Small and Medium Enterprise (SME)

The Commonwealth Procurement Rules define an SME as an Australian or New Zealand business with fewer than 200 full time equivalent employees. The definition is headcount based, not revenue based, which is a meaningful difference from other countries. The Australian Government targets sourcing at least 25 per cent of contracts by value from SMEs for contracts up to $1 billion, and at least 40 per cent for contracts up to $20 million. Non-corporate entities must also restrict some panel approaches under $125,000 to SMEs.