Late payments 'pose a problem for business accounts'

Late payments 'pose a problem for business accounts'
Date of Publication: Wednesday, 31 March 2010 00:00

Businesses often have to wait for over a year to receive the money owed to them.

Over a third of businesses have to wait for more than a year in order to receive payments.

Research by Bibby Financial Services shows 35 per cent of firms are finding it can take over 12 months for the money customers owe them to land in their business accounts.

Such UK account problems are particularly prevalent in the manufacturing and construction sector, with 47 per cent of firms in the industry reporting waiting more than a year for their money.

And with seven per cent of all organisations spending at least three days chasing up invoices of each month, tardy payments could be costing business bank accounts £1.9 billion every year.

Edward Rimmer, UK chief executive for Bibby Financial Services, states: "The UK business community has got to stem the tide. We cannot keep stalling payment and expect it to have no consequence."

But this is not the first sign of financial difficulty for UK businesses. A recent Hiscox study showed a fifth of entrepreneurs raided their personal savings last year due to difficulties caused by the economic crisis.

By Bret ClementADNFCR-2079-ID-19699335-ADNFCR
Wednesday, 31 March 2010 00:00
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Comments (1)

The comments listed below are opinions held by the individuals posting and are not endorsed by, or representative of opinions held by which4u.co.uk. We cannot be held responsible or liable for the accuracy or content of any comments submitted. We reserve the right to publish, remove or edit comments as we see fit.
  • Frustrated sub contractor in Manufacturing/Const 2010-04-08 16:12:47
    As a company who have been in business for over 30 years in Manufacturing/Constr (Sub contractors). Large companies are doing their best to pay late and eventually put companies out of business so that they dont have to pay at all. In particular variations and extras, if you have completed a contract it will never be as estimated and variations/extra have to be done to get the job done. Unscrupulous companies get sub conractors to do all these vari/extras and end up cutting the value by up to 50% simply by stopping payments therefore sub contractors have to sometimes take the money and run or spend more monies with (solicitors) trying to obtain whats due. Its unfair and immoral and the Government or authorative bodies in the Const Industry should do something about it. Many Many companies in our close group of Suppliers etc have gone down simply because the bigger boys end up not paying whats due and hold up payments and with not getting the support of banks - thats another story. We have made profits for over 30 years and this is the 1st year whereby we have made a loss, by having to cut accounts and will the banks support us????. not without doing all sorts / cashflow projections/ valuations of property owned / guarantees - there is now no longer any track record and the banks are still very jittery about manufacturing/const generally and we are all now being penalised.

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