The adjudicator fee invoice needs its own allocation check

The case total combines different recipients

A hypothetical NSW business receives an adverse adjudication decision and a separate fee invoice. Accounts adds every figure in the file to a single amount payable to the claimant. Check the cost records before releasing that payment. The progress-payment amount and fees associated with the adjudication may require separate entries, recipients and reconciliation of money already paid.

Collect the complete fee trail

Gather the determination, fee invoices, payment requests and receipts from the relevant providers or authority. Identify which service and reference each document concerns. Preserve a previous payment even if it was made before the decision arrived. Do not assume an invoice is an additional new charge merely because another copy appears in the final correspondence.

Read the allocation in the determination

NSW Government guidance says the adjudicator determines how authorised nominating authority or adjudicator fees are split between the parties. Ask the lawyer to explain the actual allocation and what remains payable in this matter. The general guidance does not mean every legal expense is recoverable or that every invoice should be paid to the other contracting party.

Source: NSW Government: Responding to an adjudication application

Match each amount to its status

In the hypothetical example, list the invoiced fee, any payment already made and the allocation requiring assessment. Confirm disputed or unclear items with the appropriate verified contact. Ask the accountant and lawyer how any reimbursement should be recorded. Do not deduct a fee payment from the adjudicated principal on your own assumption that all amounts are interchangeable.

Plan payments from the checked obligations

Identify the correct recipient and relevant timing for each confirmed item, keeping the source documents linked. If the business cannot fund the resulting commitments, raise that promptly with its advisers. A fee query should not silently become a decision to ignore the determination. Keep any proposed settlement or challenge distinct from the accounting work needed to understand the charges.

Close the cost schedule with evidence

Retain payment confirmations and the reviewed allocation so the same charge is not paid or claimed twice. CRP can help organise the financial impact of the dispute. The practical safeguard is a cost schedule that explains who is owed what and why, instead of a single case total that conceals prior payments, separate payees or an unsupported assumption about recoverable expenses.