Every year, thousands of Queensland licensees leave their QBCC annual reporting until the last weeks of December – and every year some of them discover a problem they no longer have time to fix. The lodgement window for categories 1-7 opened on 1 August. Here is what is involved and why early is better.

Who has to lodge, and when

All licensees in financial categories 1 to 7 must complete annual financial reporting between 1 August and 31 December. Self-certifying licensees (SC1 and SC2) have a later window – 1 November to 31 March – and since March 2025, sole traders in SC1 and SC2 no longer need to lodge at all. Companies and trustees in those categories still do.

What you actually report

For categories 1-3 the lodgement is built on your internal management accounts: profit and loss, balance sheet, debtors and creditors. Categories 4-7 must provide general purpose financial statements. In every case QBCC is testing the same things:

  • Maximum revenue – did you turn over more than your licence category allows?
  • Net Tangible Assets – do you still hold the minimum NTA for your category?
  • Current ratio – do current assets cover current liabilities at least 1:1?

The traps we see every year

  • Revenue creep. A good year pushed you past your category’s maximum revenue and nobody applied for an upgrade (which needs an MFR report) before the work was done.
  • Loans to related parties. Money drawn out of the company sitting in a director loan account can be partly or wholly disallowed from your NTA.
  • Deeds of covenant counted wrongly. Covenants and assurances have strict limits depending on category.
  • December panic. If your NTA is short, fixing it properly (capital injection, debt restructure, retained profits) takes weeks – not days.

Do the health check now

August-to-October lodgements give you time to fix problems quietly. December lodgements do not. If your figures are borderline, get your accountant to run the NTA and current ratio tests on your June numbers now.

With nearly half of our clients in building and construction, we’re QBCC specialists. If anything in this article applies to you, book a chat or call (07) 5593 6060.

General information only — not financial or legal advice. Rules and thresholds change; check current requirements with QBCC and the ATO or speak to us before acting.