Late payment no joke

Customer excuses for late payment can, at times, border on the bizarre, as a recent survey from Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance discovered.

Imaginative apologies ranged from the surreal – ‘the company cheque book has fallen into the snake’s tank and I can’t get it out because I’m frightened of snakes’ – to the ridiculous – ‘the boss died and the chequebook was in his suit when they buried him’.

‘Bizarre excuses can sometimes sound funny. But strip away that humour and it leaves the stark fact that late payment is a serious issue that can severely damage a company,’ stresses Nick Goulding, chief executive of the Forum of Private Business (FPB).

FPB believes that if Government departments fail to take the lead on good payment practices it will be difficult to persuade other businesses to follow suit.

To help both suppliers and buyers tackle late payment, the Better Payment Practice Group has launched an updated version of its free credit management guide.

This guide is available by visiting www.payontime.co.uk.

Leslie Copeland

Gordon Yost

Leslie was made Editor for Growth Company Investor magazine in 2000, then headed up the launch of Business XL magazine, and then became Editorial Director in 2007 for the online and print publication portfolio...

Related Topics

Venture capital funding