Application for Payment Template (UK) — Excel, JCT and NEC4
Free UK application for payment template in Excel, with JCT interim application and NEC4 assessment sheets. Covers due dates, what must be on the application, and what happens if the payer misses the notice.
Key Takeaways
- An application states the sum you consider due and the basis for it — a total on its own is not enough.
- Every deadline in the cycle comes off the valuation or assessment date, so diarise them all at once.
- If the payer gives no compliant payment notice, your applied sum becomes the notified sum.
- Show retention, variations and dayworks as separate lines so one dispute does not stall the whole payment.
- Contract particulars amend the default timings routinely — read yours before relying on the defaults.
The application, its deadlines and its evidence in one record
Site Samurai builds each application for payment against the contract schedule, carries agreed variations and signed daywork sheets into it with their references intact, and projects the payment due date, payment notice deadline, pay less notice deadline and final date for payment for every cycle in the contract. The client certifies through a one-tap link, so the response lands on the record rather than in somebody’s inbox.
What an application for payment actually does
An application sets out the sum you consider due at the payment due date and how you calculated it. It is not an invoice. An invoice records an agreed debt; an application opens a payment cycle in which the payer has a fixed window to agree, to certify a different figure, or to say nothing at all. Under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, if the payer gives no compliant payment notice, the sum in your application can become the notified sum, which must be paid in full by the final date for payment.
- It states one figure: the sum you consider due at the payment due date.
- It shows the basis of that figure, line by line, so the payer can check it.
- It starts the payment notice and pay less notice deadlines running.
- Under JCT Design and Build 2016 it also drives the valuation itself.
When your application is due, and what follows it
The timing comes from your contract, not from a rule of thumb. These are the default positions for the common forms. Contract particulars routinely amend them, so read yours before you diarise anything.
| Contract form | Due date | Payment notice | Final date for payment | Pay less notice |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| JCT SBC/Q 2016 | 7 days after the Interim Valuation Date | Not later than 5 days after the due date | 14 days after the due date | Not later than 5 days before the final date |
| JCT Design and Build 2016 | 7 days after the Interim Valuation Date | Not later than 5 days after the due date | 14 days after the due date | Not later than 5 days before the final date |
| NEC4 ECC with Option Y(UK)2 | Set from the assessment date in Contract Data | Project Manager certifies within one week of the assessment date | Payment within three weeks of the assessment date unless Contract Data says otherwise | Before the final date for payment — check your edition of Y(UK)2 |
| Scheme default (no compliant mechanism) | 7 days after the end of the relevant period, or when you make your claim, whichever is later | Not later than 5 days after the due date | 17 days after the due date | Not later than 7 days before the final date |
- Under JCT SBC/Q the Quantity Surveyor values the work; your application is a default payment notice if the certificate does not arrive in time.
- Under JCT Design and Build your Interim Application drives the valuation, so submitting it before the Interim Valuation Date matters.
- NEC4 works from assessment dates, not from your application — the Project Manager assesses whether or not you send anything.
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What must be on the application
The statutory floor is short: the sum you consider due at the payment due date, and the basis on which that sum is calculated. The practical floor is longer, because an application the payer cannot audit is the application most likely to attract a pay less notice.
- Project, contract reference and the application or cycle number.
- The valuation or assessment date the figures are measured to.
- Measured work to date, with the percentage complete against each item.
- Variations and compensation events, listed separately with their instruction references.
- Dayworks, with the signed sheet references.
- Materials on site, only where the contract allows them to be valued.
- Retention deducted at the contract percentage, shown as its own line.
- Amounts previously certified, deducted to give the net sum applied for.
- The VAT position, including whether the domestic reverse charge applies.
Worked example
Take a groundworks subcontract with a £420,000 order, a monthly cycle, an Interim Valuation Date of 25/09/2026 and 5% retention, under JCT Design and Build 2016. Measured work stands at 60% complete, so £252,000 gross. Two agreed variations add £8,400 and a signed daywork sheet adds £1,150, giving £261,550. Retention at 5% is £13,077.50. Previously certified is £198,000. The net application is £50,472.50 excluding VAT. The due date is 02/10/2026, seven days after the valuation date. The payment notice is due by 07/10/2026 and the final date for payment is 16/10/2026, with a pay less notice due no later than 11/10/2026. If nothing arrives by 07/10/2026, £50,472.50 is the notified sum and it is payable in full.
- The retention line is separate, not netted into the measured total.
- Variations carry their instruction references so the payer can check them without asking.
- Every deadline in the example comes off one date: the Interim Valuation Date.
Common mistakes
The applications that go wrong tend to go wrong the same few ways, and none of them are about the arithmetic.
- Applying late, which moves every downstream deadline and can push the money into the next cycle.
- Sending a total with no breakdown, which is not a basis of calculation and invites a challenge.
- Rolling unagreed variations into the measured total, so a dispute about one line holds up payment for all of them.
- Valuing to the date the paperwork was done rather than the valuation date in the contract.
- Including materials on site where the contract does not allow it, or where they are not stored and identified as the contract requires.
- Not diarising the payment notice date, so a missed notice — your strongest position — passes unnoticed.
How the application feeds the rest of the cycle
The application is the first document in a chain, and every later document quotes it. The application sets the sum claimed. The payment notice answers it with the sum the payer considers due. A pay less notice, if there is one, reduces that figure before the final date for payment. The payment itself discharges the notified sum. At close-out, the same lines reappear in the final account and the retention statement. Keeping the references consistent across all of them is what makes a final account settle quickly.
- Application → payment notice → pay less notice (if any) → payment by the final date.
- Where no compliant payment notice is given, your application becomes the notified sum.
- Statutory interest on a late commercial debt runs at 8% above the Bank of England base rate, with fixed compensation of £40, £70 or £100 depending on the size of the debt.
Sources
Every timing on this page was checked against the source named below before it was published. This is general information, not legal advice — your contract particulars govern.
- Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996, Part II, ss.109–111 (as amended by the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009) — legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/53/part/II
- Scheme for Construction Contracts (England and Wales) Regulations 1998, Schedule Part II, paragraphs 4, 8, 9 and 10 — legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/649/schedule/part/II
- JCT, "JCT explains: interim payments" (SBC/Q 2016 clauses 4.9 and 4.11) — corporate.jctltd.co.uk/jct-explains-interim-payments/
- NEC4 ECC clauses 50.1, 51.1 and 51.2 and secondary Option Y(UK)2, as summarised by HKA, "How to get your NEC4 ECC pay less notice right under Y(UK)2" — hka.com
- Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, s.5A, and gov.uk "Late commercial payments: charging interest and debt recovery" — legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/20/section/5A
Last reviewed: 2 September 2026
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