NEC3 and NEC4 ECC

NEC pays on its own calendar

NEC does not use JCT valuation dates, JCT certificates or JCT retention. It uses assessment dates, a Project Manager and Option X16. QScope follows the NEC mechanism instead of bending it into a JCT shape, because the differences are where the money and the deadlines move.

Assessment dates set from the starting date and the assessment interval
Payment becomes due seven days after the assessment date under Y(UK)2
Final date for payment fourteen days after that, or your Contract Data period

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NEC payment dates

Assessment 04

Assessment

24 Aug

Due

31 Aug

Final date

14 Sep

Assessment date24 Aug 2026

Payment becomes due (+7)31 Aug 2026

Pay less notice by11 Sep 2026

Final date for payment (+14)14 Sep 2026

Under Option Y(UK)2, the option that makes an NEC contract comply with the Construction Act, the payment becomes due seven days after the assessment date, and the final date for payment follows from there. QScope derives the notice, the pay less deadline and the final date from the assessment date automatically.

The assessment date sets the whole cycle

Under NEC the amount due is assessed at each assessment date, not at a JCT interim valuation date.

Every statutory deadline that follows is measured from it, so the assessment date is the pivot the rest of the timetable turns on. Under Option Y(UK)2, the option that makes an NEC contract comply with the Construction Act, the payment becomes due seven days after the assessment date, and the final date for payment follows from there. QScope derives the notice, the pay less deadline and the final date from the assessment date automatically.

NEC payment certificate

The Project Manager certifies, and it is not a JCT certificate

Under NEC the Project Manager certifies the payment.

Payment certificate named for NEC, not a JCT interim certificate
The Project Manager shown as the person who assesses and certifies
Sum due and the basis of the assessment stated on the document

NEC payment certificate

Issued by the Project Manager

Price for Work Done to Date£231,400.00

Less retention under X16(£6,942.00)

Less amounts already certified(£209,300.00)

Sum due this assessment£15,158.00

Assessed by the Project Manager at the assessment date of 24 August 2026. Payment becomes due on 31 August 2026.

Retention (X16)

Retention exists only if Option X16 is in the contract

NEC has no retention unless secondary Option X16 was included.

Retention applied only when you turn it on, never assumed
Retention free amount respected, so early assessments can carry none
Half released in the assessment after Completion of the whole works

Retention (X16)

Position at assessment 04

Rate

Free amount

£0

Held

£6,942

Retention on work to date£6,942.00

Released at Completionnot yet

Held to Defects Certificate£6,942.00

Where X16 applies, QScope holds retention on the Price for Work Done to Date above the retention free amount, at the percentage your Contract Data states, and releases it on the NEC triggers rather than the JCT ones.

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Client Valuations

The same valuation engine, pointed at NEC

The way QScope values the works does not change between forms.

One valuation method across JCT and NEC
Line by line against the priced works, by percentage or fixed sum
Previous assessments carried forward automatically

Client Valuations

Assessment 04, valued line by line

DescriptionThisAmount

Substructure100 %£0.00

Frame and upper floors55 %£18,200.00

CE-06 additional drainage100 %£3,900.00

Price for Work Done to Date, movement£22,100.00

That means a practice running both JCT and NEC jobs works one way, not two, and the certificate a client receives reads the same whichever form the job sits on.

Statutory payment dates

Every statutory deadline in one place

The value of NEC date handling is not one certificate, it is the whole job seen at once.

Due date and final date for payment on every assessment
Pay less deadline shown before it closes, not after
Assessment cycle set once and rolled forward

Statutory payment dates

Across the account

JobFinal dateStatus

Riverside, assessment 0414 SepDue

Bridge Street, assessment 079 SepPay less window open

Next final date for payment9 Sep 2026

QScope puts the same statutory engine behind every NEC job on the account, so the dates you cannot afford to miss sit on the project list rather than in a spreadsheet somebody has to remember to open.

FIDIC payment dates

The same engine reaches beyond the UK forms

NEC is a UK form, but the same date engine also runs FIDIC, the dominant form on international work.

FIDIC offered alongside JCT and NEC as a contract form
Interim Payment Certificate within 28 days of the Statement, editable for the Particular Conditions
Employer payment within 56 days, counted in calendar days

FIDIC payment dates

Statement 04, Red Book default

Statement

24 Aug

IPC by (+28)

21 Sep

Payment (+56)

19 Oct

Statement received (14.3)24 Aug 2026

Interim Payment Certificate by (14.6, +28)21 Sep 2026

Employer pays by (14.7, +56)19 Oct 2026

Calendar days from the Statement. Statutory dates and taxes are published starting points to verify locally.

Who it is for

The same four dates, four different desks

You are applying

You start the clock with the application

You send the application and the clock starts. If the payment notice is late or missing, the sum you applied for becomes the sum that falls due.

Applying for payment

the same measurement

You are certifying

Your notices are what the Act reads

You issue the notices, and the dates on them are the ones the Construction Act holds you to. A missed pay-less deadline is not an argument you can win.

Certifying payment

You are doing both

You count the dates with nobody checking

You send the application yourself and count the same four dates, with nobody to remind you which notice has to leave this week.

Doing both yourself

You are reporting

You lend against dates that must hold

You confirm the drawdown timetable against the contractual payment dates, so the facility releases against dates that will actually hold.

Recommending a drawdown

The client, the architect and the tenderer are not on this list. They are the people you let in on a link: they see the one document you sent them, answer it, and that answer is written into the record. No account, no licence, no charge, on every plan.

FAQs

The questions this page raises most often, answered without a sales pitch at the end.

NEC3 and NEC4 ECC, as a contract form for the payment cycle. Selecting it sets the assessment date as the basis for the timetable, names the certificate as a Project Manager payment certificate, and applies the NEC retention rules under Option X16.

It records each compensation event and its agreed value and carries that into the certificate, the same way it handles a variation. It does not replace the Project Manager's assessment of Defined Cost. The judgement stays with the Project Manager; QScope holds the record, the value and the certificate.

Under Y(UK)2 the payment becomes due seven days after the assessment date and the final date for payment fourteen days after that. QScope uses those periods by default and lets you change them if your Contract Data states different figures.

Only if secondary Option X16 is in the contract. QScope applies retention when you turn it on, at the percentage and retention free amount your Contract Data states, and releases it at Completion and the Defects Certificate rather than at practical completion.

Yes. FIDIC sits alongside JCT and NEC as a contract form, with a jurisdiction and currency setting per job. On FIDIC the Engineer issues the Interim Payment Certificate within 28 days of the Statement and the Employer pays within 56 days, counted in calendar days, with those periods editable for the Particular Conditions. A banner reminds you that statutory dates and taxes are published starting points to verify locally.

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