PPN 018 Payment Check
1 credit / callA company's statutory payment report read against the PPN 018 tests and the Fair Payment Code tiers.
PPN 018's two tests (95% within 60 days, 90% with an action plan; 45-day average) applied to the last two statutory reports, plus the Fair Payment Code tiers; meets / with an action plan / doesn't meet, with the figures.
Since 1 October 2025, a bidder for a central-government contract worth more than £5 million a year has to show it pays at least 95% of invoices within 60 days (90% with an action plan) and all its invoices within an average of 45 days (Procurement Policy Note 018); a bidder that can't is rejected. The figures that decide it are the ones large companies already publish every six months in their statutory payment-practices reports. This endpoint reads a company's last two reports against those two tests and says meets, meets with an action plan, or doesn't meet, with the figures and the period; and reads the same report against the Fair Payment Code's percentage tiers (Gold 95% within 30 days, Bronze 95% within 60). For a bidder checking itself before a bid, a buyer checking bidders, a prime checking subcontractors, or a bid tool showing it on every supplier. A company that doesn't report is said so.
what you’d build with it
Bid teams
Before the Procurement Specific Questionnaire: do our last two reports pass, and by how much?
Bid and tender software
The PPN 018 result on every supplier profile, by company number.
Primes and buyers
Which subcontractors and bidders would fail the payment tests.
example response
{
"company": { "name": "TESCO STORES LIMITED", "number": "00519500" },
"reported": true,
"ppn018": {
"latest": { "period": { "start": "2026-03-02", "end": "2026-08-30", "filed": "2026-09-29" }, "within60": 95, "averageDays": 43, "tests": [ { "test": "At least 95% of invoices paid within 60 days (90% with an action plan)", "rule": "PPN 018", "figure": 95, "met": true }, { "test": "All invoices paid within an average of 45 days", "rule": "PPN 018", "figure": 43, "met": true } ], "result": "meets", "reading": "Meets both PPN 018 payment tests for the period ending 2026-08-30: 95% of invoices paid within 60 days (test: 95%) and an average of 43 days (test: 45 or fewer)." },
"summary": "meets in both of its last two reports"
},
…Abbreviated. The full example, every endpoint and runnable code are in the implementation guide above; the integration pack downloads beside it. No account needed to read any of it.
Why developers pick it
The tests as published, not a score
95% within 60 days, 90% with an action plan, a 45-day average: the words of PPN 018, applied to the company's own filed figures.
Two reports, as the questionnaire asks
The latest and the one before, each judged, and one line for both.
Honest about scope
The Fair Payment Code's Silver tier can't be judged from the statutory report, and the reply says so rather than guessing.
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