Construction Payment Schedule Template (UK) — Free Excel
Free UK construction payment schedule template in Excel. Map every due date, payment notice date, pay less notice deadline and final date for payment across a whole contract before the first application goes in.
Key Takeaways
- Build the schedule at contract award, from the contract particulars, for the whole contract.
- Count the payment notice period from the due date and the pay less period back from the final date.
- Record the amount paid, not just the amount applied for — the shortfall column is the point.
- A notified sum unpaid with no pay less notice is the simplest claim in construction.
- The Scheme fills gaps clause by clause; a compliant contract clause is not displaced by it.
The payment calendar, projected from the contract
Site Samurai holds the payment terms for each contract and projects the due date, payment notice deadline, pay less notice deadline and final date for payment for every cycle to the end of the job. Applications and certifications land against those dates, so a cycle that was short paid, or a notice that never arrived, is visible on the record the day it happens.
What a payment schedule is for
The Construction Act gives you a right to periodic payment and a set of deadlines around each one, but it does not put those deadlines in a calendar. A payment schedule does. It turns the contract particulars into a list of dated obligations for both sides, so a missed payment notice is visible on the day it is missed rather than in the month it becomes a dispute.
- One row per payment cycle, for the whole contract period.
- The four dates in each cycle, calculated from the contract particulars.
- The notified sum and what was actually paid, so shortfalls surface immediately.
- A single place to check whether a notice arrived in time.
The four dates in every cycle
Every payment cycle under a UK construction contract has the same skeleton. Only the intervals change.
| Date | What it is | JCT 2016 default | Scheme default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Due date | When payment becomes due and the notice clock starts | 7 days after the Interim Valuation Date | 7 days after the end of the relevant period, or when the claim is made, whichever is later |
| Payment notice | The payer states the sum it considers due and the basis | Not later than 5 days after the due date | Not later than 5 days after the due date |
| Pay less notice | The last chance to pay less than the notified sum | Not later than 5 days before the final date | Not later than 7 days before the final date |
| Final date for payment | When the notified sum must be in the bank | 14 days after the due date | 17 days after the due date |
- Under NEC4 ECC the cycle runs from assessment dates set in Contract Data: the Project Manager certifies within one week and payment follows within three weeks of the assessment date unless Contract Data changes it.
- The Scheme only fills the gaps. Where the contract has a compliant mechanism for one of these dates, that clause stands and only the missing ones are supplied.
Download Templates
How to build the schedule
Do it once, at award, from the contract particulars — not from memory of the last job with the same client.
- Find the Interim Valuation Dates or assessment interval in the contract particulars or Contract Data.
- List every cycle from the first valuation date to the anticipated final account.
- Add the contractual interval to get the due date for each cycle.
- Add the payment notice period to each due date.
- Add the final date period to each due date, then count back the pay less period from it.
- Check the dates against your own weekends and holidays, and against any contractual rule on non-working days.
- Circulate the schedule to the commercial team and the client contact so both sides work to the same dates.
Worked example
A twelve-month JCT Design and Build 2016 subcontract has Interim Valuation Dates on the 25th of each month. For the cycle valued at 25/09/2026, the due date is 02/10/2026, the payment notice is due by 07/10/2026, the final date for payment is 16/10/2026 and a pay less notice must be given no later than 11/10/2026. The application goes in on 24/09/2026 for £50,472.50. No payment notice arrives by 07/10/2026, so that figure is the notified sum. On 16/10/2026 £41,000 lands. The shortfall column shows £9,472.50 against a notified sum that was never reduced by a pay less notice — which is about as clean an adjudication position as construction offers.
Common mistakes
Payment schedules fail for boring reasons, which is exactly why they are worth building.
- Using the deadlines from the last contract instead of reading this one’s particulars.
- Counting the payment notice period from the application date rather than the due date.
- Counting the pay less notice deadline forward from the due date rather than back from the final date.
- Filling in only the first three cycles, so the schedule stops being used by month four.
- Recording the amount applied for but not the amount paid, which is the only column that reveals a shortfall.
- Not sharing the schedule with the client, so both sides are working to different dates.
How the schedule connects to everything else
The schedule is the spine. The application fills in the notified sum column, the payment notice or its absence fills in the next, the payment fills in the last, and the shortfall column is what you take to a conversation about late payment. Retention releases and the final account get their own rows at the end, because both are payments under the contract and both go through the same notice machinery.
- Application → notified sum → payment → shortfall, one row per cycle.
- Retention release and the final account are payments too, with their own dates.
- 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
Every deadline on the contract, projected before cycle one
Site Samurai projects the whole payment calendar from the contract terms so the deadlines exist before the first application, not after the first problem.
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