Paying an overseas supplier before Chinese New Year: the cut-off, counted backwards

Most importers write one date on the wall planner: Chinese New Year, Saturday 6 February 2027. The date that actually matters comes earlier. It’s the last day your supplier will load a container, and the day cleared funds have to be in their account before they’ll release your order.

Between those two dates sit two national calendars, a correspondent bank or two, and a bank cut-off that may have moved on 4 October. Count backwards from the right date and the job is simple. Count forwards from today and it’s easy to run out of business days.

Which date are you really working back from?

The trap is to plan around the Lunar New Year date. Here’s what really happens:

• The official holiday is four days. In 2025, China extended its Spring Festival holiday from three days to four, adding Lunar New Year’s Eve (Shanghai government announcement). Holidays are often joined to weekends with make-up working days, so the break usually runs longer than four days.
• The 2027 timetable isn’t official yet. China’s State Council normally publishes the next year’s holiday and make-up days near the end of the year. Until it does, treat any calendar as provisional.
• Factories set their own dates. Many close well before the official holiday so staff can travel home, and reopen with reduced crews afterwards. Your supplier’s last loading day is the only date that counts.

So the first job, today, is a single email: “What’s your last production day, your last loading day, and the date you need cleared funds to ship our order before the holiday?” Get the answer in writing.

How long does an international transfer take to land?

Longer than a payment inside Australia. A domestic payment over the NPP can land in seconds, any hour of the day. An overseas payment usually travels through the international banking network, often via one or more correspondent banks that hold currency for each other. Each one adds time.

Bank and payment-provider guides commonly quote 1 to 5 business days, with the major currencies at the faster end. The Reserve Bank’s February 2026 Bulletin puts some data behind that. Swift figures for 2023/24 show about 34 per cent of inbound payments to Australia arrived within an hour. The G20 target is 75 per cent by the end of 2027, and the RBA says Australia’s time zone is likely a key factor in the delay. Outbound payments face the same distance and the same overlap problem.

What eats the days, in practice:

What happens	What it costs the clock
You submit after your bank’s international cut-off	Processed the next business day
A public holiday in Australia, China or the home country of the currency you’re paying in	A day lost each time
A correspondent bank holds the payment for compliance checks	Hours to days, usually with no warning
Supplier’s name or account details don’t match	Payment returned, and you start again
Supplier’s bank processes the receipt the next morning, local time	Often half a day or more

A payment to a Chinese supplier invoiced in American currency can be held up by three calendars at once: Australian, American and Chinese.

Did daylight saving move your bank’s cut-off?

Possibly, if you’re outside the south-east. Daylight saving started on 4 October 2026 in NSW, the ACT, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia, and runs to 4 April 2027. Many banks set payment cut-offs on Sydney and Melbourne time. NAB, for example, says its cut-offs for customers in Queensland, the NT and WA move one hour later from 5 April 2027, so right now they’re an hour earlier in local time.

A Brisbane importer who sent payments comfortably at 1:30pm in winter could miss the same cut-off in January. Check your own bank’s international cut-off in its business banking help pages, and our daylight saving page explains the wider shift.

Counting it backwards: a January 2027 timetable

Pin the supplier’s date first, then work backwards in business days. Australian holidays in the window are Christmas Day (Friday 25 December), the Boxing Day substitute on Monday 28 December in most states, New Year’s Day (Friday 1 January) and Australia Day (Tuesday 26 January 2027).

Step, working backwards	Rule of thumb
Supplier needs cleared funds	The date they give you in writing
Transfer in transit	Allow 5 business days to be safe
Payment submitted before your bank’s cut-off	Morning of the sending day, Sydney time
Funds sitting in your account	At least 1 clear business day before sending
Any finance approved and settled	Before that, with room for a hold-up

If a supplier needs funds by Friday 29 January, allowing five business days in transit means sending on Thursday 21 January, because Australia Day takes out the Tuesday. Add a clear day for the money to be in your account and you want it there by Wednesday 20 January. That’s a lot tighter than “early February”.

If a gap is opening up between the invoice and your bank balance, find out where you stand now, while the calendar is still on your side.

What if the balance needs funding?

This is where a timeline for the funding sits on top of the timeline for the payment. Some things to know:

• Smaller unsecured amounts can be funded the same day, if everything is in order. Unsecured, cash-flow and line-of-credit options for trading businesses typically run from $5k to $500k, sized on turnover and bank statements. Our unsecured timeline shows what’s checked and when.
• Property-secured loans move fast too. $20k to $250k is possible the same day, and up to $5m is possible within 24 to 48 hours. Valuation and title work set the pace.
• Funding lands in your account, and then you send the payment. Some lenders pay a supplier directly at settlement, but an international transfer usually leaves from your own business account through your bank. Allow for both steps. Our page on when funds land covers the domestic side.
• Late-day funding can miss the international cut-off, even when it lands the same day. Money that arrives at 4pm still waits for tomorrow’s international run.

The 24-Hour Funding Clock shows how your state, security and paperwork shape the earliest realistic window. The cut-offs and holidays page explains why late December and January need extra room.

Don’t let the rush pay a scammer

Pre-holiday weeks are when payment redirection scams work best. Everyone is in a hurry, invoices are big, and a “we’ve changed banks” email feels plausible. Payment redirection is consistently among the largest loss categories in Scamwatch’s Targeting Scams report.

Before you send a large payment overseas:

1. Call the supplier on a number you already have, not one in the email, and confirm the account name, number and SWIFT/BIC code.
2. Treat any change of bank details as suspicious until confirmed by voice.
3. Send a small test payment first if time allows. It’s another reason to start early.
4. Keep the confirmation (the payment reference or tracking code) so your bank can trace the payment if it stalls.

Illustrative example: a Gold Coast homewares importer

Illustrative scenario only. Not a real business or loan. A Gold Coast homewares retailer has a container of summer-to-autumn stock ready at a factory near Ningbo. The balance is about $85k at today’s exchange rate, due before loading. In late October, the owner asks the factory for its dates. The answer: last loading day Wednesday 27 January, with cleared funds needed by Friday 22 January.

Allowing five business days in transit before 22 January means sending on Friday 15 January. Their bank’s international cut-off is set on Sydney time, so during daylight saving it’s an hour earlier in Queensland. They’ll need to submit by late morning. They want the money in their account by Thursday 14 January.

Holiday trade should cover most of it, but the owner expects a shortfall of around $40k after January wages and super. Rather than wait to see, they make an enquiry in the first week of January. They have their bank statements ready, so a small unsecured facility is in place days before the 14th. They phone the factory’s export manager to confirm the bank details, send the payment on the morning of the 15th, and keep the tracking reference. The container makes the last pre-holiday ship.

A one-page checklist for this week

• Email your supplier for the last production day, last loading day and cleared-funds date.
• Check your bank’s international cut-off time during daylight saving, for your state.
• Mark Christmas, New Year and Australia Day as non-business days, along with the currency’s home-country holidays.
• Count back five business days for transit, plus one day for funds in your account.
• If there’s a shortfall, decide by early January how you’ll fund it, and get your bank statements ready.
• Confirm the supplier’s bank details by phone before sending anything.

For another way to weigh speed against cost, see our guide to early-payment discounts vs the cost of finance.

Line up the balance before the factory locks up

Getting stock onto the last ship before Chinese New Year is mostly about counting days. When the count shows a gap between the invoice and the bank balance, it’s far easier to sort out in early January than in the last week before the factory closes.

If that’s you, let’s get started. The enquiry takes about a minute, and asking won’t put a mark on your credit file, because there’s no credit check when you first enquire. Your details go to one team and aren’t sent to a pile of lenders, so your phone won’t light up with calls from strangers. A real person looks at your supplier deadline, your state and your paperwork, then calls you with what’s realistic. Please fill the form in accurately, including when the supplier needs the money, so the first option we look at is one that can actually land in time.

Check your options before the shutdown →