In brief: We built NRTH because we experienced the gap between doing the work and receiving the money. In our previous property-media business, we processed hundreds of invoices a month. The service could be delivered perfectly and the invoice could be raised correctly, yet cash still depended on somebody at the customer remembering to make a bank transfer.

We did not want a more polished chasing tool. We wanted to remove the avoidable chase.

The work was finished. The payment process was not.

Running an invoice-based business creates a strange moment. The team has completed the work. The customer has received the value. Revenue appears in the accounts. But the money is still somewhere else.

Then the quiet operational tax begins:

  • checking which invoices are due;
  • sending a friendly reminder;
  • sending a slightly less friendly reminder;
  • asking whether finance received it;
  • finding the missing purchase-order number;
  • matching an anonymous transfer to the right invoice; and
  • changing cash plans because “Friday” apparently meant a future Friday.

None of that creates a better product or serves another customer. It is work generated by the payment method itself.

We learned that late payment is rarely one problem

Some invoices were forgotten. Some became stuck in approval. Some customers had slow payment runs. Some were managing their own cash. Occasionally there was a genuine dispute that needed solving.

The lesson was not that every customer was a villain. It was that bank-transfer invoicing places too many chances for delay between “approved” and “paid”.

Official research published in 2025 estimated that more than 1.5 million UK businesses are affected by late payments each year and that affected businesses spending staff time chasing lose an average of 86 hours annually. The problem felt personal in our business. It was plainly not unique to it.

The obvious answer already existed

UK customers already use Direct Debit for energy, broadband, insurance, memberships and subscriptions. They approve an organisation once, receive notice of the amount and date, and the payment moves through the Bacs system.

For repeat invoices, the underlying idea is equally useful: agree the payment route upfront, then collect the invoice amount on the planned date rather than asking the customer to rebuild a bank transfer each time.

Direct Debit is not new. The question was why it still felt awkward for ordinary invoice-based businesses.

The existing workflows did not begin with the invoice

Many payment products were designed around subscriptions, fixed plans or manually created collections. They could move money, but the finance team still had to:

  • read the amount from the invoice;
  • re-enter it into another system;
  • calculate the collection timing;
  • check whether the mandate was active;
  • watch for failures; and
  • reconcile the result back in the accounting platform.

That replaces one kind of chasing with a smaller administrative obstacle course. Better, perhaps. Not finished.

Our starting principle: the invoice is the source of truth

NRTH is built around a simple sequence:

  1. The business raises an invoice in Xero, QuickBooks or Sage.
  2. The customer has approved a Direct Debit mandate.
  3. The invoice supplies the amount and due date.
  4. The collection is scheduled through the payment workflow.
  5. The outcome is connected back to the invoice.

No one should have to copy £1,248.60 from one browser tab into another and then spend the afternoon wondering whether it was £1,284.60. Humans have many talents. Repetitive transcription is not the one to build a payment operation around.

What we wanted NRTH to feel like

Clear for the customer

The customer should understand who is collecting, why, when the payment will be taken and how the Direct Debit Guarantee protects collection errors.

Quiet for the business

Successful invoice collection should not demand a daily ritual. Exceptions should be visible; routine payments should not become a hobby.

Connected to accounting

The amount, due date and payment status should live with the invoice rather than across emails, banking screens and a spreadsheet called “FINAL debtors v7”.

Honest about failure

Direct Debit reduces avoidable late payment. It does not create funds in an empty account, settle a disputed invoice or stop a customer cancelling a mandate. The product must make exceptions easier to see and handle, not pretend they never exist.

Why Direct Debit rather than card?

Cards are excellent for checkout and immediate purchases. For larger repeat invoices, value-based card fees can become significant, cards can be replaced or declined, and recurring-card workflows have their own rules.

Direct Debit is designed for bank-account collection of fixed or variable amounts. The customer approves the organisation rather than presenting a card for every invoice. It uses a slower scheduled cycle, but invoice due dates are normally known in advance.

That makes it a strong fit for the particular problem we wanted to solve. The fuller trade-offs are in our payment-method comparison.

Why work with accountants?

Accountants see late payment from a wider angle. One business owner experiences their own debtor list; an accountancy firm can see the same cash-flow problem repeated across dozens or hundreds of clients.

They also understand the systems where the process begins: invoicing, reconciliation, management accounts and cash forecasting. That makes accountants natural partners for improving payment operations rather than merely treating each overdue invoice as an isolated event.

NRTH therefore works with accountancy firms through its partner approach, helping them introduce automatic invoice collection where it genuinely fits a client.

What NRTH is not trying to be

NRTH is not a claim that every customer should always pay by Direct Debit. One-off urgent payments, deposits and certain customer relationships may suit bank transfer or card better.

It is also not a substitute for:

  • clear contracts and payment terms;
  • accurate invoices;
  • sensible credit decisions;
  • resolving genuine service disputes; or
  • good customer communication.

It is infrastructure for the repeat invoices that should be routine but somehow keep turning into correspondence.

The outcome we care about

The goal is not “more Direct Debits” as an abstract metric. The goal is a healthier operating rhythm:

  • more invoices collected when expected;
  • less staff time spent chasing;
  • cleaner reconciliation;
  • more dependable cash forecasting; and
  • fewer awkward conversations between good customers and good suppliers.

Getting paid should not be the final creative challenge in delivering a piece of work.

What happens next

We are building NRTH around UK invoice-based businesses and the accountants who advise them. Product development will continue to focus on the point where accounting data, customer authority and payment collection meet.

We will also publish practical, sourced guides on how Direct Debit works, late payment, cash flow and the payment decisions businesses have to make. Financial content is better when it explains the trade-offs, not when every paragraph mysteriously concludes that the publisher’s product is perfect.

The work is done. The invoice is due. The payment should not need a chase scene.

To discuss invoice collection for a business or accountancy firm, talk to the NRTH team.

Sources and further reading

Last reviewed: 21 July 2026. Published by the NRTH team from firsthand operating experience.