Under RMG 417, non-corporate Commonwealth entities pay eInvoices within 5 calendar days and other invoices within 20. Enter what you bill government buyers each month and see the working capital those 15 days are holding.
Paid sooner by
15 days
20 days → 5 days
Working capital released
—
once, and it stays released
Borrowing cost avoided
—
a year, at your rate
How it is worked out: your monthly Commonwealth billing × 12 ÷ 365 gives the value invoiced per day; 15 days of that is the cash you stop waiting for. The borrowing figure is that amount at the rate you enter. It is arithmetic on your own numbers, not a forecast.
The Supplier Pay On-Time or Pay Interest Policy (RMG 417) sets a maximum payment term of 5 calendar days for eInvoices and 20 calendar days for all other invoices, for non-corporate Commonwealth entities.
Four details decide whether it applies to you, and we would rather you heard them from us than found them later:
A PDF attached to an email is not an eInvoice. To qualify, the invoice has to arrive as a structured Peppol document that the buyer’s finance system can read, and most mid-market accounting and ERP systems cannot produce one on their own. So the faster term exists, the agencies are set up to receive it, and supplier receivables wait in the slower queue anyway.
You do not need a new system to fix it. Your invoices keep coming out of what you run today; a Peppol service provider registers your identifier against your ABN, converts each invoice and delivers it to the buyer.
GoRoute is operated by ClayDesk LLC, an accredited Peppol service provider for Australia. The ATO’s Peppol service provider register lists ClayDesk LLC, country USA, home Peppol Authority OpenPeppol — check it yourself.
We connect to the system you already use, by API, connector or file. See e-invoicing in Australia for the wider picture, or how Peppol works.
The policy, the conditions and what counts as an eInvoice — answered.
RMG 417 is the Australian Government's Supplier Pay On-Time or Pay Interest Policy, published by the Department of Finance. It sets the maximum time non-corporate Commonwealth entities may take to pay their suppliers: 5 calendar days for eInvoices and 20 calendar days for other invoices.
It applies where a non-corporate Commonwealth entity and its supplier can both send and receive eInvoices over the Peppol network and have agreed to invoice that way. Since 1 July 2022 the maximum payment terms apply to contracts of any value; the earlier $1 million threshold was removed.
Two conditions must both be met first: the entity has acknowledged satisfactory delivery of the goods or services, and it has received a correctly rendered invoice. The payment period runs from the later of the two.
No. An eInvoice for RMG 417 is a structured document exchanged over the Peppol network, which the buyer's finance system can read without anyone retyping it. A PDF attached to an email, however neat, is processed on the 20-day term.
Under RMG 417, where an entity has not paid in full within the maximum payment term, it must calculate interest and pay it to the supplier if the amount accrued is more than A$100.
Through an accredited Peppol service provider. Your invoices keep coming out of the accounting or ERP system you already use; the provider converts them, registers your Peppol identifier against your ABN and delivers them to the buyer's finance system.
This calculator estimates working capital from figures you supply. It does not establish that RMG 417 applies to any particular contract; confirm your terms with the buying entity.
