If you're building a home, you'll receive somewhere between fifteen and forty fortnightly invoice claims over the course of the project. Each one is asking you to authorise a payment, often in the tens of thousands of dollars, against work performed in the previous two weeks.

Most homeowners I've talked to don't know what to look for in those claims. That's not their fault — most of the industry has been opaque about it for a long time. This article is the guide we wish had existed before our clients signed their first contract.

It applies whether you're working with us or with someone else.

What a good claim contains

A fortnightly claim, at minimum, should let you answer four questions in under five minutes:

1. What was done in this period? 2. What did it cost, by category? 3. How does that compare to the contract? 4. What's coming next?

Specifically, you should see:

A line item per cost code. Not "stage 3 — frame: $X." Something more like:

  • 03.10 Wall framing — labour: 86 hours
  • 03.20 Wall framing — material: $14,832 (75% complete)
  • 03.30 Roof trusses — supply only: $9,200 (delivered)

If your claim shows you a single number for "framing," that's not a claim — that's a bill. There's no way to verify it.

Hours worked, by trade, by day. A real time-tracking system tells you which carpenter was on site Tuesday for how long. Most reputable builders run this; not all of them surface it to clients. Ask.

A daily log. Photos, weather, who was on site, what got done. The log should match the hours and the costs. If a claim says four carpenters worked Wednesday but the log doesn't show four carpenters, something is off.

A running cost summary showing contract value, claimed to date, this claim, and remaining. You should never have to reconstruct your build's financial position from the original contract; it should be one number you read every fortnight.

Variations clearly separated from the original contract. If you've approved any variations during the period, they appear as their own line item, with the variation reference number and the original approval date.

Approved completion percentages for each section, not "trust me." If 03.20 is at 75%, what defines 75%? In most cases, it's something physically verifiable on site.

What to push back on

Patterns that should make you nervous:

Single-line claims. "Stage 4: $87,000." If you can't see what that's for, don't pay it until you can. A reputable builder will give you the breakdown without complaint.

Claims that don't reconcile to the contract. If the contract said the frame was $80k and you're now five claims in, having paid out $90k against it, somebody owes you a conversation about what changed.

Variations sneaking in unannounced. Any change to scope or cost should arrive as a variation document with a number, signed off in writing, before the work happens. If a variation appears for the first time inside an invoice claim, that's a process failure.

Provisional sums treated as final. A provisional sum is a placeholder for a cost that wasn't fully known at contract signing. When the actual cost is known, the provisional sum reconciles up or down. You should see that reconciliation explicitly. A "PS" item that quietly absorbs an over-run is one of the most common ways residential projects drift.

No accompanying log. If a builder is asking you to authorise a $40k payment and can't show you a daily log of what your money was spent on, the issue is bigger than this one invoice.

What we do

For full disclosure: at Varloch, every claim shows the cost-code breakdown, the time records, the daily log, the variations register, and the running contract position. Our project management tool gives you visibility into all of this in real time, not just at claim time.

That's not because we're heroic. It's because we believe this is what every builder should be doing, and the only reason it isn't standard is that the industry hasn't been forced to. As a homeowner, you can force it — by asking, every claim, for the four answers above. A builder who can give them is one you can work with. A builder who can't, or won't, is a builder you'll regret hiring.

A small principle

A build is one of the largest financial transactions most people make in their lifetime. The contract you sign on day one and the claims you pay every fortnight are the same conversation, in long form. Read them with the same seriousness either way.