Having a healthy cash flow is crucial for the success of your small business – but it can be a challenge when clients and customers don’t pay you on time or implement long payment periods.
When you’re running a small business, getting paid late – or needing to wait for your payment over a longer payment period – can be a major challenge. Payment delays or long payment terms can be more common in some industries, such as construction and agriculture, compared to others.
If this impacts your business, you might find that it’s larger businesses and government clients who can impact your cash flow because of the payment processes in place within their own organisations. To help address this, the Federal Government has implemented a measure known as the Payment Times Reporting Scheme.
About the Payment Times Reporting Scheme
In 2024, reforms were made to the Payment Times Reporting Act, strengthening the reporting requirements related to large businesses’ payment times.
Large businesses (those with over $100 million in annual income) and some government entities need to report every six months to the Federal Government on their payment terms and practices toward small businesses. The report includes information about payment practices, such as any fees involved in procurement processes, standard payment terms, average payment time and the percentage of invoices paid within 30 days.
To make it easier for small business owners to access and understand this data, and use the data to compare payment practices between large businesses, the Payment Times Reports Register has been improved and updated.
A useful tool for small business owners
The Payment Times Reports Register is an interactive online tool designed to help small business owners identify large businesses which tend to pay over longer payment times. As a small business owner, this could help you decide who to do business with, or help you expect delays in advance so you can plan for these.
It’s easy to access the information on the register and you don’t need to sign up for an account. You can look up a specific large business by clicking on the ‘Entity search’ button on the left hand sidebar. You can also compare industries using the ‘industry explorer’ button.
Managing payments and cash flow
The Payment Times Reporting Scheme is just one of the measures being taken by the Federal Government as part of a wider approach to supporting small businesses.
As a business owner, you might like to learn more about managing your cash flow, with some tips to help you take even more control of your business income.
More information to help you get paid
When you land a new client or contract, setting terms for credit or payment times isn’t always something you might think about right away. It’s worth having the right agreements in place from the start to avoid any issues later. To learn more about this, you might like to explore:
- How to prepare standard terms and conditions
- Contracts and agreements
- Setting payment terms to provide credit to customers
If you have an ongoing payment issue and need help to resolve it, learn more about your debt recovery options as a small business owner.
