Are we turning a corner on payments?

I almost dare not write these words as the title of this week’s newsletter, and I don’t know if it’s due to the sun making an appearance, but it feels like things are a-turning.

On Wednesday we co-hosted an event in Cardiff with Chambers Wales, ACCA, and FSB on ‘How SMEs can get paid faster and Stop Chasing Invoices’, at which we heard from entrepreneurs who are getting paid in good time by the UK’s largest retailers, and from tech providers who are building products that accelerate payment and are being developed alongside enabling government policy and potential new legislation.

So far, so good.

I boarded the return train to London and opened up emails to discover:

• Both Barclays and HSBC have been awarded Silver on the Fair Payment Code – this means they are paying at least 95% of all invoices within 60 days, including at least 95% of invoices to small businesses within 30 days. Welcome news indeed.
• The first ever Post Office has made it onto the Fair Payment Code, on Gold, which means they are paying all invoices within 30 days. That’s rapid service! We hope this is the first of many Post Offices to be welcomed onto the Code.
• Xero’s Small Business Insights showed ‘Time to be paid’ at a record low since 2017. The release said; ‘In the final quarter of 2025, small businesses waited an average of 29 days to be paid. Payment times have now remained below 30 days for 14 consecutive months, strengthening cash flow at a time when many small businesses are navigating lower demand.’ You can imagine our positive reaction to this release.
• The NatWest and Beahurst StartUp Index revealed that UK Company Numbers have hit an eight-year High at 5.66 million with the release going on to say; ‘Despite a slight dip in company incorporations year-on‑year, the Index reveals a robust and growing active company base, sectoral dynamism, and notable regional shifts — highlighting continued entrepreneurial confidence and signalling the underlying strength and resilience of the UK’s business ecosystem.’

As per top line sentiment, I don’t want to speak too soon on shifting sentiment and performance, but what I do believe is the more we get out and about engaging with small businesses on their payment rights, and extolling the benefits to large companies of paying on time, the more of an impact we should have.

Speaking of impact, as a team we have set our ‘north star metric’ as reducing the number of hours that each small business owner spends chasing debt, which currently stands at an average 86 hours per business. This was a stat released in July 2025 and we are hopeful the figures will be re-run in 2027 to see if the multiple layers of work; the pro-active comms, Code, casework and potential legislation have done their job to slash that figure.

Imagine a world where as a founder you don’t have to spend any time chasing late payment. What a wonderful world that would be.