Instead of Payapps
Stop paying Payapps per claim. Own your claims record.
Enterprise DNA sets up your version around your contracts and claim terms, brings your Payapps records across, and runs it for you. Your claims sit with your budgets, purchase orders and variations, not in a separate system billed by volume.
Payapps quotes main contractors privately on a fixed annual fee by projects and claims each month. Subcontractor plans run A$65 a claim or up to A$440 a month in Australia, and NZ$50 a claim or up to NZ$275 a month in New Zealand, ex GST.
- check_circleYour data in a database you own
- check_circleOpen source, no lock-in
- check_circleBuilt and run by Enterprise DNA
What the fee covers
A claims portal priced on how busy you are
Payapps sets a main contractor's fee from the number of projects and payment claims assessed each month, and quotes it privately. Subcontractors pay by the contract: the most popular plan is A$230 a month in Australia (A$2,760 a year) or NZ$150 in New Zealand (NZ$1,800 a year). The records underneath are plain: contracts, claims, variations, retention, insurances and payment schedules.
A price that rises with your workload
More projects and more claims each month means a bigger annual quote. A good year for your business is a good year for your software bill, for the same kind of record.
Paying per contract to send your own invoice
A subcontractor on unlimited contracts pays A$440 a month in Australia, A$5,280 a year, or NZ$275 a month in New Zealand, NZ$3,300 a year. A progress claim is an amount, a date and the position to date: a record you can keep yourself.
Claims kept away from the job costs
The claim lives in one system and the budget, purchase orders and costs live in another. What you have claimed and what the job has cost you do not sit on the same page unless the systems are connected or someone copies them across.
A fixed menu of reports
Retention ageing, compliance, contract summary, variations by project, claims by project. Useful, and set by the vendor.
Your claim history on their platform
Every claim, variation and retention balance across years of jobs lives on the vendor's system. Here the same history is plain records in a database your company owns.
Reminders, not rules
Deadline reminders help, and the hard checks that keep you out of a dispute still matter: never claim past the contract, no variation work without approval in writing, no subbie on site with lapsed cover.
What you get instead
Claims, variations and retention in the same record as the job
Claims
Every claim checked against the contract before it goes
Each claim is recorded with its amount and due date against the job it belongs to, and the system keeps the running position for you.
- check The total claimed can never go past the contract plus approved variations, and there is no override
- check Claims past their due date rise to the top of the list on their own, with the days counted
- check A firm, factual chaser letter is drafted for an overdue claim, for a person to check and send
- check A busy job with nothing claimed for 30 days gets flagged, so work does not go unbilled
Variations
No variation claimed until someone said yes in writing
Variations live on the job, so the claim ceiling moves only when a variation is approved, and the approver's name stays on the record.
- check Work on a variation and claiming it both wait for written approval
- check The claim paperwork lists the approved variations and the position to date, in your own branding
- check Pending variations are a question away: which are waiting, on which job, for how long
- check Margin by job counts approved variations, so you see what a change really earned
Subbies
Insurance and licences checked before the work, not after
The subbie register holds each contractor's cover and licence details, and the system refuses the assignment that would put you at risk.
- check A subbie whose public liability has expired cannot be put on a job
- check Restricted building work is refused without a licensed building practitioner number on record
- check Purchase orders count against the budget line from the day they are issued
- check Retention rules sit with the other compliance rules, each with its source, in plain words you can change
Your record
One database for the whole job, and questions in plain English
Claims sit next to budgets, costs, orders and the site diary. Ask Claude Code, or another assistant, anything the vendor never built a report for.
- check What is left to claim on every job, worst margin first, in one question
- check Xero stays your ledger, and your accountant gets a full export of every record
- check Open source under the MIT licence, in a database your company owns
- check The whole record exports at any time, so your claim history outlives any subscription
Make it yours
Design your own Payapps replacement
Everything starts from the open-source base. Then it gets your name, the parts you run, your rules and your data from Payapps. Try it here, and we build the real one.
2. What it runs
3. Make it fit
4. Your colour
Answered from your own database
Good morning. Here is what needs you today.
We build it from the open-source base, bring your Payapps data across and run it for you.
Switching
How to switch from Payapps
The move involves exporting the records your Payapps account allows, matching its fields to your jobs and claims, then checking the imported totals against the originals.
- 1
Export your Payapps records
Ask Payapps what your account can export, since its export options are not documented here. Export the records you want to carry forward, including claims, approved and unapproved variations, retention, payment schedules and the claim audit trail where available. Include compliance documents and job or contract details where your account allows. If Payapps offers reports rather than raw records, check with Payapps what each report contains.
- 2
Load the records
Bring the exported records into Builders using its import process. The free import is shaped around Buildxact exports, while Payapps reports use different columns, so the fields need to be matched to your jobs and claims. Run the import's test pass first if it is available for your chosen import path. Review what it proposes before loading the records.
- 3
Check the import results
Review anything the import flags, including fields or records it could not match. Compare the imported claim and variation totals with the Payapps originals, and check that records sit against the right jobs. Resolve mapping gaps before treating Builders as your working record. If Enterprise DNA handles the setup, it checks the imported totals against the originals.
- 4
Run both systems briefly
Keep Payapps active while you check current work in Builders against it. Compare claims, variation status, retention and any payment schedules you rely on, and make sure you can find the same job records in both systems. If a head contractor requires you to submit claims through Payapps, keep using Payapps for that contract. The move does not change that requirement.
- 5
Switch off Payapps where you can
After you have checked the current records and confirmed that the history you chose to bring is present, stop using Payapps for the contracts you control. Keep it for any contract where a head contractor still requires it. Builders does not send claims or payment schedules, so have a person check and send that paperwork through the required process.
Where the real effort goes
Most of the work is matching Payapps' columns to your jobs and claims, setting your own fields and contract rules, and deciding how much history to bring across. The free import is laid out for Buildxact, so Payapps needs mapping. If you have Enterprise DNA run the setup, they move and check your records and set the rules to your contracts.
Not ready for a call?
Get your Payapps switch plan by email
We will send you the step-by-step plan for moving your business off Payapps, what the move really involves, and how we would do it for you.
Sent. Check your inbox.
Your Payapps switch plan is on its way.
Rather talk it through? Book a call arrow_forwardChoose how you start
Try the free version, or have Enterprise DNA set up and run yours
Open source
Do it yourself
Free
- 1 Download Builders for Claude Code from GitHub
- 2 Load the sample building company and open the folder in Claude Code
- 3 Ask which claims are overdue and what is left to claim
- 4 Bring in your Payapps records, with Claude Code mapping the columns to your jobs and claims
Omni by Enterprise DNA
Have Enterprise DNA set it up and run it
One setup fee, then a monthly retainer
- check We bring your contracts, claims, variations and retention balances across from Payapps and check the totals match
- check We set the claim rules to your contract terms and retention percentages
- check We can add subbie claim intake and payment schedules if you assess claims from your own subcontractors
- check It runs inside Omni, our managed Command Center, beside the rest of your business
Questions
Instead of Payapps, answered
My head contractor makes me claim through Payapps. Can I still switch? expand_more
For that contract, keep claiming where your head contractor asks. What you can own is your side: the claim record, the variations, the retention owed to you and the cost of the job, all in one place.
How much does Payapps cost now? expand_more
Main contractors are quoted privately, on a fixed annual fee by how many projects and claims they handle each month. Subcontractor plans are published: in Australia A$65 a claim or A$49 to A$440 a month, and in New Zealand NZ$50 a claim or NZ$39.90 to NZ$275 a month, all ex GST.
Can I bring my Payapps history across? expand_more
Yes, with some mapping. The free version's import reads Buildxact's export layout, and Payapps reports have other columns, so Claude Code matches them to your jobs and claims, or Enterprise DNA does it as part of the setup and checks the totals against the originals.
Does it send claims or payment schedules for me? expand_more
No. It drafts the claim paperwork and chasers, and a person checks and sends them. Whether a particular claim meets the Construction Contracts Act or your state's security of payment law is still your call and your lawyer's.
What does the Enterprise DNA version add? expand_more
Your Payapps records moved and checked, the rules set to your contracts, your paperwork in your branding, and anything the free version lacks that your business needs, such as taking in subbie claims and issuing payment schedules. It runs alongside everything else Enterprise DNA runs for you.
Own your claims instead of paying per claim
30 minutes with Sam. We look at what Payapps costs you a year, what your claims and variations record holds, and what your own version would look like. If it is a fit, we build it and run it. If it is not, take the free version and run it yourself.
Builders for Claude Code is free and open source, published by Enterprise DNA.
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