Progress claims and payment stages: how to get paid faster

On any decent-sized job, one invoice at the end means you are the bank. You buy the timber, pay the crew every week, and carry the lot for a month or more until handover. Progress claims fix that: you bill in stages as the work hits milestones, so the client funds the job instead of you.

Why one invoice at the end hurts

A $40,000 job with a 10% deposit leaves you nearly $36,000 out of pocket at some point before you see the balance. Materials and wages don't wait for handover. If a client goes quiet or slow to pay at the end, you have already spent the money and you are chasing your own cash. Staged payments keep the gap between what you have spent and what you have been paid small the whole way through.

A payment schedule that works

Match your stages to real, visible milestones so there is never an argument about whether a claim is due. A common structure for a build:

1. Deposit on acceptance: enough to cover your first material order and the first week or two of labour
2. Frame or set-out complete: a chunk once the structure is standing
3. Lock-up: another chunk once it is closed in
4. Practical completion: the balance, minus any small retention if agreed

Getting the claims paid

A progress claim gets paid faster when it is easy to say yes to. Send it the day the stage is done, itemise what the stage covered, and attach a photo of the finished milestone so the client can approve it from the couch instead of waiting for a site visit. The less friction, the sooner the money lands.

• Claim the same day you hit the milestone, not at the end of the month
• Show what is paid, what is due now, and what is still upcoming so the client sees the whole picture
• Back each claim with a photo or a short note on what was completed
• Keep the terms short: 7 days beats 30 for cash flow

Doing this on paper across several live jobs is a headache, which is why most tradies default to one invoice at the end and wear the cash-flow pain. TrackYaTradie splits any job into payment stages, tracks what has been paid versus what is owing, and lets you send each claim from site, so the money comes in as you build instead of all at the end.