Large businesses have expressed readiness to work with the government to review the Payment Times Reporting Act and make sure it works for businesses of all sizes according to the Business Council of Australia (BCA).
“We support greater transparency for small businesses, so getting this system working is crucial,” BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott said. “Businesses of all sizes depend on each other to thrive, employ more people and help keep communities strong.
“An effective reporting system that minimises red tape will give small businesses the peace of mind and confidence they need to make decisions about who they trade with,” Westacott added. “That means they can get on with growing, investing and employing.”
The BCA has said that businesses have undertaken significant investments to meet their reporting obligations.
“The review is an opportunity to ensure the scheme delivers representative payment times data while minimising compliance costs and complexity for reporting entities,” Westacott said. “In particular, businesses want to work with the government to ensure that the Small Business Identification Tool gets it right. To give businesses and government a clear and reliable set of baseline data we can’t allow large businesses to be misidentified as small or vice versa because just one wrongly categorised business can skew the data.”
The BCA also pointed out the measures it has undertaken on their end to address the payment times issue.
“In 2017 the BCA launched the Australian Supplier Payment Code with support from COSBOA and the Victorian Government,” Westacott said. “The code has 155 signatories with collective annual revenue of around $670 billion. It is working to reduce payment times, ease stress and let small businesses get on with the recovery. Since its launch the code has grown to cover some of Australia’s biggest companies with thousands of small business suppliers, helping smaller businesses grow with their larger partners.
The review has also been welcomed by Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Bruce Billson. on the back of analysis by his office revealing that only 31 per cent of big businesses paid small-business customers within 30 days while 23 per cent took 120 days to pay their bills.
“About 40 per cent of the requests for assistance that come into our office relate to payment times,” Billson said. “A vast number of big businesses just aren’t meeting the mark and it’s causing needless harm and cashflow challenges for small and family businesses who are waiting too long to have their invoices paid.
“At a time when small and family businesses are facing headwinds, big business can play their part and help get that cash going into the business for small and family businesses that have done what they said they do,” Billson added. “They’ve provided the service, they’ve provided the input and big businesses should pay their bills in a timely fashion.”
