This is a practical overview, not legal advice. Your subcontract decides the dates, the format and where applications go, so check it first.
1. Know your application date
Most subcontracts set a date each month by which your application must arrive, often tied to a valuation date or the main contractor's own application to the client. Miss it and your payment can slip by a whole month, because the due date and the final date for payment are usually worked out from it.
Put every date for the year in a calendar at the start of the job: application date, due date, the deadline for the payment notice, the deadline for any pay less notice and the final date for payment. Our free payment date calculator works them out from your contract terms.
2. Value the work against the contract sum analysis
Set out the work line by line against the contract sum analysis (the breakdown of your contract sum agreed at the start; see how to set one up). For each line show:
- the line value from the contract;
- the percentage or quantity complete to date;
- the value to date (cumulative, not just this month's work).
Cumulative valuations are the norm because they correct themselves: if a line was over or under valued last month, this month's figure puts it right without arguing about the difference.
3. Add variations, separately
List variations on their own, never buried in the contract lines. Show each with its instruction reference, a short description and its value to date, and keep them in groups:
- Agreed: instructed and valued.
- Submitted: instructed, with your price sent but not yet agreed.
- Pending: work you believe is a change, notified but not yet instructed.
Keeping them apart stops a disagreement about one variation holding up payment for everything else.
4. Materials on and off site
Materials delivered to site but not yet fixed can usually be included at cost. Materials held off site (for example prefabricated pipework or panels in your workshop) are only payable if your subcontract allows it, often with conditions such as insurance, marking as the main contractor's property and proof of ownership. Check before you claim them.
5. Dayworks
Include daywork only where the work was instructed as daywork, and attach the signed daywork sheets. Unsigned sheets are the most common reason dayworks are knocked off an application.
6. Work out the amount due
The usual layout is:
| Line | What it is |
|---|---|
| Gross valuation | Contract work, variations, materials and dayworks, all to date |
| Less retention | The retention percentage from your subcontract, up to any cap (see how retention works) |
| Less discount | Any main contractor's discount in your subcontract |
| Less previous payments | The total certified or paid on earlier applications |
| Amount due this time | Before VAT |
| VAT | Most subcontract work between VAT-registered businesses is under the domestic reverse charge, so the main contractor accounts for the VAT; say so on the application (see the domestic reverse charge) |
If the Construction Industry Scheme applies, show the labour and materials split so the CIS deduction is taken from the labour only.
7. Send the evidence with it
- Progress photos, dated, for the lines that moved this month.
- Delivery notes or invoices for materials on site.
- Signed daywork sheets and variation instructions.
- Your marked-up drawings or quantities where a percentage is likely to be questioned.
8. Send it to the right person, and keep proof
Your subcontract may name a person, an email address or a portal for applications. Send it there, on time, and keep a record of when it went and who received it. If there is ever a dispute about a missed payment notice, the date your application arrived can matter a great deal.
9. After it has gone
Note the deadline for the payment notice and the pay less notice. If a notice arrives, check the date it came and whether it explains how the sum was calculated. If nothing arrives, take advice on what your contract says happens next before the final date for payment.
Common mistakes
- Valuing only this month's work instead of the total to date.
- Mixing unagreed variations into the contract lines.
- Forgetting to deduct previous payments, or deducting the amount applied for instead of the amount paid.
- Charging VAT where the reverse charge applies.
- Sending it a day late, or to someone who is not named in the contract.
Constructicore builds each application from your contract sum analysis, carries variations, materials and retention forward, works out every date from your contract terms and keeps a record of when it was sent. See how payment applications work in Constructicore.
Published 28 September 2026, updated 9 October 2026.