In brief: Official UK research puts a number on invoice chasing. Businesses affected by late payment that spend staff time chasing lose an average of 86 hours per year to it. Across the economy that adds up to roughly 133 million hours of staff time annually.

That is not a rounding error in the admin budget. It is more than two full working weeks per affected business, spent recovering money the business has already earned.

What do the official numbers say?

Research published by the Department for Business and Trade and the Office of the Small Business Commissioner estimated that:

  • over 1.5 million UK businesses, around 28%, are affected by late payments each year;
  • businesses are owed approximately £26 billion in late payments at any given time;
  • the average affected business is owed about £17,000;
  • 22% of surveyed businesses spend staff time chasing late payments, averaging 86 hours per affected business per year; and
  • that equates to roughly 133 million hours of staff time across the economy annually.

The wider damage is starker still. Late payments are estimated to cost the UK economy almost £11 billion per year and contribute to the closure of around 14,000 businesses annually. That is 38 businesses closing every day, not for lack of customers but for lack of the cash those customers already owe.

What does 86 hours actually cost?

Time is easy to dismiss until it is priced. Take a finance assistant or office manager on £30,000 a year. With employer costs, each working hour costs the business roughly £18 to £20. At that rate, 86 hours of chasing is £1,550 to £1,720 of direct salary cost, every year, producing nothing new.

Now price the same hours at what they could have earned instead. If a founder or fee earning member of staff does the chasing at a £75 to £150 hourly value, the opportunity cost of those 86 hours is £6,450 to £12,900 a year. The invoice chase is one of the most expensive low value activities in the business, precisely because it is invisible on any report.

Where do the hours actually go?

Very little chasing time is one dramatic phone call. It is a drip of small tasks that never appear on a timesheet:

  • checking the aged debtors report and cross referencing the bank;
  • writing the first polite reminder, then the second less polite one;
  • calling accounts payable and being asked to resend the invoice;
  • hunting for the missing purchase order number;
  • matching an unreferenced transfer to the right invoice;
  • updating the cash flow forecast because Friday moved again; and
  • briefing colleagues on which customers are safe to keep serving.

Each task takes minutes. The pattern takes weeks. And because the work arrives unpredictably, it fragments the day around it, which carries its own productivity cost beyond the raw hours.

Why reminders alone do not shrink the number

Most chasing tools make reminders faster to send. That helps, but it optimises the wrong step. A reminder still relies on the customer noticing it, logging into their bank, entering the amount and reference, and pressing send. Every one of those steps is optional until somebody acts.

The causes of late payment vary, from forgotten invoices to slow approval chains to deliberate delay. We break down the full list in seven reasons clients pay invoices late. The common thread is that bank transfer invoicing leaves the final action with the customer, so the supplier's time gets spent prompting that action again and again.

How do you measure your own chasing time?

Before fixing the problem, size it. For two weeks, have anyone who touches collections log three things: the task, the minutes spent and the invoice value involved. Then calculate:

  1. Hours per month spent on collection activity across the team.
  2. Cost per month at loaded salary rates.
  3. Chase ratio: the percentage of invoices that needed at least one manual follow up.

Most businesses that run this exercise find the true figure is higher than their guess, because chasing hides inside email time, call time and "quick checks" of the bank.

How to reclaim the hours

The goal is not faster chasing. It is fewer invoices that need chasing at all.

  • Agree the payment method before the work starts. The easiest moment to fix collection is during the sale, not after the due date.
  • Collect repeat invoices by Direct Debit. With an active mandate, the invoice supplies the amount and due date and the payment no longer depends on a fresh bank transfer. See how Direct Debit works for the full mechanics.
  • Automate delivery and reconciliation. Connect invoicing, payment and accounting so paid invoices close themselves and only exceptions need a human.
  • Reserve manual chasing for genuine exceptions. Disputes, cash flow conversations and credit decisions deserve human time. Routine collection does not.

The regulatory backdrop is also shifting. In March 2026 the government confirmed a package of late payment reforms, including a cap on payment terms when large firms pay smaller suppliers and mandatory statutory interest on late commercial payments. Enforcement is tightening, but no legislation removes the operational cost of manual collection. That part is fixable only by process.

How NRTH removes the chase

NRTH connects invoices from Xero, QuickBooks or Sage with Direct Debit collection. The customer approves a mandate once, each invoice supplies its own amount and due date, and the collection is scheduled rather than chased. Payment status flows back to the invoice, so reconciliation stops being a weekly archaeology project.

The 86 hours do not need to be done faster. Most of them do not need to exist.

Frequently asked questions

How many hours does the average business spend chasing invoices?

UK government research found that businesses affected by late payment that spend staff time chasing average 86 hours per year, equal to about 133 million hours across the economy annually.

How much money is tied up in late payments in the UK?

An estimated £26 billion is owed in late payments at any given time, with the average affected business owed around £17,000.

Does chasing invoices actually work?

Reminders can prompt payment where the cause is a forgotten invoice, but they do not fix missing purchase orders, slow approvals or deliberate delay. Diagnosing the cause and removing the customer action from routine payments is more effective than sending more reminders.

What is the fastest way to reduce chasing time?

Move repeat customers onto automatic collection. One approved mandate replaces every future manual transfer for that customer, which removes the largest recurring block of chasing time in most invoice based businesses.

Two working weeks a year, spent collecting money already earned. That is the real price of manual invoicing.

See how NRTH turns invoices into scheduled Direct Debit collections, or talk to the team.

Sources and further reading

Last reviewed: 21 July 2026. Salary based calculations are illustrative. This is general operational information, not legal or financial advice.