Construction payment and settlement records are not one bundle of paper assembled once the works are finished. They are three layers, each built on the one before. The first is the interim payment file, prepared over and over during construction. The second is the contract settlement, known locally as the A-B final account. The third is the settlement of completed investment capital, which exists only on publicly funded projects.
The interim payment file itself contains six mandatory items. Those are the acceptance record for quantities completed in the period, the statement of the value of completed work on Form 03.a/TT, and the calculations for variations and price adjustment where the contract allows them. Then the request for payment of capital on Form 04.a/TT, the capital withdrawal order on Form 05.a/TT, and the VAT invoice. The full checklist for all five stages follows below.
The legal basis matters, because much of what circulates online is out of date. The two central instruments today are Decree 210/2026/ND-CP on construction contracts, in force from 1 July 2026 and replacing Decrees 37/2015 and 50/2021. And Decree 254/2025/ND-CP on managing, paying and settling public investment projects, in force from 26 September 2025 and repealing Decree 99/2021. Any guide still citing Decree 37/2015 or 99/2021 is describing rules that no longer apply.
A project can finish on time and to quality, then take another year to collect its money. The reason is usually nothing more than construction payment and settlement records bounced back and forth. Experienced quantity surveyors put it plainly: building the works is half the job, and the other half is proving what was built so the money comes home. This article works through the checklist stage by stage, alongside the deadlines, each party's responsibilities, and the mistakes the lecturers of the Institute's Payment and Settlement course see most often when marking students' files.
Payment, settlement and audit are three different things
The three words get used interchangeably. They are three different exercises, at three different times, with three different files.
| Interim payment | Settlement | Audit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Paying for completed work in instalments under the contract | Fixing the final value of the contract (the A-B settlement) or of the whole project | Independent verification of the settlement figures |
| When | Many times during construction | Once, after all work or the whole project completes | After the settlement report, before approval, where required |
| Who prepares | Contractor prepares; owner and consultant certify | Contract settlement: the contractor. Project settlement: the owner | An independent audit firm or the State Audit |
| Main basis | Contract, quantity acceptance minutes, completed-value sheets | Contract, all payments made, variations, price adjustment, as-built records | The settlement report and the project's full legal and cost records |
The records are therefore not one stack of paper produced once. They are three layers, each resting on the one before.
The checklist, stage by stage
The checklist merges the contract requirements of Decree 210/2026, which govern public investment and PPP projects, with what the payment authority, the State Treasury, requires under Decree 254/2025. Privately funded projects skip the Treasury, but owners usually demand an equivalent file.
Stage 1 – The initial legal file, submitted once
- The annual public investment plan; the project approval decision or the technical-economic report.
- Design and cost-estimate approval; the contractor selection plan and the award decision.
- The contract with every appendix: price schedule, programme, price-adjustment clause, payment forms. Plus every later addendum.
- The contract information sheet, Form 02.a/TT — a new form introduced by Decree 254/2025, prepared by the owner on its own responsibility.
- The performance security in the form the contract requires.
Stage 2 – The advance payment file
- The payment request, Form 04.a/TT.
- The capital withdrawal slip, Form 05.a/TT.
- The advance payment guarantee, mandatory once the advance exceeds 1 billion dong. Its value matches the advance and reduces as the advance is recovered.
The advance limits under Article 12 of Decree 210/2026 are worth memorising. Minimums for construction contracts: 10% of the contract price above 50 billion dong, 15% between 10 and 50 billion, 20% below 10 billion. For consultancy: 15% above 10 billion, 20% up to that. The ceiling is 30% of the contract price; going higher needs the investment decision-maker's approval. That is a major change from the old 50% cap.
Two traps hide in the advance. First, any advance beyond the minimum is excluded from price adjustment from the moment it is paid, so a large advance is not automatically a good deal on an adjustable-price contract. Second, the advance must be fully recovered by the time cumulative payments reach 80% of the contract price. Forget the recovery schedule and the end of the contract becomes painful.
Stage 3 – The interim payment file, repeated every instalment
- The quantity acceptance minutes for the instalment, signed by contractor, supervision consultant and owner.
- The completed-value sheet, Form 03.a/TT, with the detailed take-off behind it.
- The variation valuation, if any, with the owner's written approval issued before the work was done.
- The price-adjustment calculation for adjustable-price contracts: the right index period, the contract's own formula and weightings.
- The payment request, Form 04.a/TT; the advance recovery request, Form 04.b/TT, where this instalment recovers advance; the withdrawal slip, Form 05.a/TT.
- The VAT invoice for the amount requested.
- Supporting records for checking: as-built drawings for the work, the site diary, work acceptance minutes, test results and material certificates.
The payment request must show four numbers: value completed under the contract, value of variations, the advance recovered, and the net amount requested after set-off.
On deadlines, Article 28 of Decree 210/2026 is specific: the employer pays within 14 working days of receiving a complete, valid file. On public investment projects the Treasury transfers funds within 2 working days, and within 1 for advances. Which means the waiting time lives almost entirely in the file-completion stage between contractor and owner, not at the Treasury.
Stage 4 – The contract settlement, known in the trade as the A-B settlement
Under Article 30 of Decree 210/2026, the contractor prepares this file and the employer and consultant certify it. The decree's core contents:
- The acceptance minutes for completion of all work in the contract's scope, variations included.
- The settlement statement: value completed under the contract, variations, amounts already paid, and the balance still payable.
- The as-built records and site diary, for contracts involving construction work.
- Whatever else the contract itself requires.
In practice the submitted file also carries the acceptance minutes and value sheets of every paid instalment, contract amendments, technical resolution minutes, the warranty security and the debt reconciliation. Once every obligation ends, warranty included, the parties sign the contract liquidation.
The deadline: 60 days at most from completion and acceptance of all works. Large, complex contracts may extend, but never beyond 120 days.
Stage 5 – The project settlement, for public investment capital
This one belongs to the owner, following Decree 254/2025. The file for verification holds the submission report, the settlement report forms, the related legal documents, and the cost settlement of the whole project including every contract's A-B settlement. Projects subject to audit attach the audit report, and the submission must state which findings the owner accepts and which it disputes, with reasons.
The contractor does not prepare this file. But submitting its own A-B settlement on time is exactly what lets the owner meet these deadlines.
The payment forms and their form numbers
The five forms below are the everyday set on publicly funded projects, issued with Decree 254/2025. Any guide still teaching the forms of Decree 99/2021 is working from the wrong instrument.
| Form | Title | Who prepares it | When it is used |
|---|---|---|---|
| 02.a/TT | Summary of contract information | The employer, who is accountable for it | Once, when the contract file is opened at the paying authority |
| 03.a/TT | Statement of the value of completed work | The contractor prepares it; the supervision consultant and employer certify it | Every interim payment application |
| 04.a/TT | Request for payment of capital | The employer or project management unit | Every advance and every interim payment |
| 04.b/TT | Request for recovery of the advance | The employer or project management unit | Any payment period that recovers part of the advance |
| 05.a/TT | Capital withdrawal order | The employer or project management unit | Filed with 04.a/TT to draw funds at the State Treasury |
The originals sit in the appendices to Decree 254/2025/ND-CP. Download them from there rather than from a copy found elsewhere, because most copies still in circulation are the forms of the repealed decree.
Of the five, Form 03.a/TT is rejected most often. It is the point where quantities have to agree in three places at once: the contract price schedule, the acceptance record, and the as-built drawings. Work item names and units of measurement must be copied exactly as the contract writes them, with no merging of lines and no tidier wording.
Contract settlement, by contrast, has no mandatory form. Article 30 of Decree 210/2026 sets out what the file must contain, while the layout of the schedules is whatever the two parties agreed in the contract. That is why no single standard A-B settlement template exists. What to follow is the list of components under Stage 4 above, presented on the form appendix the contract itself specifies.
Privately funded projects do not use this set at all, since nothing goes through the State Treasury. Employers usually issue their own forms in a contract appendix, equivalent in substance to 03.a/TT.
Deadlines and responsibilities
| Task | Responsible | Deadline under current rules |
|---|---|---|
| Submitting the instalment file | Contractor; consultant and owner certify | As agreed in the contract |
| Paying once the file is complete | Employer | 14 working days at most (Art. 28, Decree 210/2026) |
| Treasury transfer, public investment | Payment authority | 2 working days; advances 1 day (Art. 12, Decree 254/2025) |
| Contract settlement | Contractor prepares; owner certifies | 60 days; large complex contracts up to 120 (Art. 30, Decree 210/2026) |
| Owner's project settlement file | Owner | Nationally significant and group A: 9 months; group B: 6; group C: 4 (Art. 46, Decree 254/2025) |
| Settlement verification | Verifying agency | Nationally significant and group A: 8 months; group B: 5; group C: 4 |
| Settlement approval | Competent authority | Nationally significant and group A: 1 month; group B: 20 days; group C: 15 days |
Note the asymmetry: project settlement deadlines run in months, yet the commonest cause of delay is contract files that never quite close. One missing variation approval, one as-built sheet, one unreconciled debt is enough to stall the chain. A contractor who keeps its own file tight is helping the owner, and helping itself collect the retention.
Why files get rejected, from students' real submissions
This list comes from the files students bring to the settlement course to have corrected.
- Accepted quantities that do not match the as-built drawings. The verifier only needs one discrepancy to distrust the whole file. See the seven take-off mistakes beginners make.
- Variations built first, approved later. Without written approval preceding the work, a variation is very hard to get paid, however real it is.
- The wrong index period or formula in price adjustment. And remember the new rule: the advance beyond the minimum is excluded from adjustment.
- Work items named or measured differently from the contract price schedule. Same work, different name, different unit, lines merged or split.
- Illogical dates. Acceptance signed before the diary says the work finished; invoices issued before acceptance; material certificates dated after the concrete pour.
- Missing signatures, missing seals, wrong signing authority. The smallest error and the most frequent one. Every return costs weeks of circulation.
- Advance recovery off schedule. Reach 80% of the contract price with advance still outstanding and the problem lands all at once.
- Quality records missing from the quantity file. Nobody certifies quantities whose quality acceptance is absent.
The pattern: almost none of these come from ignorance of the rules. They come from files assembled at the end of the period instead of alongside the works. Updating the quantity sheets, diary and as-builts weekly is what separates a good QS from a busy one.
The printable checklist
The five-stage checklist and the deadline table are collected into a PDF made to be printed and pinned up in the site office.
**Download the payment and settlement checklist (PDF)**
The Institute's Payment and Settlement course runs in three parts. Those are the legal framework under the new decrees, the contract and payment file, then practice on a full document set. That practice works on a real contract, adjustable prices included. Those going further into the profession take the QS course; What does a quantity surveyor do? describes the role.
Frequently asked questions
Is Decree 37/2015 still in force, and what replaced it?
No. Decree 210/2026/ND-CP on construction contracts took effect on 1 July 2026 and replaced both Decree 37/2015/ND-CP and Decree 50/2021/ND-CP, which had amended it. On the public investment side, Decree 254/2025/ND-CP replaced Decree 99/2021/ND-CP from 26 September 2025. The exception covers contracts already signed and under way before the new instrument took effect, dealt with in the last question below.
Do state-funded and private projects follow the same process?
The contract side — acceptance, interim payments, the A-B settlement — follows Decree 210/2026. The Treasury stage and the owner's project settlement under Decree 254/2025 apply only to public investment capital. Private projects substitute the owner's internal rules, usually leaner, but the quantity and quality files never go away.
What about files started under Decree 99/2021?
Projects that submitted their settlement file, or signed an independent audit contract, before 26 September 2025 continue under Decree 99/2021. Legal files already lodged with the payment authority stay valid without resubmission. Everything else moves to the forms and procedures of Decree 254/2025.
Is an independent audit mandatory for every project?
No. The categories requiring an audited settlement report are set in Decree 254/2025. The quickest check is the project's investment decision, and asking the verifying agency early rather than at submission.
Does a lump-sum contract need detailed quantity sheets for payment?
No. Article 29 of Decree 210/2026 is explicit: lump-sum payments follow the stages or percentages in the contract, and the acceptance minutes need no detailed quantity confirmation. Quality records remain mandatory, and variations outside the lump-sum scope still need their own quantities.
Which rules govern contracts signed before 1 July 2026?
Contracts on public investment and PPP projects signed and under way before that date continue under the old rules, Decrees 37/2015 and 50/2021. On other projects the parties may agree to adopt the new decree if they wish.