Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
New research by Allianz Trade in its latest report on global Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and Working Capital Requirements (WCR) has found that the looming profitability squeeze could extend payment delays further The research found that profitability is the number one driver of payment terms in Europe, more impactful than financing or the business cycle.…
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Small firms are hampered by late payments and have dampened growth expectations for 2024, according to the Small Business Index (SBI) for Q4 2023, published in full by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). The report is a temperature check of small firms’ sentiment and experiences at the end of last year, and analysis of…
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A Government watchdog set up to tackle late payments has reclaimed less than £800,000 for small businesses since June 2021. The Office of the Small Business Commissioner, launched in December 2017, has recovered £8.5 million owed to small businesses, with £7.8 million retrieved before June 2021. The Commissioner attributed the lower amount recovered to resolving…
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Increasing late payments and spiralling running costs are taking their toll on small construction firms, with confidence amongst the sector falling considerably in Q2 2023, from 27.4 to -31.8, according to FSB’s latest Small Business Index. FSB research found that more than a third of small construction firms (39%) experienced an increase in late payments…
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Small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) are currently owed an average of £27,214 in late payments1 according to new research from Intuit QuickBooks, as SMBs estimate one in six invoices (17%) with customers or suppliers are overdue. The research found that the problem is growing – more than half (52%) of SMBs agree they have been more affected…
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Four in ten (38%) small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are now taking over 90 days to pay their contract staff, according to new research from Sonovate. More than two in five (43%) of SMEs now struggle to pay their contract workers on time as a result of cash flow problems within their businesses. In contrast,…
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An improvement in jobs and sales growth across UK small businesses in June has been largely offset by increasing late payments and a slowdown in wages growth, according to the latest data from global small business platform Xero. The company Small Business Index, based on anonymised and aggregated data from hundreds of thousands of small…
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A new report has revealed that more than a quarter (26%) of small business owners believe that they will be forced to cease trading if the outlook for their business does not improve – a potentially detrimental blow to the UK economy. The SME Insights Report, published by small business insurance provider Simply Business, also found…
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HMRC has been accused of profiteering from self-employed workers over the rate it charges on late payments. Analysis shows that while taxpayers have been charged 7% on late payments, those who are owed a refund from HMRC receive interest of just 3.5%. Julia Kermode, founder of IWORK, said “HMRC is profiteering from self-employed workers at…
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Businesses are spending over 71 days per year – more than a quarter of the working year chasing late payments, according to the annual European Payment Report from credit management services provider Intrum. The 26th edition of Intrum’s report surveyed more than 10,000 companies across 29 European countries, shedding light on the challenges that businesses…
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A new report from accountants at Mazars has found that the top 20 building merchants are increasingly turning to winding up petitions against contractors who fail to pay on time. Builders merchants have applied for winding up petitions against 185 constructors compared with just 44 in the previous year to the end of January 2023,…
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New data from Time Finance has revealed the worsening challenge of late payment debt as it finds SMEs are owed on average quarter of a million pounds in outstanding invoices. In a recent survey, the alternative finance provider to UK SMEs, uncovered that one in three businesses are forced to wait between 60 and 120…
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Scottish firms had over 1.2 million overdue invoices on their books this winter, new research from insolvency and restructuring trade body R3 has revealed. R3’s analysis of data provided by Creditsafe shows 1,231,703 invoices were overdue in Scotland over the winter months – with 416,856 in December 2022, 400,272 in January 2023 and 414,575 in…
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