invalid notice changes what you are owed, and it only helps you if somebody notices in time.
Your Application Tested Too
Your own application is checked as valid in time and form before any conclusion rests on it, because a response built on an invalid application lets you down.
I reconcile the certificate against your application
Line by line: what moved, what was cut, and whether the stated reason survives contact with the records.
I send you a short note inside the cycle
What to accept, what to query and what the reply should say, drafted where a reply is needed, while the timetable still leaves room to send it.
Served Right, In Time
Before any response goes out, the contractual route, the correct addressee and any deadline now running are confirmed from the contract itself.
You send the response in your name
The correspondence stays yours: you send it, the other side answers you, and the job's relationships stay where they belong.
I carry every open difference forward
Queried cuts are re-presented in the next application rather than left to die quietly, so nothing is conceded by silence.
I keep every certificate answered inside the cycle
For the ongoing option, between projects the service pauses rather than cancels: nothing is re-onboarded, the file and the diary stay warm, and it resumes the day the next project starts.
Free Service Pack
A step-by-step Handbook, with the templates and working documents you need to carry out the work it covers yourself. You supply your own project information and records.
Follow the Handbook's scope and stopping points, and obtain independent advice where required. The pack is not project-specific advice or independent sign-off.
My products used
Tips that raise your odds of success
Questions I get asked often
This service reads what comes back; Payment Application Assembly & Issuance builds what goes out, and the two together close the loop on the cycle. The windows this work watches are a subset of the ones Notice & Deadline Tracking covers across the whole contract.