Scarred by the lockdown, suppliers now want payment upfront while customers demand extended terms: a problem is brewing in B2B payments and receivables.
Sidetrade, a provider of artificial intelligence-driven software for companies to accelerate their receivables, has a tracker for overdue payments from other businesses. It draws on a data lake of 26 million invoices, in aggregate worth €54 billion, submitted between 3.7 million businesses across six European countries: France, UK, Spain, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Many companies don’t seem to realize that technology exists to automate credit management processes. In the UK, maybe 5% to 6% of corporate businesses have that kind of technology. In the Netherlands, it’s closer to 70% to 75% of companies – Rob Harvey, Sidetrade
The invoice tracker might be an eye opener. Sidetrade is doing more work on it. It has sector breakdowns for the UK, showing the highest rates of unpaid invoices being in finance, insurance and real estate (76% being over 10 days overdue); information communications and technology (60%); and leisure and hospitality (55%).