Summary
Here you will find all the latest details on company payment trends across the UK (including Northern Ireland). This page is updated on a monthly basis and provides details on how well companies pay invoices, the percentage of invoices that are paid late and the average Days Beyond Terms by month and sector. For real-time insight and alerts about company payment performance please consider subscribing to the Creditsafe platform.
Key findings for April 2020:
- 61% of all invoices paid late
- 41% increase against last year and 52% increase from March
- Significant increases in Transport, IT and Real Estate sectors
61% of all invoices were paid late in April, up 43% against last year and 39% against March. This increase may reflect businesses delaying payment as cash flow is tightened in the face of the pandemic lockdown. Significantly fewer invoices were issued in April, down 77% against last year, reflecting a general economic slowdown.
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Late payments by sector
% of late payments by sector (April 2020)
Although the UK average increased to see 61% of all invoices paid late this was noticeably higher in Construction (71%) and Utilities with Water and Waste at 70% and Energy Supply at 67% Transportation was also high with 66% of invoices paid late representing a significant increase of just under 130% against last year. There were similar increases in IT and Real Estate and this will undoubtedly develop as the current situation continues.
At the other end of the scale, we can see much better payment performance from the institutional sectors with Public Administration, Education and Health all performing above average although again this may change.
Late payments by month
% of late payments by month
April saw a significant increase in the percentage of invoices paid late. At 61% it was the highest level we have seen in any month in the last three years and was 49% higher than March and 43% higher than April last year. Undoubtedly many businesses faced with cash flow disruption due to the lockdown have reacted by delaying payments to their suppliers which will inevitably have a further knock-on effect.
Days Beyond Terms (DBT)
Average number of days beyond agreed terms by sector
As might be expected average DBT has also increased alongside the general rise in late payments with a similar picture emerging that sees Construction, Transport and the utilities sectors all on average at more than 20 days beyond terms. Reflecting the changes seen in late payments IT, Transport and Real Estate have also seen large increases in their DBT averages of 150% and above as have Professional and Scientific and Finance and Insurance.
Interestingly both the Retail (and Wholesale) and Hospitality sectors appear to be performing reasonably well with lower DBT numbers at 10.66 and 12.19 respectively and in the case of Hospitality an actual fall of some 10% against last year. However, it is only to be expected that both of these sectors will see a change for the worse as the effect of the lockdown continues to bite in the months ahead.
The table below shows the average number of days beyond terms (DBT) by sector for April 2018, 2019 and 2020 and includes the change in average number of days from 2019 to 2020.
Want to explore the data for yourself?
Whether you want to understand the impact of late payments across a group of sectors or the likelihood of an individual company making late payments, you can find all of this data and more within the Creditsafe platform.
Methodology
This report is created by analysing trusted accounts receivable data from Creditsafe customers.
Creditsafe relies on contributors to share accounts receivable data as part of our Global trade Payment Data Programme. This insight, also used in our scores and presented in our credit reports, allows companies to make more informed trade credit decisions, reduce DSO, and limit exposure to bad debt.
Understanding the Standard Industry Classification (SIC) list:
We use 2 digit Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes to create our list of 21 key sectors. These sectors are made up of over 700 individual industry codes.
Companies are required to file their primary business activity at companies house and we use this data to define the business type. Download a list of all 700 SIC codes and descriptions here.