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When is the payment schedule due?
Put in the date the claim was served, the state the work is in, and the windows your contract names. The calculator counts the business days on that state's public-holiday calendar and shows every day it stepped over, so you can check the count rather than trust it.
Count the window
Your contract's numbers, on the calendar the job sits on.
Payment schedule due
Mon, 11 Jan 2027
10 business days after service, stepping over 14 days
Show the working
- Sat, 19 Dec 2026: Weekend
- Sun, 20 Dec 2026: Weekend
- Fri, 25 Dec 2026: Christmas Day
- Sat, 26 Dec 2026: Weekend
- Sun, 27 Dec 2026: Weekend
- Mon, 28 Dec 2026: Boxing Day (observed)
- Tue, 29 Dec 2026: Year-end shutdown
- Wed, 30 Dec 2026: Year-end shutdown
- Thu, 31 Dec 2026: Year-end shutdown
- Fri, 1 Jan 2027: New Year's Day
- Sat, 2 Jan 2027: Weekend
- Sun, 3 Jan 2027: Weekend
- Sat, 9 Jan 2027: Weekend
- Sun, 10 Jan 2027: Weekend
Payment due
Mon, 18 Jan 2027
15 business days after service, stepping over 16 days
Show the working
- Sat, 19 Dec 2026: Weekend
- Sun, 20 Dec 2026: Weekend
- Fri, 25 Dec 2026: Christmas Day
- Sat, 26 Dec 2026: Weekend
- Sun, 27 Dec 2026: Weekend
- Mon, 28 Dec 2026: Boxing Day (observed)
- Tue, 29 Dec 2026: Year-end shutdown
- Wed, 30 Dec 2026: Year-end shutdown
- Thu, 31 Dec 2026: Year-end shutdown
- Fri, 1 Jan 2027: New Year's Day
- Sat, 2 Jan 2027: Weekend
- Sun, 3 Jan 2027: Weekend
- Sat, 9 Jan 2027: Weekend
- Sun, 10 Jan 2027: Weekend
- Sat, 16 Jan 2027: Weekend
- Sun, 17 Jan 2027: Weekend
This counts the window your contract names, on the public-holiday calendar for the state you pick. It is not legal advice and it does not tell you what your statutory window is. Every jurisdiction sets its own and they change. Confirm yours against the Act before you rely on a date.
Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999A WORKED EXAMPLE
A claim served the Friday before Christmas
A payment claim is served on Friday 18 December 2026, on a NSW job, with a ten business-day response window. Counted as plain days on a wall calendar, that looks like 28 December, a date that lands inside the shutdown, when nobody is reading anything.
Counted properly it is Monday 11 January 2027. Christmas Day, the Boxing Day holiday observed on the 28th, the 27th to the 31st shutdown and New Year's Day all come out of the count: 14 days in total, three weeks of drift on one claim.
It cuts both ways. A respondent who diarised the naive date and served on it would be early, which costs nothing. A claimant who assumed the naive date had passed and went to adjudication would be moving on a window that had not closed yet, which costs plenty.
READ YOUR OWN ACT
We won't tell you what your statutory window is
Every state and territory sets its own, amending Acts move them, and a number typed into a marketing page ages badly and expensively. So the calculator counts the window you bring it, and this is the list of what to check it against.
- NSWBuilding and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999
- VICBuilding and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002
- QLDBuilding Industry Fairness (Security of Payment) Act 2017
- WABuilding and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2021
- SABuilding and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2009
- TASBuilding and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2009
- ACTBuilding and Construction Industry (Security of Payment) Act 2009
- NTConstruction Contracts (Security of Payments) Act 2004
This counts the window your contract names, on the public-holiday calendar for the state you pick. It is not legal advice and it does not tell you what your statutory window is. Every jurisdiction sets its own and they change. Confirm yours against the Act before you rely on a date.
Questions people arrive with
What counts as a business day for a payment claim?
A weekday that is not a public holiday in the place the work is being done. Which holidays apply is the part that catches people out: a Perth job and a Sydney job served on the same day resolve to different dates, because each state keeps its own calendar. Some Acts also exclude the Christmas to New Year shutdown from the count.
How many days do I have to respond to a payment claim?
That depends on your contract and on the Act your contract sits under, and the two are not always the same number. Every state and territory sets its own window and amending Acts move them, so the honest answer is to read your contract first and the legislation second. This calculator counts whichever number you bring it; it does not tell you what the number is.
Does the Christmas shutdown really pause the clock?
Under the NSW Act, 27 to 31 December are excluded from a business-day count. Other jurisdictions differ, which is why it is a switch on the calculator rather than something the state selection decides for you. Leave it on if your contract sits under an Act that excludes those days.
What happens if the window closes without a payment schedule?
Under most of the Australian regimes, a respondent who serves no payment schedule inside the window becomes liable for the claimed amount in full, and the disputes they meant to raise are gone. That is a legal position and the consequences differ by jurisdiction, so confirm yours against the Act. What is universal is that the date is the thing worth watching.
The date you calculate here, tectm watches for you
Inside the platform the clock starts the moment a claim is received, against the windows on that contract and the calendar of the state the project is in. The certificate is built from approved dockets, retention and the back-charge ledger, so the schedule you serve is already backed. Read the piece on how the clock works, or see it on your own contracts.