Issue a payment schedule

Generate the statutory Payment Schedule for a claim and send it to the subcontractor, straight from the claim record.

When to use this

Once you've approved a claim and want to send the subcontractor their statutory Payment Schedule. Approving the claim produces the schedule for you; you can also generate a draft while you're still assessing, to check how it reads.

Prerequisites

• Subcontract's Compliance Model is NZ CCA
• Subcontract has a purchase order (generated when the subcontract was signed) — a subcontract with no PO yet can't have a schedule generated against it
• Claim in Under Assessment, Assessed, Approved or Billed status
• The one-time configuration below is in place, or you'll hit a refusal page when you try to generate

The buttons, and when they appear

Both buttons live on the claim record, in view mode:

• Generate Payment Schedule — appears once the claim is Under Assessment, Assessed, Approved or Billed, until the schedule has been sent.
• Send to Subcontractor — appears once the schedule is Approved (and stays, so you can send it again once it's Sent). While the schedule is a Draft there's no Send button.

One schedule per claim

Each claim has one Payment Schedule. The first time it's generated, it's created; each later Generate Payment Schedule updates that same schedule with a fresh PDF that replaces the previous one. There are no separate versions to keep track of.

Once the schedule has been sent to the subcontractor, it can't be changed. Generating again is refused, with a message saying who it was sent to and when.

Statuses

Approving the claim produces the schedule

When you click Approve Claim on an NZ CCA claim, the approved Payment Schedule is generated for you (or the draft is updated), and its status becomes Approved. You don't need to click Generate yourself. Pressing Assess & Approve is not enough on its own: that moves the claim to Assessed. It's Approve Claim that produces the approved schedule.

If the schedule can't be generated at that point (for example, a GST number is missing), the claim is still approved, and a message tells you why the schedule wasn't produced. Fix the cause (see Refusals, and how to fix each), then click Generate Payment Schedule.

On the claim

The claim shows a single Payment Schedule line:

• View PDF — opens the current schedule in a new browser tab
• its status — Draft, Approved or Sent
• once sent, Sent with the date and time, who sent it, and who it went to

Until a schedule exists, the line reads "Not generated yet".

Buyer-created tax invoices

The vendor record has an RCTI (recipient-created tax invoice) tick box. It's NetSuite's own New Zealand/Australia localisation field, so the same agreement you already record for your other processes drives the Payment Schedule too.

When the tick box is set, the Payment Schedule becomes a tax invoice:

• Title changes to "Payment Schedule - Buyer Created Tax Invoice".
• A Tax Invoice No. is stamped in the form <Subcontract>-C<nnn> — for example SCT001-C001 — and stays the same each time the schedule is regenerated before it's sent.
• Both your company's and the subcontractor's GST numbers print on the document.
• GST is added to the certified payment after retention, at the GST rate of each line's tax code (15% in New Zealand). The tax codes come from the subcontract's purchase order lines.
• Payment Due prints inclusive of GST.
• The claim's Tax Invoice Number and Tax Amount fields are filled in from the schedule.

If the tick box isn't set, the schedule is an ordinary Payment Schedule with no GST lines and no tax invoice number. A Draft schedule is never a tax invoice: the tax invoice is only issued once the claim is Approved.

What's on the document

The Payment Schedule is laid out on A4 landscape pages and brings together:

• Job identification — job/project, Project Manager, Financial Manager.
• Main contractor detail: your company's legal name, GST number and postal address, all from the subsidiary record.
• Subcontractor detail.
• Claim identification — claim number, claim period, and the claim's Payment Due Date (worked out from the Claim Date and the payment terms). The subcontractor's own Claimed Due Date for Payment isn't printed. If the Payment Due Date is blank, the line is left blank.
• Whole-of-contract table — every original line on the subcontract's purchase order, including lines not claimed this period, showing Contract, % Complete, Paid to Date, Previous, Claimed (what the subcontractor claimed this period) and Current (what you've certified), with each line's Reason printed on the line where you haven't paid it in full.
• Variations table — approved variations, each prefixed with an "A" reference, with the same Claimed, Current and Reason detail. Unapproved variations aren't shown on the schedule yet.
• Items Claimed Not Part of the Contract — anything on the claim's Additional subtab, with its Description, Claimed amount, Certified amount (always 0), Status and Reason, and totals. These items don't change the Contract Summary or the payment due. The section is left out when the claim has no Additional items. See Items claimed that aren't on the subcontract.
• Reason for Variance — any claim-level reasons recorded on the claim. Per-line reasons print on their own lines in the tables above, not here.
• Contract summary — Original Contract, Contract Variations, Total Claimed, Less Retentions, and Certified Payments broken down by Original / Paid to Date / Previous / Current.
• Payment summary.
• Retention trust statement — from the one-time configuration.
• Footer — Job No, Claim No, and Page N of M.

Dates print in dd/mm/yy format throughout.

Sending it

Click Send to Subcontractor once the schedule is Approved and you're happy with it. A Draft schedule can't be sent: approve the claim first, which approves its schedule.

1. A confirmation page opens.
2. To — the subcontractor's vendor record email, or one of the vendor's contacts that has an email address recorded. You can't type in an arbitrary address.
3. CC me — a tick box that CCs your own email address only.
4. Subject and message are pre-filled and editable.
5. The email attaches the Payment Schedule PDF, plus the Form 1 file from configuration if one is set. If no Form 1 is configured, the page tells you it will send the schedule alone.
6. Send.

What gets recorded

Once the email goes out:

• The schedule's status becomes Sent, and its Sent Date (the date and time), Sent By and Sent To are recorded. The claim's Payment Schedule line shows them.
• The claim's Response Issued Date is set to when the schedule was sent, if it wasn't already. On NZ CCA subcontracts this is the date that evidences your response, so it's set when you send the schedule, not when you approve the claim.
• From now on the schedule can't be regenerated. If you send it again (for example to another contact), the confirmation page shows when it was already sent, and the same schedule goes out.

Sending several at once

To send a batch of schedules in one go, go to FullClarity → Project Financials → Send Payment Schedules.

The page lists every Approved Payment Schedule that hasn't been sent yet, with the nearest Assessment Due Date at the top. That's the deadline for issuing the schedule. Each row shows:

• Claim (click to open it in a new tab), Subcontract and Subcontractor
• Send To: the address it will go to. That's the vendor record's email, or the first of the vendor's contacts with an email address. A row that says No email can't be sent until you add one.
• Assessment Due Date and Days Until Due. Schedules that are overdue, or due today, are shown in red.
• Net Payable

Tick the schedules to send, or click Mark All, then click Send Selected. Each one is sent with the standard subject and message, and it's recorded exactly as if you'd sent it from the claim: status Sent, Sent Date, Sent By and Sent To, and the claim's Response Issued Date. To change the message, or send to a different contact, use Send to Subcontractor on the claim instead.

• One schedule ticked: it's sent straight away. The list reloads with a green banner saying who it went to, or a red one with the reason if it couldn't be sent (for example, it was regenerated after you opened the list).
• Two or more ticked: they're sent in the background, so you don't have to wait on the page. A green banner confirms they're on their way. Click View progress in it to watch the job run, if you want. Each schedule drops off the list once it has gone, and when they've all been processed you get an email listing the ones that were sent and any that weren't, with the reason. Only one batch can run at a time: if you try to start another while one is still running, you're asked to wait.

A schedule is only ever sent once from here: if it has already gone by the time its turn comes (for example, someone sent it from the claim), it's skipped and listed as not sent. If you tick a very large number, the page sends as many as it can in one batch and lists the rest in an amber banner. Tick those and click Send Selected again once the first batch has finished.

Draft schedules aren't listed: approve the claim first. On a sandbox or test account, every email goes to you rather than the subcontractor, as with a single send.

If there's already a Vendor Bill

If a Vendor Bill already exists for the claim, generating a tax-invoice schedule updates the bill's Reference No. to the tax invoice number — but only when the Reference No. field is currently blank and the bill's totals match the schedule. If either condition isn't met, you'll see a warning instead, and you'll need to check the bill by hand.

If you click Create Bill after issuing a tax-invoice schedule, the new bill takes the tax invoice number as its Reference No., but only when the bill's GST agrees with the GST on the tax invoice. The bill's GST comes from the tax codes on the subcontract's purchase order lines, so make sure the items on the Schedule of Values carry the correct GST code (for example 15% GST in New Zealand). A bill whose lines have a zero-rated or undefined tax code will have no GST, won't match, and is left with a blank Reference No. for you to check.

Refusals, and how to fix each

Generating (or sending) can be refused. Each refusal opens a plain page explaining what's missing — nothing is created:

One-time configuration

Before the first schedule can be generated for a subsidiary, set up:

On the subsidiary record:

• Tax ID: your company's GST number. It's the GST number NetSuite already holds for the subsidiary, so it's usually filled in already.
• Shipping Address: the postal address printed on the schedule. Enter the address you want subcontractors to see (for example your PO Box). The addressee line is left off, because the company name already heads the block. If the Shipping Address is blank, the schedule prints no address.

On the Project Financials configuration record, for the subsidiary:

• Retention Trust Statement (required)
• Form 1 File (optional; attached automatically when sending, if set). A sample Form 1, watermarked SAMPLE, is supplied in the File Cabinet at SuiteApps › com.fullclarity.projectfinancials › subcontract › documents. Use it to see how sending works, but replace it with your own Form 1 before you send schedules to subcontractors.
• Payment Schedule Logo

On the vendor record:

• RCTI tick box, if you've agreed buyer-created tax invoices in writing with the subcontractor
• Tax Reg. Number — the subcontractor's GST number

On the project:

• Financial Manager

On variations:

• External Reference (ATS) — printed as the variation's "A" reference on the schedule

What success looks like

• Once the claim is approved, its Payment Schedule line shows Approved, and View PDF opens the schedule in a new tab.
• The PDF is titled correctly for its state — "Payment Schedule" (draft, NOT YET APPROVED) or, once Approved, either "Payment Schedule" or "Payment Schedule - Buyer Created Tax Invoice" depending on the vendor's tax-invoice agreement.
• Once sent, the Payment Schedule line shows Sent with the date and time, who sent it and who it went to, and the claim's Response Issued Date is set.

Gotchas

• This is NZ CCA only, today. AU SOP Act and UK HGCRA subcontracts don't have these buttons — see Assess a subcontractor claim.
• Generating replaces the PDF, until it's sent. Each Generate updates the claim's one schedule with a fresh PDF. After it's sent, it can't be changed.
• Approve before you send. Only an Approved schedule can be sent. Approving the claim produces it.
• The tax invoice number is sticky. Once a claim has a Tax Invoice Number, it doesn't change on later regenerations, even if you toggle the vendor's tax-invoice agreement off and back on.
• Unapproved variations don't show on the schedule. Only approved variations appear, with an "A" reference.
• Additional items are certified at 0. Anything claimed that isn't on the subcontract is listed with its reason but never paid. To pay it, approve a variation and move the item onto its line before you generate the schedule.
• You can't type a recipient address. Sending relies on the vendor record's own email, or an email held against one of its contacts — add or fix the address there if sending fails to find one.

Related

• Assess a subcontractor claim
• Create a subcontract
• Subcontract states