A recent report from commercial credit referencing agency, Graydon, which has found that late payment of invoices is a problem for more than half of UK businesses – almost a quarter of whom call it a “serious problem” – has prompted a discussion of the options for business on late payments at a summit in central London this week.  

Late payments are continuing to undermine businesses’ ability to invest in growth through innovation because of the damage they are causing to the economy. The research from Graydon highlights the “domino effect” of late payments on the supply chain, with 56% of UK businesses which have not been paid on time admitting to having paid their supplier late as a direct result.

Of course, there are multiple reasons and behaviours that lead to persistent late payment across economies.  But automating invoicing processing can be a step in helping businesses to address the issue, giving better visibility and control of purchase to pay processes, without demanding significant upfront investment. 

Read more here: http://www.credittoday.co.uk/article/13887/online-news/quarter-of-businesses-call-late-payment-a-serious-problem

The issue of late payments continues to plague businesses of all sizes, and as such it has gained awareness at a national level.  Recently, the Government held its first working party to look at this problem, calling upon a group of business representatives to examine the issues behind late payment of suppliers.

Next year will see the introduction of the EU Late Payment directive, which sets 30 days as the standard payment term and enables suppliers to levy penalties and interest on late settlements, helping them to avoid costly delays.

Our UK Sales Director, Lucy Beck, discussed the issue of late payments and the costly effects on small businesses in an article published in Real Business magazine. The article looks at the negative impact of late payments on SMEs, and how it can be avoided with better management so that payment systems and processes can track and hit settlement deadlines.

You can read the full article on avoiding late payment penalties here:  http://realbusiness.co.uk/advice_and_guides/avoiding-late-payment-penalties-terms-of-endearment

The drive towards e-invoicing has picked up further momentum with the announcement that as of July 1st 2012, the Norwegian government will  only accept invoices from suppliers in electronic format. 

The decision means millions of e-invoices will now be sent to a central electronic payment processing point, which both suppliers and public sector bodies can access.

Data from Norway’s official procurement body shows around 11m invoices are received by state bodies annually, many of which are still in paper format.  It’s believed that nearly 500,000 organisations will have to start submitting invoices electronically rather than on paper.

We’ve covered the potential savings and benefits from wide-scale e-invoice deployments before:  it will be interesting to see how many national governments follow the lead from Norway.

Link:  http://eeiplatform.com/7638/norway-to-accept-only-e-invoices-as-from-1-july-2012-through-a-single-provider/