Do I need Udyam registration to use the 45-day payment rule?

The MSMED Act's payment protection applies to registered micro and small enterprises, so registration is what puts a business formally inside that definition. This is a general description, not legal advice — confirm the specifics with your accountant or the official portal.

Does Lekha handle the registration?

No. Lekha records and tracks your bills and ages them against the 45-day clock. The registration itself is done through the government's Udyam portal; Lekha's guide explains the rule in plain English.

Udyam registration and the 45-day clock, in plain English

A right you have to claim to hold

Under the MSMED Act, a registered micro or small supplier is owed payment within the period agreed in writing — and, broadly, no later than 45 days from acceptance — after which the law provides for interest to run. It is a genuinely strong right. But it is a right for registered enterprises, not a courtesy extended to everyone who happens to be small.

That distinction is where a lot of suppliers quietly lose their footing. They are small, they are owed money, they are late being paid — and yet, without the registration that puts them formally inside the definition, the strongest part of the law is harder to stand on. The clock protects those the Act recognises.

What Udyam registration does, plainly

Udyam is the government's registration for micro, small and medium enterprises. In plain terms, it is the act of formally placing your business inside the MSME definition — a free, online registration that produces a recognised identity for the enterprise. It is the paperwork that turns a small manufacturer into a registered micro or small enterprise in the eyes of the framework the payment right lives in.

This is a description, not legal advice, and the specifics of who qualifies and how to file are worth confirming with your accountant or the official portal. The point worth carrying away is simpler: the 45-day protection and the registered status are connected, and the registration is the part a business actually controls.

Registration is the start; tracking is the rest

Registration gives you standing. It does not, by itself, tell you which of your bills has crossed the line. Knowing that means holding, for every receivable, the date of acceptance, the due date, and the running age — a records problem that arrives the moment the right becomes real to you.

That is the seam Lekha is built for. It ages each receivable against the 45-day clock and flags the overdue ones, and its guide walks through the rule itself in plain English. Register to earn the footing; track to know where you stand on it.