Tuesday, July 05, 2016

UK small business owners spend 10% of their working day chasing payments


New research from cloud accounting software company Xero reveals that UK small business owners spend 10% of their working day chasing payments, on average waiting an extra fortnight before invoices are settled.  The survey shows that:

•  Just over half of UK business owners worry about unpaid invoices
•  The worst affected regions are London - where businesses spend 1.5 days per month chasing payments - followed by 1.3 days by businesses in Wales
•  The business sectors spending the most time chasing payments were HR (three days), followed by IT & Telecoms (1.8 days) and Manufacturing & Utilities (1.7 days)
 
Xero’s research into late payments found that London was the region where businesses suffer the most, accounting for over 14% of respondents. Other heavily affected regions included Wales (12%), Scotland (11.5%) and the North East (10%). The business sector worst affected was found to be HR (26%), followed by IT & Telecoms (16%) and Manufacturing & Utilities (15%).

The two main reasons cited by small business as being the causes of late payments were that their customers were also waiting for payments themselves (32%), as well as a lack of consistency on payment terms (27%).

“Nearly 60% of all UK small business invoices were paid late in 2015, which can cripple and often close a business within its first few years,” said Emma Jones, friend of Shedworking and founder of business community Enterprise Nation. “The late payment epidemic the UK is facing has to change so small business founders don't spend so many hours chasing doubt and worrying about cashflow on the back of late payment. With small businesses making up a staggering 99.8% of the British economic engine, this is a critical issue to sort for the betterment of the UK economy as a whole."

Xero has launched the chasingpayments.com platform where businesses can nominate prompt payers and find helpful advice, tips and tools that will help improve cashflow and end problems associated with late payments. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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