A counterclaim based on lost profit needs a supported calculation

Lost sales are not automatically lost profit

Your company receives a statutory demand and believes the creditor's conduct caused valuable work to be lost. Before putting the full sales value into a counterclaim schedule, ask your lawyer and accountant how the loss should be assessed. The expected contract revenue may include costs the company would have incurred to earn it.

Identify the opportunity that was lost

Imagine a contractor claiming that defective supply prevented it from completing a separate customer order. Preserve the customer order, programme, cancellation correspondence and explanation of the alleged connection. Distinguish an accepted job from a hopeful sales enquiry. Do not give both the same certainty simply because the business needed the work to proceed.

Build the calculation from evidence

business.gov.au's pricing guidance discusses costs including materials, labour and overheads. Use the underlying job estimate and actual records to explain the financial assumptions for professional review. Identify costs avoided, costs already incurred and any replacement work undertaken. The source supports careful cost analysis; it does not decide which losses are legally recoverable in the particular dispute.

Source: business.gov.au: Choose a pricing strategy

Avoid overlapping amounts

In the contractor's example, the schedule might claim the full lost sale and separately include all the labour that would have earned it. Explain how each component is treated and ask the accountant to identify duplication. Keep supporting calculations visible. An impressive total is less useful than a transparent figure whose assumptions and uncertainties can be tested.

Give the lawyer the difficult facts

Include any customer concerns unrelated to the supply problem, capacity constraints and conditions on the original order. These may affect whether the claimed loss can be connected to the creditor's conduct. Do not omit them because they weaken the story. Ask whether expert input is needed and what can realistically be prepared within the actual response timetable.

Keep the procedural task in view

An unfinished damages model does not pause a statutory demand. Obtain urgent advice about the required response and provide the best supported information available, clearly identifying estimates. Avoid promising that a projected profit figure cancels the debt. The immediate objective is a properly assessed response, supported by a calculation that distinguishes evidence from commercial optimism.