More than one in six Australian SMBs now lose over $2,500 per month to late payments — a proportion that has grown significantly from one year ago, according to GoCardless's 2025 Pursuing Payments report. With Payday Super now requiring superannuation to be paid on each pay cycle, the timing of incoming payments matters more than ever for small business cash flow. What many finance and operations teams do not know is that Australia has a publicly accessible register showing exactly how quickly large businesses pay their small business suppliers — updated every six months, free to use, and searchable by company name or ABN. This article explains how the Payment Times Reports Register works, how to read it, and how to put it to use.

What the Payment Times Reporting Scheme (PTRS) is — and what it publishes

The Payment Times Reporting Scheme (PTRS) requires large businesses and some government enterprises to report, every six months, on how quickly they pay their small business suppliers. Those reports are published publicly on the Payment Times Reports Register — making it possible for any small business to look up how a large trading partner or prospective customer actually pays, not just how quickly they say they will.

The Scheme is administered by the Payment Times Reporting Regulator, an independent body under the Treasury portfolio. It is not a complaint mechanism and does not resolve individual disputes. Its purpose is transparency: by making payment behaviour publicly visible, the Scheme creates reputational pressure on large businesses to pay small suppliers promptly.

Who is Required to Report Under the Scheme?

Under amendments that took effect from 1 July 2024, the Scheme applies to entities and corporate groups with annual consolidated revenue of $100 million or more, determined in accordance with Australian Accounting Standards. Reports cover the entity's payment practices with small business suppliers — defined as suppliers with annual turnover of less than $10 million.

Key Metrics Disclosed in Payment Times Reports

Each payment times report provides structured data on an entity's payment practices, including:

• Standard payment terms: The standard, shortest, and longest contractual payment windows offered to small business suppliers.

• Actual payment performance: Invoice payment speeds categorised across three timeframes — within 30 days, 31–60 days, and over 60 days — measured by both invoice volume and total financial value.

• Statistical distribution (95th percentile): Under current reporting rules, entities must disclose their 95th percentile payment time — the number of days within which 95% of small business invoices are paid. This figure is used to determine Fast and Slow Small Business Payer status.

• Supply chain finance: Explicit details of any reverse-factoring or supply chain financing arrangements made available to small business suppliers.

The 2024 Reforms: New 'Fast' and 'Slow' Payer Rules

The Payment Times Reporting Amendment Act 2024 introduced two additional transparency measures. Both are summarised in the table below.

Both measures make the data more actionable for small businesses assessing a prospective customer or renegotiating terms with an existing one.

How to search the Payment Times Reports Register

The Payment Times Reports Register is publicly accessible — no login or registration is required. The following steps cover the most practical ways to use it.

Step 1: Locate the Target Entity via Name or ABN

Enter the name of the trading partner or prospective customer in the search field. Where a large business operates through multiple entities or a corporate group, searching by the parent company name or the specific contracting entity's ABN will return the most relevant results. If the entity is a reporting entity under the Scheme, its reports will appear in the results.

Step 2: Compare Historical and Current Reports

Reports are submitted every six months. The most recent report provides the most current picture of payment behaviour. Earlier reports are also available and can be useful for identifying whether payment performance has improved, deteriorated, or remained consistent over time.

Step 3: Analyse key payment performance metrics

Focus on two critical indicators within the report to assess actual payment behaviour:

• Standard terms vs. actual performance: Compare the reported standard terms against the proportion of invoices paid within that window. A wide gap reveals systematic payment delay beyond contractual commitments.

• The "over 60 days" proportion and 95th percentile: Pay close attention to the tail-end payment times. While average payment times can mask poor performance, a high 95th percentile or a significant proportion of invoices in the "over 60 days" bracket signals severe cash flow risk for suppliers.

What the Data Reveals — Signals Worth Noting

When reviewing a company's payment data, three patterns are worth noting:

• A significant gap between standard terms and actual payment performance indicates that the entity is systematically paying beyond its stated terms — a pattern worth investigating before or during commercial negotiations.

• Deteriorating performance across consecutive reporting periods may indicate financial pressure or operational issues in the entity's accounts payable function.

• Inclusion on the Regulator's Fast Small Business Payer list — entities whose 95th percentile payment time is 20 days or less for two consecutive reporting periods — is a meaningful signal of payment reliability when assessing a prospective customer.

How to use the data in practice

The Payment Times Reports Register is most valuable when it informs a specific business decision — not as a research exercise in isolation. The following covers the three situations where the data is most directly useful.

New customer or supplier assessment

Before entering a significant new trading relationship with a large business, checking the register provides an evidence-based starting point for understanding payment risk. A prospective customer with a consistent record of paying 40 or 50 per cent of small business invoices over 60 days is a different credit risk than one that appears on the fast payer list.

This matters particularly when the value of the contract is large relative to the supplier's monthly revenue, or when the supplier's cash flow is already under pressure. Knowing that a new customer takes an average of 50 days to pay — before signing — allows the business to price accordingly, adjust inventory or resourcing decisions, or negotiate payment terms upfront rather than after the relationship has begun.

Contract and payment terms negotiation

The data published under the Scheme is public and can be referenced directly in commercial negotiations. Where a large business customer has a documented record of paying beyond its stated terms, a supplier can raise that directly — noting, for example, that the most recent payment times report shows a significant proportion of invoices paid over 60 days — and use it as the basis for negotiating shorter payment terms, progress payments, or a deposit.

Suppliers are not required to explain how they obtained the information. The register is publicly available for exactly this purpose.

Early payment discount design

Where a supplier wants to incentivise faster payment from a large customer, an early payment discount is one practical mechanism. The PTRS data can inform the design of that arrangement. If the register shows that a customer currently pays at an average of 45 days, offering a modest discount for payment within 15 days creates a clear commercial incentive to change behaviour.

The discount rate should be set with reference to the cost of the cash flow benefit it provides. A 1.5 per cent discount for payment 30 days early is equivalent to an annualised cost of capital of approximately 18 per cent — which may or may not be worth it depending on the supplier's circumstances. For businesses with access to affordable credit, early payment discounts may be less attractive than for those facing constrained cash flow. The decision is a financial one, and for significant arrangements, taking advice from an accountant or financial adviser is worthwhile.

The Payment Times Reports Register is a practical tool that most small businesses are not using. The information it contains — actual payment performance data from large businesses, reported under a legal obligation and published by an independent regulator — is more reliable than anything a prospective customer is likely to say about their own payment practices in a sales conversation.

Checking the register before entering a significant new trading relationship, or before renegotiating terms with an existing customer, takes a few minutes and requires no login. For businesses managing tight cash flow, that information can make a material difference to how a contract is structured and what payment terms are accepted.

Official sources:

• Payment Times Reports Register

• Payment Times Reporting Scheme

• About the Payment Times Reporting Scheme

• Treasury — Payment Times Reporting Scheme

Last updated: August 2026