FieldproxyAI-native field service softwareSubcontractors
How do I make subcontractors claim against job card quantities instead of day rates?
Agree a priced schedule of rates with each subcontractor before work starts (per panel, per meter, per post, per unit), put those lines on the job card with the quantity to install, and only accept claims that tick off quantities from those lines, capped at what is left on each line. Anything outside the job card goes in as a variation with photos and needs approval before it can be claimed, and receipts for materials are attached to the job so they count against its budget. Approved claims then go to your accounting system as draft bills, so the office checks quantities once instead of querying day-rate invoices line by line.
- No rate, no claim: every sub line needs a unit rate agreed before work starts.
- A claim can never exceed the quantity left on the line; partial progress is fine, over-claiming is blocked.
- Extra work is a variation with photos and a number, approved before it is claimed, never added to a day rate.
- Receipts are attached to the job at the time of purchase, not texted to someone in the office.
- Send approved claims to accounting as draft bills tied to the job, so nobody re-keys them.
This changes how subs get paid, so it needs their agreement and a rate card first. Software enforces the rule; it cannot negotiate the rates for you.
Facts checked as of November 2026. Sources at the end of the page.
Step by step
How it works, step by step
The same shape works for fencing, cabling, landscaping, solar, signage and any trade where the work can be counted.
1. Build a schedule of rates per sub (or per trade)
List every unit of work you pay for: supply and install a panel, dig and set a post in concrete, hang a gate, remove old fence per meter, travel over a set distance. Each line has a unit and a rate. Day rates stay only for work that truly cannot be counted (e.g. waiting on site by your request), and those need a reason code.
2. Put the quantities on the job card
When a job is booked, the sub side of the job card lists the lines and quantities to install: 50 panels, 52 posts, 2 gates. That is the sub's budget for the job. The client price sits on a separate side the sub cannot see.
3. Subs claim progress against lines, not hours
On site or at the end of the day, the sub ticks off what was done: 22 of 50 panels. The claim shows the running balance (28 left) and multiplies by the agreed rate. Partial completion is normal; the next claim can only take from what is left.
4. Block over-claims at entry
If a sub enters 30 panels when 28 are left, the claim does not submit. They either correct it or raise a variation. This one rule removes most of the back-and-forth, because the office never sees a claim that does not fit the job card.
5. Variations need photos and approval first
Rock in the post holes, a longer run than measured, a gate moved by the client: the sub raises a variation with photos, a description, a quantity and a rate or amount. A manager approves or rejects it. Approved variations become new claimable lines; rejected ones never reach a claim.
6. Receipts go on the job
Materials a sub buys on your behalf are photographed and attached to the job with supplier, amount and what it was for. They count against the job budget the same day, so job cost is visible before the job closes.
7. Approve the claim, then send it to accounting
Each claim has a status: submitted, queried, approved, sent to accounting, paid. Approved claims go to Xero or QuickBooks as draft bills against the sub's contact, with the job number on each line, so accounts payable reviews and pays as normal.
Where it breaks
Why it goes wrong
These are the problems buyers described on our sales calls, mainly from a fencing contractor that installs through subcontractor crews.
Day rates are easier for the sub to write
Subs bill what they remember: three days, two workers. It takes less effort than counting what they installed. The office then has to work out what the days paid for, and the fencing contractor on our call said that querying claims took up most of their working week.
Partial work is invisible
If a sub installs 22 panels of 50 and bills for the job, nobody knows 28 are left until a client complains. Without a running balance on each line, the next crew gets sent to a job that looks finished.
The job card tool has no claim step
Many trade tools track materials and labor on a job for the client invoice, but have no step where a sub submits a claim against those lines. In ServiceM8, for example, items are added to a job from the Billing screen with a quantity, which builds the client invoice. A sub working in the Contractor role can quote and invoice clients, and the Strict Contractor role has no access to pricing at all, so neither is a claim against your rate card.
Sub cost is recorded as hours
Some FSM tools record a sub as a material with hours and an hourly rate. ServiceTitan's guide to adding subcontractor cost uses a purchase order line where Qty is the hours logged and Unit Cost is the sub's hourly rate. That tracks cost, but it bakes in the day-rate habit you are trying to remove.
Receipts arrive by text message
Subs text photos of receipts to whoever answers. They sit in a phone, get typed in weeks later, or never. The job looks profitable until the receipts land.
Claim software built for head contractors
Construction claim tools are built around big contracts and a schedule of values per project. Small trade businesses on our calls were told they were too small for that kind of system, and their subs already dislike the claim portals their upstream builders make them use.
The options
Ways to do it
| Approach | How quantities are claimed | Weak spot | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rate card in a spreadsheet, sub claims by email | Sub fills a claim template; office checks against the job card by hand | Nothing stops an over-claim; checking is the whole job | A few subs and a few jobs a month |
| Construction pay applications (AIA G702 and continuation sheet, ConsensusDocs) | Percent complete per schedule of values line, minus retainage | Built for project contracts, heavy for many small jobs a week | Larger projects with a formal contract and retainage |
| Procore progress billings | Sub schedule of values by amount; Unit/Quantity based commitments do not support adding the sub SOV in this tool | Amount based, not unit based; a project tool, US only for this feature | Builders and GCs already on Procore |
| Sub cost as a material on a PO (ServiceTitan) | Qty is hours, Unit Cost is the hourly rate | Tracks cost, not progress; no running balance per line | Occasional subs on service jobs |
| Job card lines with claim limits and a sub portal or link (Fieldproxy) | Sub ticks off quantity per line; claim capped at what is left; variations approved first | Needs a rate card agreed with each sub before go-live | Trades with many subbed jobs a week |
As of November 2026, from each vendor's own help pages and guides (sources below). Check the current version before you rely on any one setting.
Worked example
A worked example: one fence job, two claims
Say a fencing contractor books a 50-panel boundary fence and sends it to a sub crew on an agreed rate card. Made-up numbers.
| Line | Qty on job card | Rate | Claim 1 | Claim 2 | Left |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Supply and install panel | 50 | $45 | 22 ($990) | 28 ($1,260) | 0 |
| Set post in concrete | 52 | $30 | 24 ($720) | 28 ($840) | 0 |
| Hang gate | 2 | $120 | 0 | 2 ($240) | 0 |
| Variation V1: rock in post holes (approved, photos) | 8 holes | $35 | 0 | 8 ($280) | 0 |
| Receipt: concrete bags (attached day 1) | 1 | $186 | $186 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | $1,896 | $2,620 |
Under day rates the same job might arrive as "4 days x 2 men", and the office has to guess whether the gates were hung. Here, claim 1 shows 28 panels left, so the job stays open. If the crew had entered 30 panels in claim 2, it would not submit. Total paid to the sub is $4,516: the $4,050 rate card budget, plus the $280 approved variation and the $186 receipt, all visible in the job cost report before the client is invoiced.
Before you buy
What to check before you buy
Good signs
- Job card lines carry a quantity and a sub rate, separate from the client price
- A claim cannot exceed the quantity left on a line, checked when the sub submits, not later by the office
- Partial claims keep a running balance per line across several claims
- Variations need photos and an approval before they become claimable
- Receipts attach to the job from the sub's phone and show in job cost the same day
- Approved claims reach Xero or QuickBooks as draft bills with the job number, not as a PDF to re-key
- Subs claim from a link or portal and do not need a paid seat
Red flags
- Sub cost can only be entered as hours times a rate
- Over-claims are only caught by a report someone has to run
- The sub role can also quote or invoice your client
- Variations are a free-text note on the claim with no approval step
- You pay per user, so every sub crew becomes a licence
- The claim tool needs a full project contract for a two-day job
In Fieldproxy
Setting it up in Fieldproxy
Fieldproxy is set up around your process, so the rate card, claim rules and statuses below are configured with you. Field and status names are examples.
Rate card and job card lines
Each sub (or trade) has a rate card of unit lines (e.g. panel_install, post_set, gate_hang). When a job is booked, its sub lines are created with a quantity and the sub rate. The client price and quote stay on the client side, which subs cannot see. If job cards already live in another tool, the open API or an import brings the lines across.
Claims capped at what is left
Subs claim from a portal login (regular crews) or a job link (one-off subs) by ticking off quantities per line. The claim screen shows each line's remaining balance and refuses a quantity above it. Fieldproxy is one price per company with unlimited users, so sub crews do not add seats.
Variations with photos and approval
A variation form takes photos, a reason, a quantity and an amount. It goes through an approval step (/solutions/approval-workflows), e.g. a manager for anything over $500. Once approved it becomes a claimable line on that job only.
Receipts read from a photo
Subs photograph a receipt on the job. The Vision agent (/agents/vision-agent) reads supplier, date and amount into a receipt record on the job, so it counts in job cost the same day. Supplier PDFs emailed in can be read by the Document intelligence agent (/agents/document-intelligence-agent).
Approved claims to Xero or QuickBooks
Claim statuses run submitted, queried, approved, sent to accounting, paid. On approval, the claim is sent through the Xero or QuickBooks sync as a bill against the sub's contact, with the job number on each line, and your normal approval and payment run carries on from there.
Someone watching the gaps
The Watcher agent (/agents/watcher-agent) flags jobs where lines are still open after the crew has left site, claims queried for more than a few days, and jobs whose cost passes their budget. Autopilot (/agents/autopilot) drafts the chase to the sub, and a person approves before it sends.
By country
Regional notes: payment claim rules
If your subs do construction work, a claim can carry legal weight. The software should keep the dates. This is general information, not legal advice.
Australia (NSW example)
Under the NSW Security of Payment Act, a payment claim must be in writing, state the amount and describe the work, and only one claim can be made per reference date (the last day of the month if the contract sets none). The respondent has 10 business days to give a payment schedule or becomes liable for the full claimed amount, and a subcontractor's payment is due 20 business days after the claim unless the contract says earlier (10 for related exempt residential work). Other states have their own acts.
Australia: recipient-created tax invoices
If you, not the sub, generate the invoice from an approved claim, that is a recipient-created tax invoice (RCTI). Both parties must be registered for GST when it is issued and you need a written RCTI agreement with each sub.
New Zealand
Under the Construction Contracts Act 2002, the payer can reply with a payment schedule up to 20 working days after the claim is served, or by the date in the contract, and the schedule must explain why it differs from the claim.
United Kingdom
Under the Construction Act and the Scheme for Construction Contracts, if you intend to pay less than the notified sum you must give a pay less notice with the basis of your calculation, by default no later than seven days before the final date for payment. A rejected quantity needs to be in that notice.
United States
On larger contracts, subs bill with pay applications (often the AIA G702 with a continuation sheet based on the schedule of values), minus retainage. Line-based claims map well onto that format when a builder upstream asks for it.
How switching works
How switching to Fieldproxy works
We move your data over and set the system up to the way you already work. Fieldproxy replaces the old tool; it does not run alongside it.
Show us a job card and a sub invoice
One real job, the rate (or day rate) you paid, and the claim or invoice the sub sent. We map it to lines and quantities.We build the rate card and claim rules
Unit lines per sub or trade, claim caps, variation approval limits and the receipt step, set to your thresholds.We connect accounting
Approved claims go to Xero or QuickBooks as bills with the job number. We test one end to end with you.Subs start claiming
Regular crews get a portal login, one-off subs get a job link. Your office approves claims instead of querying them.
FAQ
Questions people ask
- Can a sub claim part of a job and the rest later?
- Yes. Each claim ticks off quantities per line and the job card keeps a running balance, so 22 of 50 panels this week and 28 next week is two normal claims.
- What if the real quantity is more than the job card?
- The sub raises a variation with photos and the extra quantity. Once approved it becomes a new line they can claim. Without approval the extra cannot be claimed.
- Do I need a rate card with every sub?
- Yes, or one per trade that subs accept. Claims against quantities only work when each unit has an agreed price before the work starts.
- Can approved claims go to Xero as bills?
- Yes. Xero's API creates a bill as an invoice of type ACCPAY, and a bill can be sent as a draft or submitted for approval, with up to two tracking categories per line for job or region.
- How do receipts get onto the job?
- The sub photographs the receipt on the job from their phone. It is stored with the job and counted in job cost, instead of being texted to someone in the office.
- Can I run this beside my existing job card tool?
- Yes, if job cards can be exported or read through an API. Many teams start with claims only and move scheduling across later.
- Do subs have to pay for an account?
- Not in Fieldproxy. Subs claim through a portal login or a job link, and Fieldproxy is one price per company with unlimited users. See /pricing.
- Is a claim through software still a valid payment claim?
- It can be, if it meets the rules in your state or country, such as being in writing, stating the amount and describing the work. Check the wording with your lawyer or industry association.
Sources
Competitor details on this page come from the vendors' own pages and documentation, checked as of November 2026. Plans and prices change, so check the vendor's current page before you decide.
- ServiceM8: Security Roles Overview: https://support.servicem8.com/help-center/advanced-setup/advanced-setup/security-roles-overview.md
- ServiceM8: how to add labour and materials to a job: https://support.servicem8.com/help-center/app/basics/how-to-add-labour-materials-to-a-job.md
- ServiceM8: how supplier invoice importing works: https://support.servicem8.com/help-center/servicem8-add-ons/servicem8-add-ons/how-supplier-invoice-importing-works
- ServiceTitan: add subcontractor cost: https://help.servicetitan.com/v1/docs/add-subcontractor-cost
- Procore: update a subcontractor schedule of values (progress billings): https://en-au.support.procore.com/products/online/user-guide/project-level/progress-billings/tutorials/update-a-subcontractor-schedule-of-values-as-an-invoice-administrator-from-the-progress-billings-tool
- Fieldwire: a guide to pay apps in construction: https://www.fieldwire.com/blog/a-guide-to-pay-apps-in-construction/
- Xero Accounting API OpenAPI spec (Invoice, LineItem): https://raw.githubusercontent.com/XeroAPI/Xero-OpenAPI/master/xero_accounting.yaml
- NSW Government: making a payment claim: https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/compliance-and-regulation/security-of-payment/making-a-payment-claim
- NSW Government: security of payment FAQ: https://www.nsw.gov.au/housing-and-construction/compliance-and-regulation/security-of-payment/frequently-asked-questions
- Lane Neave: payment claims and schedules under the Construction Contracts Act (NZ): https://www.laneneave.co.nz/news-events/payment-claims-and-payment-schedules-under-the-construction-contracts-act/
- Designing Buildings: pay less notice (UK): https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Pay_less_notice
- Sprintlaw: recipient-created tax invoices in Australia: https://sprintlaw.com.au/articles/recipient-created-tax-invoices-rctis-in-australia-explained/
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