Contact Info
Australian Contracting
Where does a contracting ERP consultant help Australian contractors?
Australian head contractors and subbies usually need help with the commercial administration that sits between the job and the books: payment claims and schedules running both ways, variation and latent condition notices with strict time bars, set-off and back-charges, cash retention and bank guarantees, and retention trust rules where they apply. My work spans mapping that process, writing a requirement set, an even-handed platform shortlist and implementation oversight, all run remotely across Australian time zones.
Last reviewed by Vikas Saroj
An Australian contractor is usually a claimant and a respondent in the same month. You serve payment claims on the principal or head contractor and wait for schedules, while your own subbies serve claims on you and expect schedules back on time. Add variation notices with strict time bars, retention or bank guarantees, and set-off for defective work, and the commercial workload turns into a deadline management problem.
This page is about that commercial administration. Progress claim basics, GST, BAS and payroll for builders live on my separate Australian construction ERP page. Here the focus is notices, variations and latent conditions, set-off, retention and security, in both directions. I work remotely with Australian businesses and schedule sessions in your part of the day.
What I Do
I look at the claim cycle from both ends, because most cash problems come from the side that gets less attention.
I document both claim cycles with your contract administrators and accounts team: claims you serve and schedules you receive, then claims your subcontractors serve and the schedules you issue, including who assesses, who approves and when.
Requirements for logging every contractual notice, such as variations, delays, latent conditions and extensions of time, with the time bar calculated from contract terms and an alert well before it expires.
Linking head contract variations to the subcontract variations they trigger, with claimed, assessed and approved values held separately, so a variation approved upstream is passed down and one rejected upstream is visible.
A defined route from defect or delay event to set-off in a payment schedule, with evidence and reasons recorded, so deductions are explained in the schedule and supported if the claimant disputes them.
Cash retention and bank guarantees held and provided, with release triggers tied to completion milestones and defects liability expiry, plus fields for any trust account requirements your advisors confirm.
Scripted demos using your own head contract and subcontract scenarios, neutral scoring, and implementation review through the first full claim month on the new system.
What to Measure
An ERP for contracting should make these numbers available without a spreadsheet. I design the data model and reports around them from the start.
Platform Fit
How I Work
Contracts, notices and claim cycles
Head contract terms reviewed
Subcontract templates compared
Notice history examined
Set-off practice discussed
Commercial rules and neutral shortlist
Notice and time bar rules
Claim and schedule data model
Scenario demo scripts
Scored fit-gap
Assured build and first claim month
Design walkthroughs
Open subcontract balances checked
Schedule generation tested
First claim month reviewed
Many Australian head contracts start from an Australian Standard form of general conditions or from a principal's own form, and subcontracts may use a matching AS subcontract form, a head contractor's template or something heavily amended. Whatever the form, notice provisions do the real commercial work. Variations, latent conditions, delays and extensions of time usually have to be notified within set periods, and a missed notice can mean the claim is lost, depending on how a court or adjudicator reads the clause.
Those periods differ between your head contract and your subcontracts. You might have a short window to notify the principal of a latent condition, while your subcontractor has a different window to notify you. I specify a notice register that holds every notice given or received, its type, the triggering event, the contract clause and the calculated deadline, with alerts before it falls due. Each notice links to the variation, delay or claim record it supports, and to any matching notice on the other side of the chain. That turns time bars from something a contract administrator remembers into something the system reports. I document the rules during requirements gathering, using your own contracts and recent notice correspondence.
Under the security of payment acts, which differ between the states and territories, subcontractors get a statutory route to payment, and pay-when-paid provisions are generally rendered ineffective. For a head contractor, that means your own cash position on a project does not change what you owe your subbies under their contract and the legislation. When a payment claim arrives, the schedule you serve has to state the amount you propose to pay and your reasons for withholding anything, within the applicable timeframe. The detail differs by jurisdiction and should be confirmed with your advisors.
Good schedules should be the easy path in the ERP. I design a subcontract assessment that starts from the claim, values each line against the subcontract and approved variations, applies retention and records set-off as separate lines linked to the event that justifies it: defective work, delay costs or back-charges for services you provided. The schedule is generated from that assessment, with reasons drawn from the linked records, and the service date is logged. If the subcontractor proceeds to adjudication, your file already contains the claim, schedule, reasons and evidence. Upstream progress claim mechanics are described on my Australian construction ERP page.
Security in Australian contracting comes as cash retention, bank guarantees or a mix, and it runs both ways. Principals hold security from you; you hold security from your subcontractors. Some states have introduced retention trust or project trust requirements for certain contracts, which affect where cash retention is held and how it is reported. Scope and thresholds vary, so confirm with your advisors which of your contracts are affected.
I specify security as its own record: type, basis of calculation, provider or holder, the release events written into the contract, such as practical completion or defects liability expiry, and for bank guarantees the issuing bank and expiry. Cash retention held from subcontractors is tracked per subcontract with its release conditions, and where trust rules apply, the system needs to show the movements finance must report. Releasing a subbie's retention before the principal has returned yours is a cash decision, and the ERP should make that timing visible rather than leave it to chance. Bank guarantee returns at completion are a frequent gap, so the requirements include a release workflow with named responsibilities and target dates.
Many Australian contractors run Xero or MYOB for the books, with claims, schedules, variation and notice registers kept in Excel or a project management tool. Some larger firms run a construction-specific package and want to know whether a general ERP would serve them better, or the other way round. I answer that through ERP evaluation work, scoring each option on your own scenarios: a subcontract claim with set-off, a variation notified upstream and passed down, a latent condition claim and a retention release.
Migration matters because claim history is cumulative. Each open subcontract needs its value, approved variations, claimed and scheduled amounts, set-off applied, retention and security migrated so that the next schedule is right. Notices still inside their time bars must come across too. Since nobody pays me to recommend a product, the shortlist reflects your contracts rather than a sales target. The non-country version of this model sits on ERP for contracting, while GST, payroll and other nationwide questions get their own treatment on the ERP consulting page for Australia, with state-by-state market notes on the Australia hub. Work is delivered remotely in hours that suit your time zone.
Tell me about your business and current systems. I’ll suggest the most sensible first step.
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FAQ
Yes, if the notice periods are captured per contract and per notice type. I define a notice register with calculated deadlines and alerts, linked to variations and claims. How a court or adjudicator would treat a late notice is a legal question; the system's job is to make deadlines visible before they pass.
Most platforms can produce a document from an assessment, but reasons for withholding, set-off lines and service dates usually need configuration or custom work. I test schedule generation with your own claim examples during demos and again in UAT, so gaps appear before go-live rather than in an adjudication.
They can. Where your advisors confirm that rules apply to a contract, the system needs to identify that cash retention, report movements and support reconciliation with the trust account. I build those needs into the requirements without deciding the legal position myself.
Video workshops fit around your office hours wherever you are in Australia, and we walk through real claims and schedules on a shared screen. Contract administrators on site can review short recordings and reply with comments. A site visit can be organized if a stage clearly benefits from one.
Every business is different. Share where you are today and what you want to fix, and I’ll tell you honestly whether and how I can help.
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