Council’s best-in-class payment terms assisting local business
Explore Councils by state
A benchmarking exercise has shown Toowoomba Regional Council’s (TRC) continued effort to assist local business through its 14-day payment strategy is best-in-class.
Council introduced a range of measures to assist local business at the height of the Covid pandemic and one such measure was to reduce its payment terms to local suppliers from 30 days end of month to 14 days date of invoice.
TRC Finance and Business Strategy Committee Portfolio Leader Councillor Kerry Shine said the measure had assisted local businesses involved in supplying goods and services to Council.
“During the Covid pandemic, Council introduced a range of measures to assist our local businesses and suppliers and this change to our payment terms is one we’ve made permanent because we know it works.
“Council has undertaken some benchmarking on payment terms implemented by other Council areas throughout Queensland and we’ve found we are best-in-class when it comes to paying our businesses within 14 days from date of invoice.
“Getting paid earlier is such an important part of running a business, we know cashflow is so important to allow businesses to do what they do and Council is walking the walk in making payments faster for services rendered and supplies delivered.
“Council has spent around $142 million this financial year already with local Toowoomba region businesses which represents almost 65% of all Council spend.
“Making sure these businesses are paid faster is a critical part of council’s strategy to support them, it allows these businesses to keep people employed, pay their bills and operate efficiently,” Cr Shine said.
Other recent changes to Council’s Procurement Policy to support local business even further have included: • Seeking quotes from only local suppliers for procurement under $200,000 (where possible)
• Giving local suppliers an additional 10% price variance for purchases up to $50,000
• Giving local suppliers an additional 5% price variance for purchases greater than $50,000 but less than $200,000
• Continuing to follow the public tender or contractual arrangement exceptions contained within Local Government Regulation 2012 (Regulation) s223 to s235 for procurement with an expected value greater than $200,000.