Supplier onboarding with large Australian buyers: what a small business needs to prepare

Disclosure. Just Gold, which funds and publishes Pride in Business, has been a Social Traders certified social enterprise since 2019. It has also worked with Social Traders as a client, including producing its digital awards and providing photography and video for Convene 2026.

Much of the work involved in supplying a large customer is administrative. A buyer cannot raise a purchase order until the business has been set up in its supplier system, and that process requires the business to answer the same questions on tax, insurance, policies and supply chains that every other supplier answers. Completing onboarding does not guarantee any work, but it is a precondition for winning work from that buyer, and most of the information it asks for can be prepared well before a buyer requests it.

Tax registration and invoicing

A business needs an Australian Business Number to take part in the GST system, and it must register for GST once its annual turnover reaches $75,000, or $150,000 for a not for profit organisation, with registration voluntary below those amounts. Under the Commonwealth’s payment policy, an invoice is correctly rendered only if it is a valid tax invoice under the GST Act, is correctly addressed and calculated, and relates only to what was delivered under the contract. An invoice that does not meet those conditions does not start the period within which the agency must pay.

The NSW Small Business Commissioner’s quick reference for selling to the NSW Government sets out the checks a new supplier should expect to pass, which are an ABN, GST registration, an Australian bank account, current ASIC registration where the business is a company, and willingness to comply with the government’s Supplier Code of Conduct.

Insurance requirements

Required insurance amounts differ from one buyer to another. Buying for Victoria’s insurance guide for goods and services procurement identifies product liability, public liability and professional indemnity as the types suppliers are most often asked to hold, and states that run off, cyber and workers’ compensation insurance may also be required. The guide does not set a standard amount, saying instead that cover "should be sufficient to cover losses or costs incurred under the contract". It also observes that suppliers may be reluctant to buy additional cover before an offer has been accepted, and that the additional cost is likely to be passed on to the agency.

Published requirements give a sense of the amounts involved. Wagga Wagga City Council’s standard purchase order terms, version 3 of December 2019, require public liability cover of not less than $10 million per occurrence, product liability of the same amount where applicable, professional indemnity of not less than $5 million where applicable, and workers’ compensation and motor vehicle insurance, with copies to be provided on request. Before quoting, a supplier should locate the insurance clause in the tender documents or standard terms and confirm with the buyer whether the cover must be in place when the bid is lodged or only once a contract is signed.

Modern slavery and codes of conduct

Under the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth), entities with consolidated revenue of at least $100 million must publish an annual modern slavery statement that addresses seven mandatory criteria. A small business below that threshold has no reporting obligation of its own, but its large customers do, and many of them ask suppliers for the information they need to report.

Indigenous Business Australia’s supplier questionnaire is representative of what suppliers receive. It asks for the business’s ABN, industry, employee numbers and number of direct suppliers; whether its goods or services involve countries including China, India and Vietnam; whether it must report under the Act; whether it has "policy or procedures in place to deal with modern slavery risk"; whether a person is responsible for overseeing those risks; whether staff are trained; and "How much visibility does your organisation have over its supply chain?" A small business can answer them without a compliance team, provided the owner knows where its inputs come from, has a written policy and has assigned someone responsibility for it.

State codes of conduct establish a further minimum. Victoria’s Supplier Code of Conduct "sets mandatory minimum standards that Suppliers must achieve to establish and maintain a business relationship with the State", covering integrity, ethics and conduct; conflicts of interest, gifts, benefits and hospitality; corporate governance; labour and human rights; health and safety; and environmental management. Queensland’s Supplier Code of Conduct applies to all procurement, regardless of value, from 1 January 2026.

Government tender portals

Each government operates its own portal, and registration is what allows a supplier to receive notice of opportunities by email. AusTender publishes Australian Government business opportunities and notices of contracts and standing offers valued at $10,000 or more, and is also where tender documents are downloaded and responses lodged; registration for notifications is free. Victorian tenders are published through Buying for Victoria, and article 6 in this series covers the Digital Marketplace Supplier Hub. In New South Wales, suppliers register on the Supplier Hub at buy.nsw. Queensland has been moving to a single platform powered by VendorPanel, with free supplier profiles and no fees to quote or tender, while QTenders remains the source of information on upcoming, current and closed opportunities during the transition.

Payment terms

The Commonwealth’s Supplier Pay On Time or Pay Interest Policy has been in effect since 1 July 2022 and applies to contracts of any value. It requires non corporate Commonwealth entities to pay correctly rendered invoices within 20 calendar days, or within 5 days where both parties use Peppol compliant electronic invoicing, and to pay simple interest at the general interest charge rate on late payments where the interest owed exceeds $100. In New South Wales, the small business guide advises businesses with annual turnover under $2 million to register under the Faster Payment Terms policy, which requires agencies to pay registered small businesses within 5 business days.

Private sector customers are not bound by equivalent rules, although the Payment Times Reporting Scheme makes their record public. Businesses with annual consolidated revenue of $100 million or more report every six months on how quickly they pay their small business suppliers, and the reports are published on the Payment Times Reports Register. Amendments applying from 1 July 2024 added more detailed measures and allowed the regulator to identify the slowest and fastest payers, so an owner can check how a large company has paid its suppliers before agreeing to its standard terms.

Certification and supplier diversity

Three certifications place a business in front of buyers who are actively seeking that type of supplier. Social Traders certifies social enterprises at no cost, on criteria that include reinvesting the majority of any surplus in the mission. Supply Nation verifies Indigenous businesses, and from 1 July 2026 the Commonwealth’s Indigenous Procurement Policy began applying a strengthened test of 51 per cent First Nations ownership and control. WEConnect International certifies businesses at least 51 per cent owned, managed and controlled by women. Each certification tests ownership or purpose, without assessing the quality of the work, and helps an owner only where the buyers that owner wants to reach rely on it.

Disclosure of LGBTIQA+ ownership

Buyers with supplier diversity programs specify the kinds of ownership they seek. Westpac’s supplier diversity page names Indigenous owned businesses, businesses owned by women, Australian Disability Enterprises, social enterprises and B Corporations, and does not name LGBTIQA+ ownership. Macquarie’s page lists a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Business Enterprise category and names certifiers for it in the Americas, the United Kingdom and parts of Asia, but none in Australia and New Zealand, and states that it considers other forms of verification case by case. An LGBTIQA+ owner may therefore meet a supplier form with a category to select and no Australian certificate available to support it.

The decision to select that category rests with the owner, and the law treats the information as sensitive. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner lists "sexual orientation or practices" as sensitive information, which it says generally has a higher level of privacy protection than other personal information, and organisations covered by the Privacy Act generally need consent to collect it. Before answering, an owner can reasonably ask the buyer whether answering is optional, who within the organisation will see the response, whether it is shared with those making purchasing decisions or used only for reporting, and whether it will appear in any directory, since the buyer’s responses indicate what disclosure is likely to achieve.

Identity is the one part of onboarding that is clearly optional, which leaves the owner room to negotiate. A reasonable test is whether the buyer can show what the information will change in its purchasing, and an owner whose buyer will only record it can reasonably withhold it.

Sources

Our explainers describe how business and procurement systems work in Australia. They are written for business owners and others who deal with those systems from the outside, as well as for people who work within them. We review each guide at least annually and update it sooner when a relevant rule changes. Check the linked source for current eligibility requirements before applying.

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Supplier onboarding with large Australian buyers: what a small business needs to prepare

Tax registration and invoicing

Insurance requirements

Modern slavery and codes of conduct

Government tender portals

Payment terms

Certification and supplier diversity

Disclosure of LGBTIQA+ ownership

Sources

More explainers

How supplier diversity works in Australia and why the rules differ by buyer

Social procurement: how it differs from donations, sponsorship and supplier diversity

Supply Nation and Social Traders: what their certification establishes

How LGBTIQA+ supplier certification works in the United States and Canada