the UK National e-invoicing Forum

The forum’s head of policy, Alexander Jackman, says: “Late payment is having a significant impact on business development, productivity and growth. Research has suggested 35% of small businesses have seen a reduction in profit and 16% have seen a noticeable reduction in turnover as a response to late payment or bad debts. ekonglong traditional sofa furniture

“Late payments are also having a knock-on effect, leaving many SMEs in a vicious circle of in turn paying their suppliers late. It starts at the top and tends to wash down the entire supply chain. Our own research backs this up, with 77% of businesses who reported being paid late in turn failing to pay their suppliers on time too. In short, it starts with big businesses, and it’s down to big businesses to clean up their act and stop it.

“A cultural attitude of late payment has developed in the UK. We need to reverse it quickly before more small businesses go under.”

The forum is also a member of the UK National e-invoicing Forum, a body that promotes the use of e-invoicing. Alexander adds: “One way of shoring up payment systems is to adopt an e-invoicing platform to do some of the chasing for you.

“There is some real impetus behind this in Government, and we urge them to be bold and get the public sector using e-invoicing as a matter of course. The savings are huge so it's a clear win-win.”