Issue a progress claim

Raise a claim against an approved contract for one billing period, then move it through the Submit → Certify → Invoice lifecycle.

When to use this

At the end of a billing period — typically monthly — once work has progressed against the contract. Each claim represents one billing cycle and produces one NetSuite invoice.

Prerequisites

• An Approved contract on the project — see Set up billing schedules
• Sufficient progress to claim (claim amounts > $0)
• The previous period's claim is at Certified or later (claims are sequential — you can't open two for the same SoV simultaneously)
• Permission to create and certify claims (varies by role)

Walkthrough

1. Open the contract record (or the project's Project Financials subtab) and click Create Claim. The claim worksheet that opens depends on the contract's billing type:
   • Progress billing — opens the Progress Claim Worksheet, one row per Schedule of Values line, with Opening % carried forward from the previous claim.
   • Stage billing — opens the Stage Claim Worksheet showing all Billing Stages; tick the stages being claimed this period.
   • T&M / Drawdown — opens the T&M Claim Worksheet listing billable purchase orders, vendor bills and time entries that haven't yet been claimed.
2. Enter the Period (a human-readable label like "April 2026") and the certification Date.
3. Populate the worksheet:
   • For Progress, enter the new Closing % per SoV line. The system calculates This Period % and This Period Amount.
   • For Stage, tick the stages to claim; amounts default from the stage percentage × contract value (overridable per row).
   • For T&M, tick the transactions to include; margin and retention default from project settings.
4. Save the worksheet. A Claim record is created in Draft status.
5. Submit the claim for certification. The status moves to Submitted.
6. Once approved by the architect or client, Certify the claim. The certified amount is frozen.
7. Create Invoice — a NetSuite invoice is generated and the claim moves to Invoiced.

What success looks like

• A Claim record numbered CL-nnn in Invoiced status, linked to the source contract and the resulting NetSuite invoice.
• The SoV's Claimed to Date running total has incremented by this claim's amount (Progress billing).
• The claimed Billing Stages show Claimed = true with the claim link populated (Stage billing).
• The project's Billing / Claims sublist shows the new claim.
• Source transactions used by a T&M claim are flagged as billed and won't reappear in the next claim's worksheet.

Gotchas

• You can't over-bill a SoV line or a stage. The system blocks claim amounts that exceed the line value or stage percentage.
• Certified claims are locked from edit. If a certified claim needs to come back, use the Withdraw action — don't try to delete or re-edit.
• Period is a text field, not a date range. Keep it human-readable ("April 2026") and use the Date field for the actual certification date.
• Retention is held back per claim line when your contract or jurisdiction requires it. If the Retainage SuiteApp is installed, claim line retention flows through to the retainage AR side automatically.
• Print output depends on the linked PDF template. Progress claims print the standard claim PDF by default; switch to the AIA G702/G732 template if your jurisdiction requires the AIA format. Stage claims use the standard claim PDF.
• Internal projects can't be claimed. The Internal billing type has no worksheet — claims won't open.

Related

• Set up billing schedules
• Create a variation
• Adjust a revrec entry