Payments made late growing to ‘epidemic’

S c o t l a n d ’s small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) are facing a late payment epidemic, with more than half ( 52%) of invoices paid late, a study by cloud-based accounting software company FreeAgent has found.

This is worse than the UK figure of 46%, said FreeAgent, whose findings are based on its analysis of more than two million invoices sent by customers between January 2019 and June 2020.

The number of UK invoices paid late has grown from the 42% recorded in the company’s 2019 research.

Fr e e A g e n t chief