Lost cheques cost small firms £550m

UP TO £550million is lost each year by small and mediumsized enterprises forgetting to pay in cheques written to their business or losing them, new research has found.

Barclays’ business banking arm surveyed 1,000 small firms and of those that had lost or forgotten to deposit a cheque, around 15 per cent said it happened once a month. More alarmingly, 20 per cent said they forgot at least once a week, while 38 per cent said they had done it on only one occasion.