Do you need a QBCC licence?
QBCC says you need one to carry out or supervise building work "valued over $3,300", or "over $1,100 where it involves Hydraulic Services Design". The $3,300 counts labour, materials and GST together, so a $3,000 job plus GST is already over.
Some work needs a licence at any value. QBCC lists drainage, plumbing and drainage, gas fitting, chemical termite management, fire protection, completed residential building inspection, building design, site classification and mechanical services.
Below $3,300 you can do general handyman work without a licence, but not electrical or plumbing work, and not anything that needs an occupational licence. Electricians get their contractor licence from the Electrical Safety Office instead, see the electrical contractor licence.
Source: QBCC, When you need a licence, read 25 October 2026.
Not sure where a job sits? What a QBCC licence class covers sets out the scope of each class.
Which licence type do you apply for?
QBCC has four. Going out on your own, you almost always want the first one.
Contractor. Lets you quote, sign the contract and take the money, as an individual or a company. This is the type that has to pass the money test below.
Nominee supervisor. A director, secretary or employee who holds the licence for a company. It can't contract in its own right, and it doesn't have to meet the money test or report each year.
Site supervisor. An employee who runs the work on site for a licensed contractor.
Occupational. Needed to do the work with your own hands in some classes, like plumbing and drainage, fire protection and mechanical services.
Source: QBCC, Which licence type you need, read 25 October 2026.
Trading as a company? The company holds a contractor licence, and a person with the right class holds a nominee supervisor licence for it. You'll often hold both.
What do you have to show QBCC?
For a trade contractor licence, five things, plus photo ID and proof of your business structure if you use a trading name, company, partnership or trust.
- Technical skill. Your trade qualification for the class, shown with apprenticeship papers, an RTO certificate or recognition of prior learning.
- The business unit. For trade classes it's BSBESB402, "Establish legal and risk management requirements of new business ventures". One unit, and training.gov.au lists who teaches it.
- Experience, for some classes, matched against the class's scope of work.
- Money. Proof your business meets the minimum financial requirements for the turnover you choose. The tool below shows which category that is.
- Fit and proper. QBCC assesses whether you're fit and proper to hold a licence, and some classes also need professional indemnity insurance.
Source: QBCC, Eligibility requirements, read 25 October 2026.
Source: QBCC, Managerial qualifications, read 25 October 2026.
What category does your turnover put you in?
Every contractor licence carries a maximum revenue, the most the business can turn over in a year. Each one sits in a financial category, and each category needs a set amount of net tangible assets behind it. QBCC also wants a current ratio of at least 1 to 1, meaning what you can turn into cash within a year at least covers what you owe within a year.
Source: QBCC, What are minimum financial requirements, read 25 October 2026.
Your category, fee and yearly report
From QBCC's own tables. Put in the turnover you expect in your best year, not your first. Everything stays in this browser.
As a sole trader in SC2 you keep the assets up all year but don’t lodge a yearly report.
From QBCC's maximum revenue table, its fee page as listed on 25 October 2026 (QBCC raises fees every 1 July, so check the figure on the form) and its annual reporting rules. Where a category gives a range of assets, the exact amount for your turnover comes from QBCC's own calculator on the maximum revenue page. An estimate, not financial advice.
Source: QBCC, Maximum revenue, read 25 October 2026.
Source: QBCC, Licence fees, read 25 October 2026.
Pick high enough. QBCC won't let you raise your maximum revenue by more than 10% in a year without applying for it, and the turnover counts every dollar the business brings in, not just building work. A good year shouldn't be the year you break your licence.
Do you have to report to QBCC every year?
It depends on who holds the licence and the size. QBCC's rule is "All contractor-type licensees except SC individuals must submit annual reporting". So a sole trader under $800,000 (SC1 or SC2) doesn't lodge, and a company always does, whatever its size, even with no revenue that year.
For categories 1 to 7 you lodge from 1 August and it's due by 31 December, and QBCC writes to you with your date. Not lodging is an offence, so put it in the calendar the day the licence arrives.
Source: QBCC, Annual financial reporting, read 25 October 2026.
How do you apply?
- Check the licence class covers the work you'll do.
- Pick the type, contractor for most people starting out.
- Gather your qualification, the BSBESB402 certificate, ID, business details and financial records.
- Fill in the form for your class and pay the fee for your category.
QBCC says most applications are done "within a few weeks" and to allow around 8. Financial checks, a qualification that isn't the standard one and experience that's hard to verify slow it down. If you're knocked back, QBCC refunds the licence fee but keeps the processing cost. Your licence card and letter carry your licence number and scope of work.
Source: QBCC, Painting and decorating, how to apply and what happens next (the same steps for every trade class), read 25 October 2026.
Where does your licence number have to go?
On your advertising. QBCC says to include your name and licence number, or your company's, and lists websites, social media, online directories like Hipages and Gumtree, business cards and vehicle signs. Leaving it off can cost up to $6,044 for a person or $30,222 for a company. A hi vis shirt doesn't need it.
Source: QBCC, Advertising, read 25 October 2026.
Quotes and invoices are where your customer looks for it. Owners can check your licence on QBCC's licensee register, so look yourself up there the day it's granted, and since late 2025 you can carry a QBCC Digital Licence on your phone for them to see on site.
Source: QBCC, Unlicensed building work cops $15,000 fine, 2 December 2025, read 25 October 2026.
What happened to one roofer who kept trading
On 25 February 2026 the Sandgate Magistrates Court sentenced Robert Waine Tayler in a case QBCC brought. His company's licence had been cancelled in March 2018 after QBCC found him not fit and proper, and the company was deregistered the next year. He kept trading under its name anyway, and in 2022 he took on a roof job at Carseldine.
He was found guilty of three charges, doing building work without a licence, taking an excessive deposit and having no compliant contract before starting, and fined $13,750 in all.
Source: QBCC, Repeat offender pleads guilty to multiple unlicensed building related offences, 23 March 2026, read 25 October 2026.
Look at what the three charges were. The licence, the deposit and the contract. Owners are told to check all three, and QBCC's register shows every fine and direction to fix work on your history for good. Keep your licence current, keep the deposit inside the cap, and have the contract signed before you start.
The deposit cap, the contract and home warranty, in short
QBCC caps the deposit at 20% for work of $3,300 or less, 10% from $3,301 to $19,999, and 5% from $20,000. Progress claims have to follow the work, so you "can't claim more than 50% of the contract price, including the deposit, until at least 50% of the work onsite has been completed."
Source: QBCC, Deposits and progress payments, read 25 October 2026.
You need a written contract for domestic building work "priced over $3,300 including labour, materials and GST", and from $20,000 the owner gets QBCC's consumer building guide before they sign. QBCC tells owners to have it written, dated and signed before work begins.
Source: QBCC, Domestic building contracts, read 25 October 2026.
Over $3,300 on most home work you also take out home warranty insurance for the owner. QBCC says contractors "must take out home warranty insurance on the owner's behalf before starting on any insurable residential construction work where the value of work is more than $3,300". You collect the premium from the owner and pay it to QBCC before work starts or within 10 business days of signing the contract, whichever comes first, and QBCC says to include it in the deposit. Painting, tiling, plastering, decks, roofs and bathroom refits count, not only new homes. A subcontractor to the principal contractor doesn't pay one.
Source: QBCC, Who pays home warranty and when, read 25 October 2026.
Source: QBCC, What work requires insurance, read 25 October 2026.
Yamate sells software to tradies. This guide and its tool are free and ask for nothing. In the app you add your QBCC licence once in Settings, and it prints on every quote and invoice you send.
Related
General information, not tax advice and not legal advice. QBCC sets and changes its fees, categories and rules, so check them with QBCC before you apply. Yamate doesn't lodge anything with QBCC for you.