Business News

Rise in Late Payments to SMES

According to Bacs Payments Schemes Limited (Bacs) small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) are now owed £25.9 billion. This is apparently due to a 40% increase in overdue payments over the last year.

According to their research

• the national average of outstanding payments was £38,000 (£30,000 in 2007)
• overdue invoices in the Midlands were the highest at £69,000
• 57% of businesses are owed money (up from 51%)
• manufacturing had the highest rate of late payments being 65% and
• the most common cause of late payments was cash flow issues.