A live read on how Australian businesses are really tracking

Built on live-streamed transaction-level banking data, not surveys. A single reading of SME financial performance, and viewed by size, State and industry.

As at: May 2026
-2.3
The Shift SME Economy Index measures SME financial performance. It combines revenue growth and liquidity growth rates at the business-level, capturing the intersection of the two, rather than in isolation.

Based on live-streamed bank transaction data from ~11,000 SMEs

THE SHIFT SME REPORT

Behind the number

Each edition reads live bank transaction data from Shift’s customer base to see what’s changed since the last. This issue looks at how the typical SME is funding its growth, and whether that pattern is holding steady or starting to turn.

Read the full report
DEFINITION

What counts as an SME?

Shift defines a small or medium enterprise (SME) as any business under $75m in annual revenue, the same boundary used by the RBA and APRA. Within that, Shift splits SMEs into three segments: small (under $1.5m), established ($1.5m to under $10m) and corporate ($10m to $75m).

Read more

The Shift SME Economy Index

The Shift SME Economy Index, and its revenue and liquidity components, are all built from the same standardised data. Break it down by industry, state or business size. Every view is interactive, and the underlying data is available to download.

The Shift SME Index broken down by business size, across small, established and corporate. Use it to compare how the smallest operators are faring against their larger counterparts.

Explore the data →How Shift’s framework maps SME data →

The Shift SME Index broken down across the states. Use it to compare how the typical business is faring in one part of the country against another.

Explore the data →

The Shift SME Index broken down by industry. Use it to compare how the typical business is faring in one industry versus another.

Explore the data →