Alberta prompt payment: 28 days, 7 days, and a proper invoice

Alberta's prompt payment rules look like Ontario's until you read the definition of a proper invoice. Then you find a requirement that exists nowhere else in Canadian construction law: the invoice has to say, on its face, that it is intended to be one.

Section 32.1(1)(g):

"a statement indicating that the invoice provided is intended to constitute a proper invoice"

Miss that line and everything downstream — the 28 days, the 7 days, the adjudication clock — is arguably not running. It is a single sentence in a template, and it is free.

The Alberta calendar

Two of those rows are Alberta-specific and worth flagging for anyone arriving from another province.

Invoicing is compulsory, at a minimum frequency. Section 32.1(6) — "proper invoices must be given to an owner at least every 31 days" — subject to the regulations, and unless the contract provides for testing and commissioning and those conditions are not met. Sitting on your billing until the end of a phase is not an option the statute contemplates.

The adjudication window is thirty days, and it runs from final payment. That is a much narrower door than Ontario's ninety days from completion. More on that below.

What a proper invoice must contain

Section 32.1(1) defines it as a written bill or other request for payment for work done or materials furnished in respect of an improvement under a contract, containing:

"(a) the contractor's name and business address; (b) the date of the proper invoice and the period during which the work was done or materials were furnished; (c) information identifying the authority, whether in a written or verbal contract or otherwise, under which the work was done or materials were furnished; (d) a description of the work done or materials furnished; (e) the amount requested for payment and the corresponding payment terms broken down for the work done or materials furnished; (f) the name, title and contact information of the person to whom the payment is to be sent; (g) a statement indicating that the invoice provided is intended to constitute a proper invoice; (h) any other information that may be prescribed."

Three of these deserve attention.

(c) covers verbal contracts. "[W]hether in a written or verbal contract or otherwise." Alberta anticipates that the authority for the work may not be a document, and asks you to identify it anyway. On a job with change orders agreed on site, that is an instruction to write down who told you to do it and when.

(e) requires a breakdown. "[T]he amount requested for payment and the corresponding payment terms broken down for the work done or materials furnished." A single total with net-30 at the bottom does not obviously satisfy a requirement that the amount and the terms be broken down for work and materials.

(g) is the sentence to add today. One line on the template.

Note also what Alberta does not have: there is no counterpart to Ontario's section 6.1(2), under which a deficient invoice is deemed proper if the owner does not object within seven days. In Alberta, a deficient invoice is simply not a proper invoice, and the owner has no duty to tell you.

That asymmetry is the whole argument for getting the template right rather than relying on goodwill.

Nobody can make you wait for a certifier

Section 32.1(3):

"Subject to subsection (4), a provision in a contract that makes the giving of a proper invoice conditional on the prior certification of a person or prior approval of the owner to give the invoice is of no force or effect."

Subsection (4) preserves testing and commissioning provisions, subject to the regulations.

So a contract clause requiring the consultant to certify before you may invoice does not exist. You invoice on the statutory schedule.

Revisions are permitted under 32.1(5) where the parties agree, the date of the proper invoice is not changed, and the invoice continues to meet the subsection (1) requirements — the same structure Ontario uses.

Payment: 28 days, and how it is disputed

Section 32.2(1):

"Subject to subsection (2), an owner who owes money under a proper invoice must pay the amount payable under a proper invoice no later than 28 days after receiving the proper invoice."

The owner's escape is a notice of dispute under 32.2(2), given "no later than 14 days after receiving the proper invoice", in the prescribed form and manner, "specifying the amount of the proper invoice that is not being paid and detailing all the reasons for non-payment."

Two features of that provision matter in practice. The reasons must be all of them — an owner who raises one objection at day fourteen and a second at day forty is outside the section. And under 32.2(3), the 28-day duty "continues to apply to any amount payable under the proper invoice that is not the subject of a notice of dispute". A dispute over one line does not justify holding the whole draw.

Seven days down the chain

Section 32.3(1):

"Subject to the giving of a notice of non-payment under subsection (6), a contractor who receives full payment of a proper invoice within the time specified in section 32.2(1) must, no later than 7 days after receiving payment, pay each subcontractor the amount payable to the subcontractor for the work done or materials furnished under a subcontract with the contractor that were included in the proper invoice."

Section 32.3(2) applies the same seven days where the owner has paid only part, to the amount the owner did pay. And where more than one subcontractor is entitled, 32.3(3) sets the allocation rules: where the amount the owner withheld is specific to a particular subcontractor's work, the other subcontractors must still be paid.

Where the owner does not pay at all, the Act still requires the contractor to pay down the chain on a longer clock, unless a notice of non-payment is given — and, as in Ontario, that notice carries an undertaking to refer the matter to adjudication no later than 21 days after it is given. Passing the owner's non-payment down the chain in Alberta commits you to fighting the owner about it.

Adjudication: a thirty-day door

This is where Alberta diverges most sharply from Ontario, and it is easy to miss.

Section 33.4(1) allows a party to a contract or subcontract to refer a dispute respecting any prescribed matter to adjudication, in accordance with the section, the regulations, or the procedures established by the responsible Nominating Authority.

Section 33.4(2):

"An adjudication may not be commenced if the notice of adjudication is given more than 30 days after the date of final payment under the contract or subcontract, unless the parties to the adjudication agree otherwise."

And subsection (3) defines "date of final payment" as the earlier of:

"(a) the date on which complete payment of the amount set out in the contract or subcontract, as applicable, is made, and (b) the date on which complete payment … is required to be made under section 32.2, 32.3 or 32.5, as the case may be."

Read (b) carefully. The clock can start on the date payment was required to be made — meaning it can be running while you are still waiting to be paid. Thirty days after that, adjudication is closed and you are left with court.

What an adjudicator can do. Section 33.6(1) lets an adjudicator hear a dispute regarding any prescribed matter. Subsection (2) allows referral to the court where the adjudicator lacks jurisdiction or the court is the more appropriate forum, and subsection (3) allows refusal where the dispute is "frivolous or vexatious". Subsection (4) requires a written notice of determination with the adjudicator's order.

And it binds. Section 33.6(5):

"The determination of a matter by the adjudicator is binding on the parties to the adjudication, except where (a) the court directs otherwise, (b) an arbitrator has been appointed by the parties under the Arbitration Act and the arbitrator has made an award in respect of the matter, or (c) the parties have entered into a written agreement that resolves the matter."

The lien side, briefly

Alberta's payment rules sit on top of a lien system with its own deadlines, and both are in the same Act — compared against Ontario and British Columbia in construction lien deadlines: Ontario and Alberta 60 days, BC 45.

The major lien fund — s. 18(1): an owner liable on a contract under which a lien may arise "shall, when making payment on the contract, retain an amount equal to 10% of the value of the work actually done and materials actually furnished for a period of 60 days from" the issue of a certificate of substantial performance, or the date of completion where none is issued. GST/HST on that retained amount follows a different clock than the invoice: GST/HST on holdback: no tax before the holdback is payable. Subsections (1.1) and (1.2) extend that to 90 days for improvements to an oil or gas well or well site, and for improvements primarily related to concrete.

Registering a lien — s. 41: 60 days from the last supply of materials or the completion of services, extended to 90 days for oil and gas wells and well sites, and for "improvements primarily related to the furnishing of concrete as a material or work done in relation to concrete."

The lien and retention periods match by design, which makes Alberta easier to diarize than most provinces: 60 days, or 90 if there is a wellsite or concrete in it.

Four things to change this week

1. Add the section 32.1(1)(g) sentence to your invoice template. "This invoice is intended to constitute a proper invoice under the Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act."
2. Break the amount and terms down for work and materials, per 32.1(1)(e).
3. Invoice at least every 31 days. It is an obligation, not a habit.
4. Diarize thirty days from the date payment was required, not from when you gave up chasing it. That is the adjudication door.

---

Current as of August 29, 2026. This article describes Alberta's Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act and is not legal advice. It applies to Alberta only. It does not cover the regulations made under the Act, the prescribed forms for notices of dispute and non-payment, the prescribed matters that may be adjudicated, judicial review of a determination under s. 33.7, the phased release of the lien fund, or the procedure for registering and enforcing a lien. The Act quoted was retrieved from the Alberta King's Printer with the date shown; several provisions have been amended, including by 2024 c20. Verify the current consolidation before relying on it, and consult an Alberta construction lawyer.

What Zirko does: it produces documents with individual positions carrying description, quantity, unit and unit price, records payment terms on the document, and carries interim and final documents on one job — so a breakdown for work and materials is the ordinary shape of an invoice rather than an extra step. Zirko does not check an invoice against section 32.1, does not add statutory statements for you, does not track the 28, 7 and 30 day deadlines and gives no legal advice. Issued documents are immutable; a correction is a separate document.