SOURCE 01 / SURVEY & ECONOMIC MODEL
How does late payment affect UK businesses?
London Economics’ government-commissioned study surveyed 1,455 businesses in January–February 2025. Its definition includes overdue invoices and terms longer than 60 days. Previous-year answers do not align exactly with calendar 2024. Study, pp. 5, 8 and 55 ↗
| Measure | Estimate | Interpretation & source |
|---|---|---|
| Businesses taking at least one mitigating action | 28% | Weighted estimate; previous year; definition also includes payment terms over 60 days. Printed page 8, text below Table 2 ↗ |
| Surveyed businesses spending staff time chasing debtors | 22% | Previous-year response; denominator is surveyed businesses, not only affected businesses. Printed page 8, Table 2 ↗ |
| Estimated late-payment balance across UK businesses | £26bn | Stock at a point in time, scaled using business population estimates; not annual lost revenue. Printed page 9, text below Table 3 ↗ |
| Mean late-payment balance per affected business | £17,085 | Weighted estimate for affected businesses; not the median or an individual-business forecast. Table sample excludes missing balances. Printed page 9, Table 3, Average row ↗ |
| Mean late-payment balance per affected micro business | £9,214 | Micro means 0–9 employees; affected businesses only; self-reported balances. Table excludes missing balances. Printed page 9, Table 3, Micro row ↗ |
| Central modelled annual cost to the wider economy | £10.745bn | Model combines survey and historical econometric evidence; low/high totals £4.739bn/£17.643bn, reflecting component 90% confidence intervals. Printed page 12, Table 7, Total row ↗ |
Do not add the outstanding balance to the annual economic cost: one is a stock of unpaid money; the other is a modelled flow of costs. Reported balances use means, which do not describe the typical business as a median would.
Limits: self-reported amounts, imputed response bands and historical modelling introduce uncertainty. The wider cost estimate is not an audited annual loss total. Study limitations, pp. 39–40 ↗
SOURCE 02 / OFFICIAL REPORTING STATISTICS
How quickly do large companies pay suppliers?
DBT’s release was published on July 14, 2026, but covers the 2025 reporting year. Payment metrics are medians of individual report values, rather than all invoices combined. Valid-report counts are not unique-company counts. DBT methodology, printed p. 7 ↗
| Measure | Value | Interpretation & source |
|---|---|---|
| Median reported average time to pay suppliers | 32 days | Median of individual report values; not the median time across pooled invoices. Figure 1 accessible table, 2025 row ↗ |
| Median reported share paid late, by invoice count | 15% | Median of report-level proportions; late means after agreed terms, not terms over 60 days. Figure 4 accessible table, 2025 row, by number ↗ |
| Median reported share paid late, by invoice value | 14% | Median of report-level proportions; first reporting year available for this measure is 2025. Figure 4 accessible table, 2025 row, by value ↗ |
| Valid reports included in the release | 11,178 | Count of reports, not unique businesses; normally two reports per business per year; coverage changed in 2025. Figure 7 accessible table, 2025 row ↗ |
Limits: self-reported filings lack independent verification; non-reporters are excluded. Reporting scope changed in 2025 and backdated filings can revise the series. Methodology, pp. 8–9 ↗
Why aren’t 28% and 15% comparable?
They count different things. The first concerns businesses reporting a mitigating action. The second summarises invoice proportions within large-company reports. Their populations, definitions and denominators differ. Averaging them would create a number that answers neither question.
For a freelancer or agency, the useful next step is to examine the invoices behind your own client work: issuance date, agreed due date, collection date, balance and any dispute. Separate an agreed long term from an overdue invoice. A payment arriving on its due date can still leave a long gap between doing the work and receiving the money.
OUR CALCULATION / ILLUSTRATIVE
What does a longer payment delay tie up?
At £10,000 invoiced every 30 days, a fixed 45-day payment delay leaves £15,000 outstanding in steady state—£5,000 more than a 30-day delay. This is money awaiting collection, not a £5,000 loss.
Outstanding invoices at £10,000 per 30-day month. Source: Client Work HQ arithmetic model below.
| Payment delay | Outstanding | Additional vs 30 days |
|---|---|---|
| 30 days | £10,000 | £0 |
| 45 days | £15,000 | £5,000 |
| 60 days | £20,000 | £10,000 |
Formula: outstanding = invoiced per 30-day month × payment days ÷ 30. Additional outstanding = selected scenario − 30-day scenario.
Assumptions: Steady-state invoicing at an even daily rate; A 30-day model month; All invoices collected after the selected fixed delay; No VAT, bad debt, deposits, growth, seasonality or financing charges. Payment delay counts all days from invoice issuance, including agreed terms.
This model does not estimate cash reserves, profit, financing cost or the probability of a late payment. Replace the single delay with your own invoice-level data before using it for a real budget. Inputs stay in your browser and are not sent to our measurement service.
What should you check in your own workflow?
- Record payment terms before work begins. Identify who approves scope and who processes the invoice.
- Keep acceptance, invoice issuance and payment status visible. A delivery handoff and a billing handoff need separate owners.
- Review overdue balances by client and age, alongside the money still within agreed terms.
- Test the handoffs with a sample project before committing to new software. National statistics do not prove that a particular CRM improves payment speed.
Our client-work trial checklist helps you document those handoffs. The freelancer software guide and consultant guide cover selection criteria; the software budget calculator handles subscription costs separately.
TAKE THE SOURCES WITH YOU
Download the evidence ledger.
Ten selected published statistics, each with its producer, unit, geography, population, period, publication date, verification date, source locator and method notes. The JSON also contains the illustrative model’s formula and assumptions. These files are our curated reference records, not survey microdata.
Reuse & attribution
UK government source material is used under the Open Government Licence, excluding logos and identified third-party material. Original statistics remain attributed to their producers. No government endorsement is implied.
The downloaded ledger includes source attribution and editorial annotations. Client Work HQ’s annotations and arithmetic model remain © Client Work HQ; their inclusion does not change the government’s reuse terms for the original source material. For permission to republish our annotations or model, contact support@workspace369.com.
Our method, ownership and update policy
The Client Work HQ editorial team selected figures relevant to client billing, checked each against its primary table or report, and built the arithmetic model. We have not collected a representative sample of freelancers or tested CRM payment outcomes. This page is an editorial research note; it is not a government report.
We make Workspace369, so readers should assess our advice with that commercial interest in mind. The cited research does not compare or endorse Workspace369 or any other CRM.
Version 1.1. Editorial update . Sources checked . The editorial team owns updates: recheck figures before reuse, at the next source release and when a correction is reported. Changing the verification date does not change the measurement period. Corrections can be sent to support@workspace369.com; include the statistic ID and its source locator.
- London Economics / DBT / OSBC study · published Jul 30, 2025
- DBT large-business payment statistics · published Jul 14, 2026
- DBT methodology and background quality report · published July 14, 2026