Assess a subcontractor claim

Review a progress claim a subcontractor has submitted, assess it line by line, and approve it to lock in an immutable assessment record. The claim then becomes available for the next step in the payment lifecycle.

When to use this

When a subcontractor's claim arrives in your assessment queue — submitted through Connect web, Connect Mobile, or recorded manually after email or paper receipt.

Prerequisites

• Claim in Submitted or Under Assessment status
• Parent subcontract is Active, PC (Practical Completion), DLP (Defects Liability Period), or Final — see Subcontract states
• Permission to assess claims for the subcontract's subsidiary
• Awareness of the Assessment Due Date — the statutory window starts the moment the claim arrives

The claim form at a glance

When you open a claim, the form shows:

• Primary Information — the claim ID, claim sequence number, claim type, parent subcontract, and (top-right) a Summary panel with running totals
• Key Dates — Service Date, Assessment Due Date, Claim Period, Assessment Date (stamped once you finalise)
• Status & Workflow — current status, Submitter, Assessor, Rejection Reason (if rejected)
• Statutory Compliance — jurisdiction-specific fields (e.g. NZBN, Reference Period, Calculation Method Statement for New Zealand; ABN, Supporting Statement for Australia; Pay Less Notice fields for UK)
• Items subtab — the line-by-line breakdown of what's being claimed and what you've assessed

The Summary panel updates whenever you save changes, so it always reflects what's been written to the claim header:

• Submitted — total the subcontractor is claiming this period (gross)
• Assessed — total you're approving (gross)
• Variance — Submitted minus Assessed
• Retention This Claim — retention being withheld
• Net Payable — the bottom-line amount the subcontractor will receive

The Items table

The Items subtab shows one row per claim line. Columns include:

• PO Line # — the matching line on the underlying purchase order
• Item — the item from the PO line
• Description, Billing Type
• PO Line Value, Cum Approved Prev — context for what's been agreed and previously approved
• Submitted Qty / Rate / Amt — what the subcontractor is claiming this period
• Assessed Qty / Rate / Amt — what you're approving (editable)
• Variance Amt / %, Line Status — calculated automatically as you change Assessed amounts
• Variance Reason and Reason Text — required whenever an assessed line differs from the submitted amount
• Evidence — optional reference to backing documentation

The Items table is read-only by default. To make changes, click Edit on the claim record — the cells become editable.

Walkthrough

Step 1 — Open the claim and start the assessment

1. Open the claim from your queue, a dashboard reminder, or an email notification.
2. Confirm the claim header is correct — Service Date, Assessment Due Date, parent subcontract.
3. Click Begin Assessment. The status moves to Under Assessment and you become the recorded Assessor.

Step 2 — Assess each line

1. Click Edit on the claim record.
2. For each line in the Items table:
   • Approve as submitted, reduce, or reject by changing Assessed Qty or Assessed Amt.
   • If you've reduced or rejected a line, pick a Variance Reason and enter Reason Text explaining why. Reason Text must be at least 20 characters and is required for any non-Approved line.
3. Click Save. The Summary panel updates with the new totals, retention, and net payable. You can come back later and continue — the claim stays in Under Assessment until you finalise.

Step 3 — Finalise the assessment

When every line is decided (no lines left in Pending) and your statutory compliance fields are complete:

1. Click Assess & Approve.
2. The system runs validation:
   • Every line must have a Line Status of Approved, Reduced, or Rejected — no Pending lines remain.
   • Every Reduced or Rejected line must have a Variance Reason and Reason Text of at least 20 characters.
   • Jurisdiction-specific statutory fields must be populated.
3. Once validation passes, the claim status moves to Assessed, the Assessment Date is stamped, and an immutable schedule snapshot is recorded against the claim — a legal artefact of what you assessed and why, anchored against the AU/NZ precedent (Witron 2023 NSWCA 305; Grove Darwin 2017 NTSC 28).

If you need to reject the whole claim

You can click Reject Claim from either Submitted or Under Assessment. A prompt collects the rejection reason (minimum 20 characters). The claim moves to Rejected and the reason is captured on the header.

What success looks like

• Claim status is Assessed.
• Assessor and Assessment Date are stamped on the claim header.
• The Summary panel shows your final Submitted / Assessed / Variance / Retention / Net Payable totals.
• An immutable schedule snapshot has been created and linked to the claim — visible via the Current Snapshot field.
• Reduced and rejected lines all carry per-line Variance Reasons and Reason Text.

What's not in this phase

Phase 1 stops at Assessed. The downstream steps — Approved, Payment Schedule / Pay Less Notice generation, emailing the subcontractor, and conversion to a Vendor Bill — are scheduled for later phases. For now:

• Use NetSuite's standard bill creation to record the Vendor Bill against the claim until automated bill conversion is delivered.
• Communicate the outcome to the subcontractor manually (Connect notifications are wired only for claim submission at this stage).

Gotchas

• The Service Date is immutable. It's the timestamp the claim arrived — not the date the subcontractor put on it. The statutory clock runs from Service Date and can't be reset by rejecting and re-receiving.
• Assessment is line-level. You can't reduce a claim total without giving line-level reasons.
• Reason Text must be at least 20 characters. Anything shorter blocks finalisation.
• Edit mode and the workflow buttons are mutually exclusive. Workflow buttons (Begin Assessment / Assess & Approve / Reject Claim) only appear in view mode. To change line values, click Edit; save; then return to view mode to finalise.
• A claim can only be assessed if its subcontract is active. If the subcontract has been Cancelled, Closed Out, or hasn't reached Active yet, claim assessment is blocked.
• NetSuite Redwood Experience is required for the Items table to render. If you're on the classic UI, the claim form will prompt you to switch.

Related

• Create a subcontract
• Approve a subcontract variation
• Raise a back-charge
• Subcontract states
• Submit a progress claim (subcontractor)