Paying suppliers on time

Field 1Who reports

The scheme started on 1 January 2021 and is run by the Payment Times Reporting Regulator. It was overhauled by the Payment Times Reporting Amendment Act 2024, and the changes commenced on 7 September 2024.

Since then, a business is a reporting entity if it is a constitutionally covered entity with a connection to Australia, meets the revenue threshold of $100 million or more in annual consolidated revenue under accounting standards, and isn’t excluded. Corporate Commonwealth entities that meet the definition report too.

• Charities registered with the ACNC are excluded.
• An entity controlled by another reporting entity doesn’t report separately: the controlling entity gives one consolidated report for the group.
• A business below the threshold can apply to the Regulator to report voluntarily.

Each business has to work out for itself whether it must report.

Field 2The reporting cycle

1. Two periods a year. A reporting entity reports twice a year, each report covering six months of its financial year.
2. What goes in. Each report covers its standard payment terms, how long it actually took to pay, and its use of supply chain finance arrangements.
3. Three months to lodge. The report is due within three months after the end of the six-month period. An entity can ask for an extension of up to 28 days without giving evidence; a longer one needs evidence.
4. Published. Reports go through the Regulator’s portal and are published on the Payment Times Reports Register.

To know which suppliers to count as small businesses, reporting entities use the Regulator’s Small Business Identification tool. Small businesses are in the tool by default and can opt out through the portal. The reports themselves are aggregates: they don’t name individual small businesses or show individual invoices.

Field 3What the register shows

The register is free to use and needs no account or login. On it you can search for a business’s report, see trends in payment terms and times, compare industries, and read compliance notices.

The 2024 reforms added a fast small business payers list for businesses that pay small suppliers within 20 days, and those in the slowest 20 per cent of payers, overall or in their industry, may be identified and asked for more disclosure.

Field 4When a report is late

The Regulator can issue infringement notices under the Payment Times Reporting Act 2020, and it lists the ones that have been paid. As at October 2026, every notice on that list was for failing to give a payment times report on time, and each was for $99,000. The Regulator adds that paying a notice is not an admission of liability.

For 2026–27 the Regulator says it will keep focusing on businesses that should report and haven’t, reports lodged late, reports that are inaccurate or look false or misleading, groups that haven’t reported on a consolidated basis, and reports of the wrong type.

Field 5For businesses below the threshold

A business below the threshold doesn’t report unless it volunteers. The register is still open to it: any small business owner can look up a large business’s payment practices to small suppliers, including its average payment terms and payment times. If a supplier has a complaint about a large business’s payment times, the Regulator directs it to the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman.

On the paying side, business.gov.au includes paying your accounts on time among its tips for keeping good working relationships with suppliers.

The Ombudsman’s invoicing tips for suppliers show what a supplier is watching for: it suggests e-invoicing to cut errors, finding a contact in the customer’s accounts team, checking that invoice details match the order and the delivery receipt, and checking about ten days before the due date that the invoice has been processed. The ATO describes Peppol eInvoicing as faster, more accurate and more secure than emailing PDF invoices.