Many Australian firms are finding it hard to cope with their payables and stretch more time to make payment in the September quarter, leading businesses to worry that cash flows could be restricted amidst efforts for a significant turnaround on the current year.

The latest Dun & Bradstreet survey released on Monday found that Australian companies were in better shape last year as far as settling accounts is concerned as more executives expressed fears that business revenues could head the downward spiral due to the hampered flow of cash sources.

For the September quarter, Australian businesses required an average of 53.2 days just to settle accounts with other companies, which was a slide by more than a day to the settlement period registered in the same quarter last year.

The survey said that companies that employ no more than five workers required at least 53.2 days to meet payment dues while those with 50 to 100 workers needed 49.3 days in order to make payment.

It also found that as business staff grew the number of days needed to settle accounts increased too as companies maintaining workers of 200 to 499 took 53.5 days to remit payments while businesses having 500 employees and more took the longest time in settling payment obligations, up to 56.2 days.

Dun & Bradstreet chief executive Christine Christian said that more than five out of ten business executives queried in the survey regarded the late payments as generally bad for the business environment, especially during the turnaround period.

Ms Christian said that for executives, liquidity and cash flows were important in times of recovery as she stressed that when demand increases, companies require better accessibility to funds in order to "take on new staff, increase their inventories and invest in their business."

However, she added that overcoming such situation is possible through implementation of a vigilant cash flow management on the part of the concerned companies.

Overall, the new survey found that the power and sanitary services sector emerged as the slowest-paying industry on the account of its 58.8 days while businesses located in the ACT required 55 days to meet account payments.

Also, the report said that Australian private firms performed better in settling accounts, needing only 53.1 days to make payments as against their counterparts in the public sector which took some 58.6 days in wiping out outstanding debts.