Off-plan payment plan template: layout, formulas and a filled example

What this template is for

An off-plan purchase means buying a property before it is built, and paying for it in stages. The stages are written into the sale agreement (the SPA, sale and purchase agreement) the buyer signs with the developer. This template is not that agreement. It is the brokerage's working copy: a clear table you can show the buyer, check against the SPA, and use to see what is due next.

Two limits up front. First, the developer's agreement and payment demands are the official record. If your sheet and the agreement disagree, the agreement wins. Second, I am not covering fees, registration steps or deadlines here, because those are set by the Dubai Land Department (DLD, the government body that registers property) and the relevant regulator and can change. Confirm those directly with the authority.

The columns

Set these up in Excel or Google Sheets. Start with a small block at the top for the deal, then the schedule underneath.

Deal block (top of sheet):

• Buyer name and contact
• Project and unit number
• Agent
• Total price (AED)
• SPA date
• Expected handover (from the agreement)

Schedule (one row per instalment):

• No. The instalment number.
• Description. Deposit, on SPA signing, on a named construction stage, on handover.
• Trigger type. "Date" or "Milestone". This tells you whether the due date is fixed.
• Percentage. The share of total price, as written in the agreement.
• Amount (AED). Calculated, never typed.
• Due date. For date-based rows. Leave empty for milestone rows until the developer confirms.
• Status. Upcoming, due, paid, late, waiting for milestone.
• Paid date and Proof (a link to the receipt).
• Reminder sent. A date, so nobody sends it twice or forgets.

The formulas

Only a few formulas are needed. Assume total price is in cell C3 and percentages are in column E, rows 10 to 20.

• Amount per row: =$C$3*E10 (with E10 formatted as a percentage). Copy it down.
• Check the plan adds to 100 percent: =SUM(E10:E20). Add a cell beside it: =IF(ROUND(SUM(E10:E20),4)=1,"OK","Check percentages"). This one cell catches most typing mistakes.
• Total paid so far: =SUMIF(H10:H20,"Paid",F10:F20), where H is status and F is amount.
• Balance remaining: =C3-(total paid).
• Days until due: =IF(G10="","",G10-TODAY()), where G is the due date. Use conditional formatting to turn the cell amber under 14 days and red when negative and unpaid.

A filled example

This is a sample layout with made-up percentages to show how the sheet reads. It is not any developer's real plan. Payment plans vary widely, so always copy yours from the signed agreement.

No.	Description	Trigger	Percent	Amount (AED)	Due	Status
1	Booking deposit	Date	10%	120,000	On booking	Paid
2	On SPA signing	Date	10%	120,000	Date in SPA	Paid
3	Construction stage A	Milestone	10%	120,000	Waiting for developer	Waiting for milestone
4	Construction stage B	Milestone	10%	120,000	Waiting for developer	Waiting for milestone
5	Fixed date instalment	Date	20%	240,000	Date in SPA	Upcoming
6	On handover	Milestone	40%	480,000	At handover	Upcoming

For an example price of AED 1,200,000 the percentages add to 100 and the amounts add to 1,200,000. Each amount is simply price times percentage. If your check cell does not say OK, you have mistyped a percentage.

How to fill it in

1. Open the signed SPA to the payment plan schedule. Do not work from the brochure.
2. Type the total price once. Type each percentage exactly as written.
3. For each row decide: is this tied to a date or a milestone? Enter dates only where the agreement gives them.
4. Check the 100 percent cell.
5. Send the buyer a copy of the table (as a PDF, not the live sheet) and ask them to confirm it matches their agreement.

Where the spreadsheet stops working

Excel is Microsoft's spreadsheet program, and Google Sheets is Google's free browser version. Both do this job well for a handful of buyers. The trouble starts when the same file is edited by several people, when reminders depend on one person's diary, and when buyers want to see their own plan. That is when a spreadsheet becomes a risk instead of a tool. I go through the signs in my guide to tracking off-plan payment milestones.

Turning this sheet into a tracker with reminders

This is a typical case for moving a spreadsheet into a small web app, which is what I do in an Excel to web app build. The columns above become the database. The percentage-times-price formula becomes automatic. The status column updates when someone records a payment. The "reminder sent" column is filled by the system, which sends a WhatsApp message (WhatsApp is the messaging app most buyers read) before each due date, with the agent seeing every message. Buyers get a login that shows only their own plan.

The same table also feeds a payment summary you can attach to a quotation or booking document. If you generate those documents by hand, see my page on a quote generator.

What a human still does: confirms construction milestones with the developer, checks the schedule against the signed agreement, and talks to a buyer who falls behind.

Use Claude to fill it from an SPA

Claude is an AI assistant you can use in a browser. Paste the payment plan section of the agreement (remove personal details) and ask: "Extract each instalment into a table with description, percentage, trigger type (date or milestone), and due date. For a price of AED 1,200,000 calculate each amount. Say if the percentages do not add to 100." Then check every line against the document. It is a typing saver, not a legal reader.

Common mistakes with payment plan sheets

• Copying from the brochure. Marketing material and the signed agreement can differ. Only the signed agreement counts.
• Typing amounts instead of calculating them. One typo in one cell and the schedule is wrong from that row down. Use the formula.
• Treating a milestone row as a date row. A construction-linked payment has no fixed date until the developer confirms the stage. Leave the date empty and the status as waiting, so nobody tells a buyer a wrong date.
• Forgetting extra charges. Some purchases involve fees and charges beyond the instalments in the plan. Those depend on the project and on Dubai rules, so ask the developer and confirm with the Dubai Land Department. Keep them in a separate small table on the sheet so they are not mistaken for instalments.
• No version control. Save a dated PDF each time the plan is shared with the buyer, so you can show what they were sent and when.
• No proof of payment link. When a buyer says "I paid that", you want the receipt one click away, not in an inbox.

A final practical tip: keep one file per buyer deal for now, with the deal block at the top, and a master sheet that lists every deal with its next payment date. The master sheet is what your manager looks at on Monday morning. When it grows past what one person can keep tidy, that is the moment to move it.

Variants: monthly and post-handover plans

Guides on this topic describe monthly plans (a deposit, then a set percentage of the price each month) and post-handover plans (part paid after the keys). The basic layout still works, but you generate rows instead of typing them. Here is an illustrative example with made-up numbers, not any developer's plan: price AED 1,000,000, 10% at booking, 30% during construction, 10% at handover and 50% over 60 months after handover. The monthly amount is 500,000 divided by 60, which is AED 8,333.33.

• Monthly dates: =EDATE($C$5,A10) where C5 is the first post-handover date and A10 is the month number. EDATE is available in both Excel and Google Sheets.
• Monthly amount: =$C$3*0.5/60, with the 50% and 60 in settings cells, not typed into the formula.
• Add a "phase" column: During construction, At handover, After handover. It makes the next formula possible.

Read the monthly terms from the agreement. Some plans round the last instalment or add a final balloon payment, so the check cell that the schedule adds to 100 percent matters even more here.

Two numbers that help a buyer decide

Add a small summary block with: cash paid by handover, and cash still owed after handover. Use =SUMIFS(F10:F80,J10:J80,"During construction")+SUMIFS(F10:F80,J10:J80,"At handover") for the first, where J is the phase and F the amount. Comparing two developers' plans on these two numbers, plus the total including fees, is more honest than comparing the headline split. A plan that looks cheap each month can need the biggest balance at handover.

A second tab for costs outside the plan

Guides on payment plans repeatedly warn that the instalments are not the whole cost. Add a second tab listing items that are paid separately, each with who charges it and a confirmed or unconfirmed flag: the registration fee (see DLD fees explained), agent commission if the buyer pays it, service charges after handover, and any mortgage costs at handover. Leave unconfirmed amounts blank rather than guessing, and fill them from the developer or DLD in writing.

Risk columns worth adding

• Grace period (days) and late-payment clause reference, copied from the SPA. I have not confirmed any standard figures on an official page, so use only what your agreement says.
• Last contact date with the buyer, so a late payment with no contact stands out.
• Source of each date: SPA, developer email or WhatsApp. If a date came from a message, keep a screenshot link.

Also compare what your sheet says with the developer's own payment demand each time one arrives. A mismatch found in week one is a conversation. Found after the due date it is a dispute.

How I would approach this

Use the sheet for your next five off-plan deals. Count how many times a reminder was missed or a number retyped. If the answer is zero, keep the sheet. If it is not, you have your reason to automate it.