SMEs now wait 23 days for late payments, new study finds

According to the latest data, UK SMEs now have to wait up to 23 days on average for late payments to be made.

MarketFinance, a peer-to-peer invoice finance platform, has analysed late payment data between 2013 and 2019 from 100,205 invoices raised by UK SMEs to give a detailed overview of the late payments pressures SMEs face.

It found that the overall number of unpaid invoices for small and medium-sized businesses in the UK has fallen in the last year to just 39 per cent of invoices sent, down from 43 per cent in 2018.

However, the length that many have had to wait has almost doubled from 12 days last year, to 23 days in 2019.

The data shows that US companies are among the worst late payers for UK small businesses, taking up to 51 days to settle each invoice.

Over the longer term, the analysis found that larger debtors insisted on longer payment terms (49 days) than smaller debtors (37 days) and that whe