There is no single payment time, because ‘aggregator’ covers many businesses with different terms. What you can do is understand the four clocks that decide it.
The four clocks
1. Preparation. You send photos, forms and serials. If the aggregator checks them after receiving, mistakes cost days. Pre-checking before lodgement is faster. See photo requirements.
2. Lodgement and validation. The claim is created in the REC Registry, and the CER validates it. Most claims pass quickly, but a few are held for audit or fail. Some aggregators pay only after validation.
3. The batch cycle. Many pay weekly or fortnightly rather than on each claim. A claim validated on Tuesday may wait until the next run, which turns a three-day process into ten.
4. Settlement terms. Contract terms might say “paid within 20 days” or “paid on the buyer’s remittance”. The second one hands your cash flow to someone else’s payment cycle. See 20 days vs 1 day.
What counts as slow
At the time of writing, a typical long wait is two to four weeks from lodgement for terms-based payers, against one to three business days for a fast-settling trader. For a crew installing 15 systems a week at roughly $1,700 in STC value each, a three-week delay ties up around $75,000. Over a year that is a real financing cost, which is the argument made in installer cash flow.
What to ask any aggregator
- When does the payment clock start: lodgement, validation or buyer payment?
- Do you pay per claim or in batches, and on which days?
- Is the rate locked when I lodge, or when you sell?
- What happens to payment if a claim is held for audit?
- Are there cut-off times? See trader cut-off times.
What this means for installers
Faster payment matters more than a few cents on the rate when you carry stock, wages and deposits. Our desk settles within 24 hours of sign-off for established partners and locks the published rate when a complete claim is lodged. See how it works, pricing and the STC trading pillar. If you are weighing a move, the insight on payment times lays out what is reasonable.
Reading the contract
Terms such as “payment within 20 business days of validation” mean something very different from “within 24 hours of sign-off”. Look at three words: within, of, and business. Confirm whether weekends count, and whether the clock pauses for queries or audits.
Escalating a late payment
If a payment is overdue, start with your account contact, quoting the claim list and the contract term. Keep the dates of lodgement and validation, because they decide whether the delay is yours or theirs. Persistent lateness is a reason to compare providers.