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Spending 130 hours chasing unpaid invoices? The late-payer issue grows worldwide; how do you handle this problem?

Business
Spending 130 hours chasing unpaid invoices? The late-payer issue grows worldwide; how do you handle this problem?

Recent reports that giant Aussie contractor Transfield has been very slow in paying subcontractors has thrown the focus on late-payers in New Zealand.

Not paying invoices on time is a worldwide problem, one that is infecting New Zealand too.

Australian corporate treasurers are famous for saying 'trade credit is the cheapest form of funding you can have' and riding suppliers hard with slow payment policies to maximise their benefits.

The bigger the corporate, the more insidious this trend is.

But its not only Aussie corporates that use this quick-to-collect, slow-to-pay strategy.

It's popping up in the US, and has reached such a level in the UK that their government has threatened to slap a levy on slow payers.

The UK experience is instructive.

The issue has arisen as the recession has led to around 40% of bills not being paid on time, and around £1.4 trillion of invoices not paid at all in any year.

The average small business was owed £31,000 in overdue payments in April, amounting to £30.2 bln across the economy, according to research by Bacs, the payments body.

SMEs there currently wait an average of 38 days for invoices to be paid.

Research by Natwest and RBS has found that small businesses can waste an average of 130 hours a year chasing unpaid invoices. 1 in 5 small businesses say unpaid invoices have harmed their productivity and viability.

Research by Tradeshift found that 13% of invoices by UK SMEs remain unpaid every year – around 69 invoices per company per year and a potential revenue loss of £509,502 per small business per year.

Tradeshift’s research estimated that 25 employee hours per week are spent managing, processing and chasing invoices in UK small businesses, equivalent to over three whole days per week.

The UK Government's "business secretary" Vince Cable’s "responsible capitalism" plan intends to add penalties for late payers, modelled on a system used in Sweden.

The plan follows a 2010 promise that government agencies would pay bills within five days, and the Government’s creation this year of a voluntary prompt payment code.

Michael Fallon, the British business and enterprise minister, warned that he would “name and shame” big companies that resisted the Code.

The government would like to see all suppliers paid within 30 days although the time limit under the voluntary code is 60 unless otherwise agreed with suppliers.

The European Commission has issued a directive requiring public bodies pay bills within 30 days, and businesses within 60. It said measures to promote speedier payments could release an extra €180 bln for businesses across Europe, relieving cash flow problems.

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6 Comments

Daivd , I believe this is porportionately as  big a problem for small businesses in NZ as it is elsewhere .

Its not uncommon to find a small business carrying a  60 to 90 day debtors book of a months turnover, ie not including that which is current .

The use of industry  appropriate ( specific) Terms of Trade is often overlooked , by small businesses , BUT never by the big boys who tie you uo in knots and  register their interest on the PPSR , thus becoming secured creditors

There is  also a failure by small businesses  to recognise potential bad debts and deal with them early .

 

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Try doing what the power retailers do to us .  First ramp up prices,   and then offer the suckers a 15% prompt payment discount if they pay on time, works jolly well for them

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I know a lot of companies who now do that.  Is somewhat annoying as it means that they could discount their pricing when quoted, and makes it appear like they make big enough margins to give big discounts, when really the price being quoted is the overdue price.

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Is factoring a lost art or prohibitively expensive - during the Cold War The National Bank of Hungary ran an extensive operation at it's London branch. 

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Standard KPI for this is Days Sales Outstanding (DSO).  Exquisitely sensitive to shifts in payment timing and sales patterns.

 

Not able to be done by low-end software, but OOTB for anything halfway decent.

 

Formula (they do vary slightly as to sales baseline taken and the exact calculation used) is:

Numerator:  Total Receivables balance

Denominator:  (choices)

  • Last months sales divided by days in that month
  • This year sales divided by days to date
  • Rolling year sales divided by 365

 

Obviously the wider the baseline the less noise/volatility.

Generally charted, and shown with a rolling-year average as a comparator.

 

 

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Having read the stuff article today, this remains a HUGE problem throughout NZ and is strangling the working capital of everyday SMEs. Even though NZ is small, people don't pay and simply disappear. How tough is too tough when it comes to chasing? I suggest looking at https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/get-debtors-to-pay-invoices.html to get an idea of how to chase with purpose. Can govt legisltate on this - I think not. But 90 day terms should be shamed like underpaying employees. Or having a 'living trade terms' period - i.e. 30 days max.

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