UK micro-business owners are plagued by late paying clients

by Startacus Admin

According to new research by our friends at innovative cloud accounting software company FreeAgent, UK freelancers and micro-business owners are plagued by late paying clients. 

Last week, FreeAgent unveiled data showing the extent of the problem of late payments in the UK, and which areas are worst affected by it.

Using data from a sample of its 50,000+ customer-base, and by analysing hundreds of thousands of invoices sent in the last year, FreeAgent found that Sheffield is the area worst affected by late payments - with just 24% of invoices sent during the 2015 calendar year paid within three days of their payment deadline - closely followed by Twickenham (27%) and Slough (29%).

At the other end of the scale, Manchester is according to FreeAgent, least affected by late payments, with 75% of invoices sent by micro-businesses in the city in 2015 paid on time.

The good news is that across the whole of the UK at least half (51%) of invoices sent by micro-businesses last year were paid on time - hooray! 

Speaking of late payments -  the UK government recently announced that a small business commissioner would be appointed to specifically deal with the problem of late payments. And now a consultation is currently underway into how this commissioner will consider, determine, and make recommendations for complaints. 

So with this research from FreeAgent also now out in the public domain, it's a gentle nudge to whoever is appointed by the UK government to deal with the problem of late payments that this is a problem that unless dealt with, is very unlikely to go away. Cash-flow and managing a healthy cashflow is key to the small business and startup sector, so we at Startacus look forward to keeping an eye on this issue and hopefully hearing a few innovative solutions over the coming months.

Speaking of Micro Business Owners - you might want to find out more about Microbiz Matters Day 17 #MicroBizMattersDay which we shared word on recently too.

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Published on: 13th December 2016