Outraged Indian female employee talking by phone, chasing late payments concept

Waste of time: small enterprise house owners spend almost two hours a day chasing overdue invoices

Small enterprise are at present chasing greater than £50bn of late funds, in line with analysis.

Digital banking platform Tide revealed that the typical UK SME is chasing 5 excellent invoices at anyone time, utilizing up an astonishing 1.5 hours a day, with a mean of £eight,500 being owed.

If you’re self-employed and dealing alone, you’ve a mean of 4 excellent invoices at anyone time, amounting to virtually £1,000.

And companies with something between 10 and 50 staff have a mean of eight invoices excellent, racking up £13,000 being owed on common.

Companies in London have the hardest time when it comes to late funds, with SMEs within the capital having a mean of seven invoices excellent, spending over two hours a day chasing.

London is intently adopted by Scotland, with companies there having a mean of six unpaid invoices, consuming up an hour and 1 / 4 every day chasing.

The South West has the simplest time of it, with companies there ready on simply three invoices to be paid.

Getting worse

The late funds disaster seems to be getting worse with 1 / 4 of SMEs reporting issues are worse than a yr in the past. Though the federal government pledged to clamp down on late funds in its manifesto, ex-small enterprise commissioner Paul Uppal – the person appointed by authorities to implement motion towards persistent late payers – says he was pushed out final yr, regularly undermined by Whitehall and starved or sources.

Along with losing almost two hours a day chasing late funds, SMEs spend almost one third of their working day (30 per cent) on unprofitable monetary administration equivalent to bookkeeping, expense administration and accountancy.

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Oliver Prill, Tide’s chief government, mentioned: “It has been recognized for some time now that late funds are crippling SMEs, with the federal government having tried a lot of instances to deal with the difficulty.

“It’s nonetheless surprising to see precisely how a lot time SMEs and notably the self-employed are losing by having to chase shoppers to pay promptly. Money movement is essential for SMEs, and only a few late funds can tip them into hazard of turning into bancrupt.”

Tide surveyed 1,000 chief executives and senior administration workers at SMEs in December to analyse their use of time.