What Shopping Centre Fit-out Contracts Pay (and How Long You Wait For It)

Shopping centre fit-outs can be some of the most reliable commercial work a trade business can win.

The catch is how long you wait to see the money.

Between progress claim cycles, retention held back in two stages, and centre management sitting in the approval chain, a good chunk of the job value can stay locked up for the best part of a year. If you don't plan for it, the wait can squeeze your cash flow harder than the job is worth.

Here's what actually gets paid on a shopping centre fit-out, and how long each piece takes to land.

Progress claims: paid on a cycle, after certification

Fit out contracts are usually paid through progress claims rather than in one lump at the end.

You submit a claim for the work completed to date, it gets certified, and payment follows on a set cycle, often 30 to 60 days after certification. That timing is fairly standard across commercial construction.

The important word is after. Payment doesn't start counting from when you submit the claim. It counts from when the claim is certified, and that step isn't always quick.

Shopping centres add their own layer of delay

On a lot of commercial jobs, certification runs through the head contractor or a certifier and moves reasonably predictably.

Shopping centres often add a step. Centre management frequently needs to sign off before a claim is certified, which means your claim can sit waiting on the centre's own approval process before the payment clock even starts. It's an extra layer plenty of contractors don't factor in until they're a few claims deep and wondering why the money is slower than expected.

The work is done. The claim is in. And you're still waiting on someone else's sign-off.

Retention: held back, and released in two stages

Retention is where the real waiting happens.

On most fit-out contracts, around 5% is held back from each progress claim as security that you'll finish the job and fix any defects. You don't see that money as you go. It's released in two stages:

• Half comes back at practical completion, once the job is finished and signed off.
• The other half comes back after the defects liability period, usually 6 to 12 months later.

So even after you've walked off site, half your retention can sit with the client for the better part of a year before it lands in your account.

What this looks like on a real job

Put the numbers together on a typical fit-out.

On a $500,000 to $1,000,000 job, retention of 5% means $25,000 to $50,000 held back over the life of the contract. Half of that can be tied up for six to twelve months after the work is finished.

Add the normal wait on each progress claim, plus any delay from centre management sign-off, and you're looking at 5 to 10% of the job value locked up for up to a year, on top of the standard payment cycle. That's money you've earned, sitting on someone else's balance sheet, while you're paying wages and buying materials for the next job.

Where invoice finance fits

None of this means shopping centre work isn't worth doing. It means you need a plan for the gap.

That's what invoice finance is built for. Rather than waiting 30 to 60 days for each certified progress claim to be paid, you can access a large share of that invoice value soon after you raise it. The cash comes in closer to when you did the work, not when the payment cycle finally clears.

It won't change the retention terms written into your contract, but it does take the pressure off the biggest and most predictable part of the wait, so a slow payment cycle on one job doesn't stall the next one.

The takeaway

Shopping centre fit-outs pay well, but they pay slowly, and in pieces.

Progress claims land 30 to 60 days after certification, centre management can add delay before that clock even starts, and retention keeps 5 to 10% of the job value out of your hands for up to a year.

If you know that going in, you can price for it, plan for it, and keep the wait from putting a squeeze on your cash flow. If that gap is the thing holding you back from taking on this kind of work, it's worth sorting before you sign.

Waiting too long to get paid on fit-out work?

Brunswick helps fit-out and construction businesses unlock the cash tied up in unpaid progress claims, so a slow payment cycle doesn't hold up the next job.

Talk to the team today about funding your fit-out contracts.

Let's talk!