A payment claim is how Retention Track formally requests the release of retention from a contractor — once you've reached Practical Completion or the end of the Defects Liability period. Retention Track puts together the claim, generates the email to the contractor, and tracks the claim's progress through to payment.

In this article we walk you through:

Retention is held against a contract in two parts: a Practical Completion (PC) portion released at the contract's PC date, and a Defects portion released at the end of the defects liability period. Each portion is claimed separately — usually the PC claim is sent first, and the Defects claim some months or years later.

The Send Payment Claim button appears on the contract page as soon as:

Before sending a payment claim, ensure that:

Open the contract you want to claim against. On the contract overview, locate the retention card for the portion you're claiming — there is one card for Practical Completion (PC) and one for Defects Liability. Each card shows its claim status and the actions available for that portion.

On the card for the portion you want to claim, click Send Payment Claim (or Send Payment Reminder on UK workspaces). A dialog will open.

The dialog title reads Send New Payment Claim (or Send Payment Reminder on UK). On some jurisdictions there is also an info banner near the top with state-specific notes (for example, a window-expiry warning, or a short reminder of statutory timing rules).

The dialog has two sections:

Click Send Payment Claim (or Send Payment Reminder) at the bottom of the dialog. Retention Track will:

After the dialog closes, the retention card on the contract page updates to show the claim's status, claim number, date sent, due date, amount claimed, and a progress bar with paid / outstanding / used segments. The action buttons on the card change to reflect the new state — for example, options to record a payment schedule (AU and NZ), lodge an adjudication notice (AU and NZ), create a Xero invoice, close the claim, or revert the claim.

Each contract holds retention in two portions, and each portion is claimed independently:

There is no dropdown to choose between them in the dialog — the claim type is set by which retention card you opened the dialog from. The PC card sends a PC claim; the Defects card sends a Defects claim. Both can have active claims at the same time without interfering with each other.

The PC/Defects split on a contract defaults to 50% but is configured per-contract via the PC Retention Release % field on the contract form. See Creating a Contract for details.

The Outstanding Retention Balance shown in the Claim Details card is calculated as:

Total Retention Withheld − Retention Used − Retention Released

For the specific portion you're claiming (PC or Defects). The figures come from:

The balance is always calculated exclusive of sales tax; the inclusive-tax figure shown is for reference only. The amount stored on the claim record is the exclusive figure at the moment the claim is sent — it doesn't move retroactively if new invoices or payments are added later.

The payment claim email is sent to:

The workspace CC list is the place to add your own team's internal addresses (e.g. [email protected]) so that everyone who needs visibility is automatically copied on outbound claims. It applies to every payment claim and adjudication email sent from the workspace — it is not configurable per contract.

To configure the CC list, open Workspace Settings from the left sidebar, find the Outbound Email CC Recipients card, and add or remove email addresses. Changes take effect immediately for the next claim sent.

A payment claim is a request for payment — it doesn't, on its own, create an invoice in Xero. Once the claim has been sent, the retention card shows a Create Xero Invoice button that you can use to raise the matching invoice in Xero and link it to the claim. This is optional; you can leave the claim unlinked and record payments manually if you'd prefer.

Clicking Create Xero Invoice opens a dialog showing:

Click Create Xero Invoice to submit. Retention Track will raise the invoice in Xero and link it to the claim. The button is then replaced by a green Xero invoice created badge on the card, and payment progress is tracked through that Xero invoice's payments going forward.

Once a Xero invoice is linked to a payment claim, manually recording a retention payment against that portion is no longer offered — payment progress is taken from the Xero invoice's Amount Paid instead.

After a claim has been sent, two further actions become available on the retention card: Close Payment Claim and Revert Payment Claim. They look similar but mean different things.

Closing a claim marks it as resolved. Click Close Payment Claim (or Close Balance on UK workspaces). A short dialog asks for a Reason for Closing, then confirms.

Use this once the retention has been paid out in full, or when the matter is settled by agreement — for example, a negotiated final figure that differs from the original claim. The card then shows the claim as resolved, with the closing reason recorded.

A closed claim is final. You cannot send a fresh claim of the same type on the contract once it's closed — closing is the natural last step in the claim's lifecycle.

Reverting a claim withdraws it as though it hadn't been sent. Click Revert Payment Claim (or Revert Payment Reminder on UK workspaces). A short dialog asks for an optional Reason for Reverting, then confirms.

Use this when a claim was sent in error or needs to be re-issued with corrected details. Once reverted, the claim is moved to a collapsible Reverted Claims section at the bottom of the card (for the audit trail), and the Send Payment Claim button becomes available again so you can send a fresh claim for that portion.

If the claim had a Xero invoice raised from it, reverting will also void that invoice in Xero automatically. Note that Xero won't allow voiding an invoice that has payments applied — in that case, reverse the payment in Xero first.

For a full walkthrough — including how to undo a mistake and what each action does to the retention balance — see Closing and Reverting a Payment Claim.

The mechanics of sending a claim are the same everywhere — what changes is the label, the email template, and what's possible after the claim has been sent.

Within Australia, the claim window timing and the statutory due date are set per state or territory. Some jurisdictions also impose a window-expiry date — once that date passes, the retention card shows a "Retention Claim Window Expired" warning but you can still send the claim if needed. The email template explains the situation.

If the contract still has unpaid Xero invoices that aren't already linked to a previous payment claim, the dialog shows this warning and the Send button is disabled. Resolve the open invoices first — either record payment on them in Xero or write off any residual amount — then re-open the claim dialog.

Xero invoices already linked to an earlier payment claim do not block a new claim, so PC and Defects claims can run in parallel without interfering with each other.

For Australian jurisdictions with a defined claim window end, this warning appears on the retention card once the window has closed. The Send Payment Claim button is still available — you can send the claim, but the contractor may have grounds to dispute it on timing. Consider seeking advice before proceeding.

If you don't see a Send button on the retention card, one of the following is true:

If none of the contractor contacts on the contract have an email address, the claim cannot be sent. Edit the contract or the contractor record to add at least one contact with a valid email address, then try again.