In a recent report commissioned by Intuit QuickBooks, it was found that small businesses in the UK are spending on average more than one working week chasing late payments.
The study of 500 small businesses found that SMEs spend 56.4 million hours a year looking for overdue and late payments, with most of this being done after hours. Of the 500 small businesses who were surveyed, 56% said they chase late payments outside of working hours, which impacted on their personal and family time. More than one in five of these are chasing payments before the work day has even started.
The report also estimated that the time wasted on chasing late payments amounted to £6.3 billion.
Chris Evans, VP and UK Country Manager at Intuit QuickBooks said: “Cash is oxygen for small businesses and without it they cannot breathe. The combination of chasing invoices and bad payment practices means small businesses can run out of accessible cash. This has a real impact on their ability to take on new work, pay suppliers, their employees or themselves on time and can add unnecessary extra stress into their lives.”
Director of My Debt Recovery, Sean Husband, commented:
“We are seeing this time and time again, businesses having to spend more time chasing late payment than being able to focus on their business. Here at My Debt Recovery, we focus on taking the stress away from business owners and allow them to refocus their attention back on what they do best, growing their business.
We give all of our clients an honest appraisal of the likelihood of the debt being recovered. Alongside this, we offer a no collection no fee service so if we are unable to collect your late payment, you don’t pay us a penny.”
If you are having trouble with late payments and want your time back to concentrate on your business growth, contact our specialist team on 0800 009 6106 or hello@mydebtrecovery.co.uk.