If you have strong accounts business in your newsagency, business where you supply goods on account to be paid at a later stage, then the Personal Properties Securities Register (PPSR) operated out of the Federal Government’s Australian Financial Security Authority could be useful.
The PPSR was established by the Gillard government in 2012.
You can register your interests through the PPSR in a way that you have almost the equivalent to a floating charge over the business you supply. This means you could retrieve your goods should the customer or the individual you supplied go broke. You could force payment to you in the event they sell the business or other circumstances arise.
Click here to check out the PPSR business guide. You will read that using the PPSR could assist in establishing business finance, if a considerable portion of revenue is to account customers.
The PPSR is a low cost way to register security without the need for lawyers or accountants to become involved. Registering will drive consistency and structure, and provides security in the event of things happening you hope will never happen.
I mention this because of a conversation I had with a retailer over the weekend who lost several thousand dollars when a small local business they supplied went broke. Only secured creditors were paid out. being registered through PPSR may have allowed them to retrieve some of what they supplied. They were locked out by the liquidator as they had no security.
If you sell on account and have substantial business in this area, research the PPSR and see if it offers security of value to you. You have nothing to lose.