This week I had the pleasure of attending a working dinner at the RAC Club with the Small Business Commissioner, hosted by Good Business Pays and Intuit. A celebration of all things motoring, our venue had a Lamborghini parked inside - what a backdrop to an evening spent discussing how to tackle the challenges that small businesses face every day.
And one of the biggest? Late payment.
Late payments are an issue that disproportionately affects small businesses, chipping away at cash flow, creating unnecessary stress, and in some cases, threatening survival. The data cited by the Small Business Commissioner are stark - UK small businesses are owed on average an estimated £22,000 in late payments accounting for around 18% of invoices. SMEs spend an estimated 56.4m staff hours per year chasing late payments at a cost of £6.3bn per year and the cost of additional finance to cover cash flow shortfalls as a result of late payment SMEs is £684m per year.
The photo is of me, Rob Burlison Intuit Director of Global Corporate Affairs and Craig Beaumont FSB Executive Director (and a Lambo)
At the end of last month, we
ran a poll asking our members for their thoughts. The results were illuminating — you told us that small businesses often lack the confidence or financial stability to set clear payment terms and enforce interest charges when invoices go unpaid. They don’t want to ‘rock the boat’ or risk losing a client. But this is work done, time given, and money rightfully owed. Getting paid shouldn’t be a battle.
Our poll also showed us that bookkeepers are here to help, with one respondent saying, 'We need to work with our clients to enhance relationships. Then late payment becomes less of a problem.' I'm more convinced than ever that communication is a critical driver of small business success, and that it's your soft skills as well as your technical skills that mean bookkeepers can help UK businesses get paid.
One of the solutions we discussed over dinner was E-Invoicing, meaning electronic invoices sent in a standardised format that enables automated processing. It’s already mandatory in the UK for invoicing to and from the public sector and is gaining momentum globally. With the e-invoicing Lead Advisor to the European Commission at the table, our dinner conversation quickly turned to how digital invoicing could streamline processes, reduce disputes, and even prevent late payments before they happen. Many European countries are already making e-invoicing mandatory for B2B transactions, trailing behind some Latin American countries like Mexico where it was introduced in 2014 alongside the requirement for small businesses to report their revenue and costs every two months. Doesn't it seem like MTD IT is inevitable and long overdue?
So where do we go from here?
At ICB, we’re committed to equipping bookkeepers with the tools and knowledge to help small businesses thrive. That means encouraging confidence in setting payment terms, making sure businesses know they can charge interest, and looking at the role technology can play in making payments smoother and more traceable.
The conversation doesn’t end at dinner. Let’s keep pushing for a fairer payment culture —one where bookkeepers are at the heart of small businesses get paid on time, every time.
Read more about the findings of our member survey
here.
