BCA progress claim format: a contractor's template (with examples)

Why progress claims matter

On any construction project longer than two months, you don't wait until completion to invoice — you bill in stages, against work already done. In Singapore that's called a progress claim, and how you format it determines whether you get paid in three weeks or three months.

The Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act (SOPA) sets the legal framework. A progress claim that complies with SOPA has enforcement teeth — the client must respond with a payment response within 14 days, or the claimed amount becomes due in full. This guide covers the practical formatting that gets approved fastest, the line-item structure that survives adjudication, and the retention rules to bake in from day one.

What a progress claim must contain

Under SOPA, a valid payment claim must identify these things clearly enough that the respondent can act on them:

1. The contract. The contract reference, the parties, the contract sum, and the date of the contract.
2. The claimed amount.The total amount you're claiming, in plain numbers, before and after GST.
3. The work it covers.Either a reference period ("work done up to 30 April 2026") or specific milestones.
4. A breakdown. The work or supply that the claim relates to, broken down enough that the respondent can review each line.
5. A statement.Words to the effect of "This is a payment claim made under the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act." Without this line, your claim may not get SOPA protection.
6. The respondent's details. Who to pay, where to send the payment response, by when.

The line-item structure that gets approved

The structure that gives the fewest opportunities for the client to push back is the one that mirrors the original BQ. For each section in your accepted BQ, the progress claim should show:

• Section name— match the BQ verbatim. "3. Electrical works" on the BQ becomes "3. Electrical works" on the claim.
• Contract value — the total for that section from the BQ.
• % complete this claim — what proportion of the section is complete as of this claim.
• Cumulative claimed to date — total claimed for this section across all claims so far.
• Previously claimed — what was on prior claims.
• This claim — the delta between cumulative and previously claimed. This is the amount due on this specific claim.

Example row

A claim formatted this way is hard to dispute. Every number is traceable to either the original BQ or a previous claim. If the client's QS wants to challenge the "75% complete," they have to point at specific work that isn't done — they can't hand-wave it.

Retention: get it right at quotation time

Retention is the amount withheld from each claim to cover defects liability — typically 5–10%, released either fully at end of defects-liability period or split (half at practical completion, half at end of DLP). Two things to get right:

• State it in the quotation.The retention percentage and the release schedule both go in the BQ. If you don't state it, you can't deduct it later without the client's agreement.
• Apply it to the net, not the gross. Retention comes off the work value before GST. The order is:
  • Subtotal of this claim
  • Less retention (e.g. 5%)
  • Net claim
  • Plus GST (9%) on the net
  • Total payable on this claim

GST: snapshot it at the date of issue

Singapore raised GST from 7% to 8% in 2023 and to 9% in 2024. A renovation project that starts in one calendar year and finishes in the next can straddle a rate change. The rule:

Each invoice or progress claim uses the GST rate in force at the time of issue. The total in your contract sum doesn't change retroactively when the rate goes up — only new claims issued after the change date use the new rate. If you have a software platform that auto-applies the current org-wide rate to all historical documents, you'll quietly create reporting errors at year-end.

Timing the claim under SOPA

SOPA grants you the right to serve a payment claim at intervals set out in your contract — and if your contract is silent, the default is once per month. Best practice:

1. Stick to the schedule.If your contract says claims are served on the 25th of each month, serve on the 25th even if it's a quiet month.
2. Reference the period clearly."Work done from 26 April 2026 to 25 May 2026" leaves no room for argument about scope.
3. Serve with proof of receipt. Email is fine if your contract allows; physical delivery is fine for higher-value claims. Keep the timestamp.
4. Count 14 days for the response.If you don't receive a valid payment response within 14 days of service, the claimed amount becomes due in full — and you can apply for adjudication.

Common mistakes that delay payment

• No reference to the original contract or BQ.If the QS has to reconcile your claim against the contract from memory, you've added a week.
• Missing "made under the SOPA" statement. Easy to forget. Loses you the legal protection.
• Cumulative numbers that don't reconcile.If claim 4's "previously claimed" doesn't equal claim 3's cumulative, the QS will raise it as a query.
• Retention applied inconsistently. A claim that forgets retention on one line item but applies it on others looks sloppy and invites scrutiny on every line.
• No GST breakdown. Even if GST is included in the total, the IRAS-compliant invoice format requires the GST amount to be stated separately.

How Zeng Book formats this for you

Every Zeng Book invoice issued from an accepted quotation automatically:

• References the original quotation number on the document
• Inherits the retention percentage from the quote
• Snapshots the GST rate at the moment of issue
• Calculates retention before GST, in the correct order
• Tracks cumulative claimed-to-date for progress claims
• Generates a print-ready PDF with the standard SG layout

The math is identical to what you'd do in Excel — just without the manual reconciliation between claims.

Set up your next claim

• Create a free Zeng Book workspace.
• Add your client, create the project, and build the BQ with retention set on the quotation.
• When the BQ is accepted, generate the first progress claim from the "Generate invoice" button. Subsequent claims inherit the structure.
• See the full feature list or read about how Zeng Book and Xero fit together.