BICB AT A GLANCE
As a member of Australia’s largest building industry trade bureau, you belong to a unique, and growing, supplier group. The bureau operates in Queensland, New South Wales, ACT, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
At a Glance
- Originating in the 1920’s, BICB is a not-for-profit subscriber-based organisation
- BICB supplies comprehensive, up to date, factual credit information about entities that receive the supply of goods & services on credit in the building & construction industry in Australia
- Members have 24/7 online access to this information via a secure database
- Strict security procedures are observed in relation to the storage of, and access to, members’ data, and confidentiality requirements are strictly enforced
- Subscribers provide BICB with their monthly debtors aged trial balance (showing commercial accounts only), which are then consolidated into the BICB database detailing trading histories of over 200,000 entities in Australia representing annual sales of over $36 billion
- BICB offers members regular meetings, toolbox training sessions and training seminars
- BICB observes the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (Cth)
- Members pay an annual subscription fee which is based on the size of the debtors aged trial balance
BUSINESS STRUCTURE
BICB is managed by its Executive Director operating under the philosophical direction of a member-elected Board of Directors. The nonexecutive Board members are all senior executives of member companies.
Members are all suppliers of goods and services to the building industry – neither size nor product type is criteria for membership, and many members are licensed with QBCC and other bodies and operate as subcontractors. Members are suppliers of the following product types:
Represented member sectors include:
- Brick & Block
- Cabinet Makers & Joinery
- Carpets & Flooring
- Concrete & Concrete Products
- Earthworks & Road Building
- Electrical & White Goods
- Equipment Hire
- Hardware & Plumbing
- Insulation
- Landscape Supplies
- Plasterboard & Fixers
- Plumbing Supplies
- Roofing
- Sand & Gravel
- Steel
- Steel Fabrication
- Timber
- Wall & Floor Tiles
- Windows & Doors
- Landscape Supplies
… Plus other building products and services
All members pay an annual subscription based on the size of their debtor ledgers.
MEMBER SERVICES
Database Reporting
Members access the database information via a secure website which gives members 24 hour access to:
- Detailed payment history reports
- Debtor ageing analysis reports
- Comprehensive debtor notes
- Corporate and licensing information
- Red flag alerts
- Trade reference information
- Member specific KPI reports
- Member specific risk analysis exception reports
- Other reports
- Other online services
Contractor Licence Reports
BICB records on its database the QBCC and other licence details for many debtors, and will carry out a full licence status check on behalf of any member.
Member Meetings
Monthly meetings of BICB members are held alternatively in a face to face or virtual meeting. These meetings are a forum for members to exchange current, factual information in respect of their debtors.
Seminars
BICB conducts a number of half-day seminars and tool-box sessions each year to help members ensure that their credit and sales staff are kept up-to-date with changes to those laws which affect them, and generally kept abreast of techniques to help them do their jobs properly.
Creditors Meetings
The Executive Director is available to represent members’ interests at relevant creditors’ meetings, and at times will extend that representation to membership of Committees of Creditors/ Inspection. Representation is via a duly appointed Proxy(s).
Industry Improvement
Over the years BICB has taken a leading role in participating in the various building industry enquiries which Governments have held, as well as being proactive in making submissions both to Government and to other bodies where there is an interest or benefit to members.
BICB MEMBER PLATFORM
We need to use this space to introduce this space to introduce the software platform that members use day-to-day.
Initially, I’ll re-edit the video that’s currently on the BICB front page to extract the section about the operation of the platform.
The platform is currently having new features added and we’ll do a new video once those updates are completed.
The video to the right is a placeholder only.
MEMBER MEETINGS
We will soon launch a new Members Calendar – keep an eye out for the upcoming launch details and instructional video.
Meetings will be held on the following days in 2023:
- National Members Meeting – Thursday, commencing at 8:30am (Qld time), Board Room, Newnham Hotel, 516 Newnham Road, Upper Mount Gravatt QLD 4122.
- Gold Coast – combined with National Meeting
- Sunshine Coast – (Face to Face) Wed, Tue, commencing at 2:30pm
- Toowoomba – Combined with National Meeting
- Townsville – Combined with National Meeting
- Sydney – Combined with National Meeting
- AGM & SEMINAR – Wednesday, 25 October 2023
- Highlight denotes Face-To-Face Meeting
ADDITIONAL SERVICES
Public Record Searches
Member access includes the following public record searches, via the Online BICB Report Selection screen:
- ASIC Current and Historical Extracts
- ASIC Organisational Name Searches
- ASIC Relational Extracts
- ASIC Document Listing
- ASIC Document Images
- ASIC Personal Name Browse
- PPSR Company Search
- Business Name Searches
- Property searches – name or address
- Title Searches
Advanced Credit Reports
Pricing for the below Credit Reports is available
to Members on application to the Bureau.
Advanced Credit Reports containing:
- ASIC & ABN information
- Credit History Snapshot
- Public Record Information
- Company Adverse Information
- Payment Performance Summary
- BICB Payment History
- Credit Enquiries
- Property & Title Searches
CASE STUDY
One of our members sought advice about an unpaid debt
from a licensed Queensland builder
