To better protect Subcontractors' retention funds the legislation in New Zealand and Australia (Western Australia and Queensland, so far) has changed and requires these funds to be kept in Retention Trust Accounts.
Workbench has added new functionality to help you manage these Retention Trust Accounts (RTAs) using the Subcontractors module.
For companies regularly engaging subcontractors, managing these trust accounts will be efficient and simple.
To comply with these regulations, Workbench enables head contractors to:
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Maintain trust accounts for all subcontractor's retentions. This can either be a Bank Account (New Zealand & Australia) or a Financial instrument (New Zealand only).
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Regularly report to subcontractors with a very simple process providing in a single report the details of the Retention history on all Payment Certificates & the retention balance on all their subcontracts, with the Trust Accounts details, so they can easily see what is being held and where.
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Provide subcontractors with the details of each Trust Account on the Subcontract Claim Payment Certificate and Payment Schedules.
By supplying subcontractors with the necessary trust account information, we aim to instil peace of mind and foster transparency within the industry.
Benefit for our Workbench Clients:
Reduce manual work, and time.
Compliance with legislation.
Improved relationship and trust with Subcontractors.
The impact of non-compliance can be extremely costly for the company, and also penalties for Directors.
At Workbench, we are dedicated to providing innovative solutions that address the evolving needs of the construction industry. By streamlining trust account management and compliance processes, we aim to empower head contractors and subcontractors alike.
We are currently working on the Project Trust Accounts functionality to assist our Queensland Construction clients. We have planned to release this functionality in two phases, the first one being 2023 Q4.
If you would like to know more about this functionality please reach out to your Workbench consultant or raise an enquiry through the website and one of our friendly team members will contact you.
We take the opportunity to thank our clients who have kindly provided their time and feedback in this process. 
📣Please register your interest for a demo session on the management of Retention Trust Accounts functionality in October by emailing Maria Harreguy mariah@wbi.co.nz