More than half of subcontractors add a risk margin for slow payments, as Payapps launches Early Payment feature

MELBOURNE, Australia, April 13, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Slow and unreliable payments are influencing how subcontractors price and pursue future work, with preliminary findings from a recent Payapps, an Autodesk Company survey of 754 subcontractors across Australia and New Zealand showing that a builder's payment reputation now has a direct impact on bidding behaviour and cost.

According to the survey, 77% of subcontractors said a main contractor's payment reputation influences their decision to bid or price future work. By comparison, 57% said they have increased rates or added a risk margin due to slow or unreliable payments. The findings point to a growing commercial consequence for builders, as payment practices begin to affect not only subcontractor cash flow, but also pricing, confidence and supply chain resilience.

The survey also found that when payments are delayed, the top three impacts on subcontractors are tighter cash flow, increased stress and pressure, and greater difficulty paying suppliers. In addition, 40% of respondents said they would be interested in an optional early payment arrangement for approved progress claims, even if it meant receiving a slightly reduced payment.

In response to these pressures, Payapps, an Autodesk Company, has launched Early Payment — a new feature that enables main contractors to manage optional early payment requests within the progress claim workflow they already use to collaborate with subcontractors.

Rather than relying on informal conversations, side arrangements, or manual workarounds, the Early Payment feature in Payapps provides builders with a structured, transparent way to support subcontractor cash flow while maintaining governance, visibility, and commercial control. The feature allows contractors to configure eligibility, payment timeframes and discount settings, while embedding requests into existing approval workflows and downstream finance processes.

"Timing is the critical issue," said Scott Lockwood, Head of Customer Success at Payapps. "Traditional early payment arrangements often try to accelerate approvals and payments while adding manual administration at the same time. That combination makes them difficult to govern and even harder to scale."

"The Early Payment feature in Payapps changes that by embedding requests directly into the progress claim and approval workflow. It gives builders a practical way to support subcontractor cash flow while maintaining visibility, control and commercial discipline."

Payapps said the feature has already been trialled with a select group of customers during its early rollout, helping validate how early payment works in practice across live projects.

"Our early payment approach gives subcontractors flexible access to funds when they genuinely need it, without changing underlying contract terms," said Lewis Skittrall, Head of Commercial at Sarah Constructions. "By keeping the process optional, transparent and embedded within our existing Payapps claim workflows, we're able to support our supply chain while maintaining strong commercial governance across projects."

The launch reflects a broader shift in construction finance and commercial operations, where builders are under increasing pressure to improve internal efficiency while also responding to the real-world cash flow pressures faced by their subcontractor base. By standardising how early payment requests are made, reviewed, and approved, Payapps aims to help builders reduce administrative burden, avoid inconsistencies, and create a more professional, scalable way to respond to subcontractor funding needs.

About Payapps

Payapps, an Autodesk Company, is an award-winning cloud-based collaboration tool for the construction industry. It helps main contractors and subcontractors simplify and streamline the submission and assessment of progress claims on projects, including contract variations. By digitising and streamlining these workflows, Payapps improves transparency, accuracy, compliance and collaboration, while reducing financial risk, disputes and administrative burden. Payapps integrates with a wide range of construction ERP, project and financial management systems to provide real-time visibility across project payment claim processes.

SOURCE Payapps