Four out of 10 issues raised by small business concern "shabby" payment behaviour by the big end of town, says Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Bruce Billson.

"Sadly, about 40 per cent of the matters that come our way are related to payment times," Mr Billson said on this week's Accountants Daily podcast.

"The previous federal government introduced a reporting register so 7,000 of our largest corporates have to report quarterly on just what their terms are."

"That was a bit of a show and tell, hopefully, a nudge to improve performance. "But it hasn't actually improved that much at all. We see far too many small and family businesses waiting way too long to get paid for what they do for their big business clients.

"It's just shabby. It doesn't need to be this way."