The café closes. The bank gets your stock.
PPSR registration for food and beverage wholesalers
Suppliers of coffee, produce, meat, seafood, beverages, dry goods and packaging run on 30-day terms with customers who fail at twice the rate of the economy. More than 2,000 accommodation and food services businesses entered insolvency in 2025–26. Most of their suppliers had a retention-of-title clause and none of them had registered it.
- 2,078
- accommodation and food services insolvencies in 2025–26
- <11c
- in the dollar for unsecured creditors in most liquidations
- 1
- registration per customer covers every future delivery
Retention of title isn't enough
The clause on your invoice creates a security interest. Only a registration on the PPSR makes it count against the customer's bank and the liquidator. Unregistered, the stock on their shelves vests in the company the day the administrator walks in.
Inventory has the tightest window
To rank ahead of the bank over stock the customer will resell or use up, the registration has to be made before they take possession. The way to meet that every time is one registration per customer, lodged when they accept your terms.
Trade credit is unsecured by default
AFSA's figures show trade creditors are owed nearly as much as banks in business insolvencies, and that bank debt is usually secured while trade credit usually isn't. Registration is how a supplier changes that.
What your terms need
An all-moneys retention-of-title clause, a statement that the terms are a security agreement and your interest is a PMSI, consent to registration, a trust over proceeds so your interest follows the money when stock is sold, a waiver of the verification statement, and the standard contracting-out of enforcement notices. The customer has to accept the terms in writing before the first delivery; a signed credit application is the usual way.
How the registration is made
- Against the customer's ACN (company) or the trust's ABN (a trading trust, common in hospitality), never the trading name
- Collateral class Other goods, inventory ticked, PMSI ticked, proceeds ticked
- Described as goods supplied under your terms of trade, so it covers everything you deliver
- Seven-year duration, renewed before expiry
When
Lodge when the customer accepts your terms and before the first delivery. For existing customers, lodge now: you'll get PMSI priority on everything delivered after the registration and ordinary priority on what's already there.
What OnTerms does
- You upload your terms of trade and a customer list from your accounting software.
- We find the clause, verify each customer's ABN or ACN, and show you what we'll lodge.
- You confirm. We lodge one registration per customer under a secured party group in your name.
- We watch the register and the insolvency notices and tell you the day a customer appears in one, with what to do by when.
Common questions
Can I register against a customer who's a trust?
Yes, against the trust's ABN. If the trustee company also trades in its own right, register against its ACN as well. Getting this wrong is the most common reason hospitality registrations fail.
Do I need to register for every delivery?
No. One registration per customer covers all goods supplied under your terms while it's current.
A customer owes us $18,000 and just went into administration. What now?
Run the free check. If you were registered, you're a secured creditor over any of your stock still on hand and over its proceeds; we'll give you the plain-English pack on asserting that. If you weren't, lodge a proof of debt and register every other customer this week.