Guide 5 of 5 · Payment times
The payment times definition: a small business supplier
For the Payment Times Reporting Scheme, a supplier counts as a small business unless the Regulator’s Small Business Identification Tool lists it: an entity with revenue of A$10 million or more in a single financial year, one in a corporate group with A$10 million or more in consolidated revenue, a government entity, or a small business that has opted out. Large businesses with annual consolidated revenue of $100 million or more that meet the scheme’s other conditions report under it, and they must use the tool to sort which of their payments went to small business suppliers.
General information, not legal advice. The official place to check is the Payment Times Reporting Regulator.
A supplier’s revenue, or its group’s · the line: under A$10 million
Two lines in one scheme
The scheme draws one line to decide who reports and another to decide whose payments are being reported on. Both are measured in revenue, a long way apart.
| Who | The line | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Reporting entity: the business that reports | Annual consolidated revenue of $100 million or more under accounting standards, among other conditions | The reforms that commenced on 7 September 2024 |
| Small business supplier: the business being paid | Not listed in the SBI Tool’s database, whose main test is revenue of A$10 million or more, alone or as a group | The Regulator’s Information sheet 6, December 2025 |
An entity that is not a reporting entity can still volunteer to report by applying to the Regulator, and a reporting entity that makes no payments to small business suppliers can give a modified report with reduced requirements.
A reporting entity must also be a constitutionally covered entity with a connection to Australia that is not excluded from reporting, and the Regulator says it is an entity’s own responsibility to work out whether it must report.
How the tool decides: by elimination
“The SBI Tool works by elimination,” the Regulator says. Its database holds the Australian Business Numbers of:
- “medium and large sized businesses entities with revenue A$10 million or more in a single financial year
- entities part of a corporate group with A$10 million or more consolidated revenue in a single financial year
- government entities, and
- small businesses that have opted out of being identified as a small business in the SBI Tool.”
Payment Times Reporting Regulator, Information sheet 6
A reporting entity uploads its suppliers’ ABNs. “Suppliers whose ABNs do not match the records in the database will be classified as a ‘Small business for payment times reporting’,” and those that match are classified as not small. So a supplier is small by not being on the list.
What “medium or large” means
For the database, the Regulator treats an entity as a medium or large business if its revenue was A$10 million or more in a single financial year, or if it “is a parent, subsidiary or controlled entity within a corporate group that has A$10 million or more in consolidated annual revenue”. A government entity is one classed as a Commonwealth, State or Local government entity by its “Entity Type” on the Australian Business Register.
When a supplier’s label changes
- Every January. The tool is updated annually in January, and as needed for corrections.
- During the year, on evidence. The Regulator may update it at any time if evidence shows a classification is wrong.
- A small business listed as larger. It can contact the Regulator with documentary evidence that, in its most recent financial year, its annual revenue was under A$10 million, and that it does not belong to a group whose consolidated annual revenue reaches A$10 million.
- Within 28 days. The Regulator says it is committed to updating the tool within 28 calendar days of appropriate documentary evidence.
A small business can also choose to opt out, so that the tool no longer identifies it as a small business for payment times reporting. It registers on the Payment Times Reporting Portal to do so, and can opt back in at any time.
When it runs the tool for a reporting period, a reporting entity must select the calendar year in which that period ended.
What the label is used for
Reporting entities give two reports a year, each covering six months of their financial year, and each is due within three months after its period ends. To prepare one, the entity uses the tool to remove from its trade credit payments every payment that was not made to a small business supplier. Using another source is ruled out: the Regulator says no other data sources should be used to identify small business suppliers.
The Payment Times Reporting Rules 2024 then measure that dataset in several ways, including the median and the 95th percentile payment time. They also define the slowest 20% of small business payers as the reporting entities and nominees whose 95th percentile payment times rank in the slowest 20% for the reporting cycle. Where the dataset holds no payments, the proportion of payments made to small business suppliers is 0%.
Where this line sits among the others
The tool’s own label is “Small business for payment times reporting”. It is the one definition on this site applied through a database. Like the tax test, it looks at money alone and takes in related entities. The company reporting test also counts the entities a company controls, but adds assets and employees.