The need for speed: How to minimise late payments in your business

Get PaidFaster#getpaidfaster

£55billionThe amount owed in unpaid invoices in the UK - that’s more than Google’s turnover in 2014

45%of invoices are not paid within 30 days

£12,000The amount the average small business is owed in outstanding invoices

Does your business have issues with cash flow and late payments? If so, you’re not alone. It’s one of the biggest challenges facing companies today

The challenge

Did You Know?

You can make a difference

The average payment times are:

As a business owner it can feel like there’s little you can do, apart from chasing up late payments. But there are things you can do:

• Ensure your invoices are sent to the right contact

• Check for cut-off dates

• Switch to faster payment methods and offer your customers a range of ways to pay

Did You Know?

20 daysfor phone or e-invoices

28 daysfor credit and debit cards

35 daysfor cash, cheque or bank transfer

Five reasons to change the way you take payments

01. Get paid faster with card payments

Card payments are faster - it’s that simple. And you won’t have to wait for them to clear or spend time banking them.

67%of small businesses still use cash and cheque as their main method to accept payments

19%of businesses visit the bank every day to pay in cheques & cash

33%of businesses visiting the bank spend more than an hour doing so each time

2x fasterThe speed at which small businesses who accept card payments can get paid, compared to those who don’t

Did You Know?

02. Save time chasing payments

Small businesses have a lot to juggle and can’t afford to spend unnecessary time phoning or emailing about late payments. If you change to faster payment methods, you’ll reduce the number of late payments and the time needed to chase.

336 hoursThe amount of time the average small business spends every year chasing late payments

Did You Know?

03. Improve your cash flow

If you offer a range of payment methods, it’s harder for your customers to give excuses for paying late. No more problems with “the cheque’s in the post”.

Taking card payments by phone, face-to-face and even directly through your invoices can improve your cash flow and help your business to grow.

Did You Know?Did You Know?

54%of small businesses are experiencing cash flow problems

Only 42%of businesses who use cash & cheque get paid on time

04. Save time recording data

How much time do you spend updating your records and checking if invoices have been paid? By connecting your payments to your software you can automate the process, saving you time to focus on other tasks. You’ll also reduce the risk of errors too.

Did You Know?

Over 90%of businesses manually enter payments into their accounts software

16.5 hoursThe ammount of time a business processing 200 transactions a week could save

05. Save money

Cheques and cash aren’t free - they cost your business money in the form of higher bank charges and the impact on cash flow when the payments are late or need to clear. They also cost staff time to chase them and to bank them when they arrive.

You could save money by switching to card payments. This improves cash flow and frees up time chasing payments and recording data.

£4,500The amount the average business could save per year

Did You Know?

The difference it makes

Watch the case study

Emma Blake runs Pinstripe and Pearls, an online store for women in business. She uses online payments which integrate with her Sage 50 accounts software, reducing the time and effort she needs to run the business.

“What I really love about Sage Pay is the ability to link with Sage 50 Accounts and auto-create all of our invoices. We found Sage Pay really easy to use - in fact, we got it set up the same day.”

Emma Blake - Owner and Managing Director,

Pinstripes and Pearls

Ready to get paid faster?

Find out how at: www.sagepay.co.uk/getpaidfaster

Call us on: 0845 111 0797#getpaidfaster