Keeping your licence current is essential for staying compliant and maintaining credibility. 

Whether you’re renewing, replacing, or restoring your licence, here’s how to get it sorted.

Step 1: Know your licence status

First, determine what action you need to take:

a)    Renew—if your licence is due or recently expired (within 3 months)

b)    Replace—if your licence is lost, stolen, damaged, or your details have changed

c)    Restore—if your licence was cancelled after being expired for more than 3 months.

Whether you're a seasoned professional or new to Queensland's building and construction industry, maintaining your QBCC licence is crucial.  
 

Step 2: Prepare your documents 

Before applying, make sure you’ve got everything you need:

• a QBCC renewal notice (usually sent a month before expiry)
• payment details (bank card, account info, or BPAY)
• valid ID
• relevant forms based on your update type.

Step 3: Choose your method

The QBCC offers convenient, simple ways to meet your individual needs including:

• online through myQBCC
• phone – 139 333
• mail
• in person at one of our service centres.
   

Step 4: Submit your application

Once your documents are ready, submit your application through your chosen method. Make sure all details are accurate to avoid delays.
 

Step 5: Receive confirmation

After processing, you’ll receive:

a)    a confirmation email or payment receipt

b)    your new licence card by mail

c)    all future notifications from the QBCC to your registered contact information.  
 

Tax time trust account discussions  

1. Get informed

Send your accountant a link to our Trust accounts webpages.  

With high-level summaries, through to detailed step-by-step guides for trust accounting practice, you’ll find the information needed to understand the trust account framework and its requirements. 

2. Financial health check

Trust accounts work by ‘quarantining’ project payments. All the money received from a principal for a project must only go into the trust account for that project, and subcontractors must only be paid from this account. Retention trust accounts keep all cash retentions separate from your main bank account.  

Do you need to consider how you will adapt your strategies for working capital and cash flow to cope with these requirements? 

3. Software compliance

There is work currently being done by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Planning and Public Works to clarify the trust accounting record keeping requirements with a range of software providers to bring confidence to software solutions.  

It is expected software will progressively become available in the market from September 2024, with the majority of common software platforms having solutions by early 2025.   

If think you will be required to open a trust account and administer a trust account ledger in the next phases of framework rollout you need to consider your software options.

4. Delegate your trust account

If you don't have an in-house accountant you might want to consider your outsourcing options, to help you stay on top of the record-keeping and notification requirements for trust accounts. 

5. Keep up to date

The trust account framework has two more phases:

• 1 March 2025, trust accounts will apply to all eligible construction projects of $3 million or more.
• 1 October 2025, trust accounts will apply to all eligible construction projects of $1 million or more and to retention trust accounts throughout the contractual chain. 

You can find regularly updated guidance materials and information for the framework rollout on our website at: Trust accounts.