Late Payment Statistics
Last updated: 2026-10-28 · 13 sourced statistics
Late payment is common on both sides of the Atlantic, but the size of the problem depends on what is measured. Atradius' 2026 surveys find delays at about 7 in 10 North American suppliers, affecting 23% of B2B receivables, and nearly 4 in 5 companies in Western Europe, where about a quarter of invoices are paid late. Among US small businesses, QuickBooks' 2026 report finds 59% have invoices more than 30 days overdue. Late payment also travels down the supply chain: 24% of US small employer firms with financial challenges paid a bill late or did not pay it, and the UK government puts the cost of late payment at almost £11 billion a year. Every figure below links to the page that states it. For how long invoices take to be paid overall, see the invoice payment time statistics.
Key takeaways
- Late payment is the norm in B2B trade: about 7 in 10 North American firms and nearly 4 in 5 Western European firms report it (Atradius, 2026).
- Most delays are short. Atradius says most overdue North American receivables are settled within a month of the due date, and Xero measured US small business invoices at 7.8 days late on average.
- The cost is real for small firms: 39% of US small businesses say one late payment made it hard to cover payroll or bills, and 24% of US employer firms with financial challenges made a late payment or did not pay themselves.
- The law sets a floor in the UK and EU: statutory interest of 8 points above the reference or base rate, plus a minimum €40 fixed sum per late commercial payment in the EU.
At a glance.
Every figure on this page in one table, each linked to its named source. Scroll down for the full context behind each number.
| Figure | What it measures | Source | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 in 10 | About seven in ten North American B2B suppliers are affected by late payment, and the delays affect on average 23% of B2B receivables across the region. | Atradius Payment Practices Barometer: North America 2026 | 2026 |
| <1% | Nearly half of North American suppliers report bad debt below 1% of receivables, and fewer than one in four report bad debt above 2%. | Atradius Payment Practices Barometer: North America 2026 | 2026 |
| 4 in 5 | Nearly four in five companies in Western Europe say their B2B customers pay invoices late, and about one quarter of invoices are paid after the due date. | Atradius Payment Practices Barometer: Western Europe 2026 | 2026 |
| 1.6% | Credit losses from bad debts average 1.6% of B2B invoiced turnover in Western Europe, and more than half of firms cite customers' liquidity pressure as the main reason for late payment. | Atradius Payment Practices Barometer: Western Europe 2026 | 2026 |
| 59% | 59% of US small businesses have invoices overdue by 30 days or more, up from 47% a year earlier (vendor survey). | Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Late Payments Report 2026 | 2026 |
| $17.7K | Small businesses with unpaid invoices are owed $17.7K on average, and 22% have at least 20% of their invoices overdue by 30 days or more (vendor survey). | Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Late Payments Report 2026 | 2026 |
| 39% | 39% of small business owners say one late payment made it hard to cover payroll or bills (vendor survey). | Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Late Payments Report 2026 | 2026 |
| 7.8 days | Invoices from US small businesses using Xero were paid an average of 7.8 days late in the quarter to December 2025, the shortest delay in four years. | Xero Small Business Insights (US), published March 2026 | 2026 |
| 8.0 days | Invoices from UK small businesses using Xero were paid an average of 8.0 days late in the quarter to December 2025. | Xero Small Business Insights (UK), published March 2026 | 2026 |
| 24% | 24% of US small employer firms with financial challenges made a late payment or did not pay as a response (6,183 responses, survey fielded September to November 2025), passing the delay down the supply chain. | Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms | 2026 |
| £11bn | Late payments cost the UK economy almost £11 billion a year and cause 38 businesses to close each day, according to the UK government's March 2026 late payment package. | Office of the Small Business Commissioner (UK), 24 March 2026 | 2026 |
| 8% + base | UK businesses can claim statutory interest on late commercial payments at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business-to-business transactions. | GOV.UK: Late commercial payments, charging interest | 2026 |
| €40 | Under the EU Late Payment Directive, creditors are entitled to statutory interest of at least 8 percentage points above the reference rate and, as a minimum, a fixed sum of €40 for recovery costs. | EU Late Payment Directive 2011/7/EU (EUR-Lex) | 2011 |
The statistics
About seven in ten North American B2B suppliers are affected by late payment, and the delays affect on average 23% of B2B receivables across the region.
Source:Atradius Payment Practices Barometer: North America 20262026
Nearly half of North American suppliers report bad debt below 1% of receivables, and fewer than one in four report bad debt above 2%.
Source:Atradius Payment Practices Barometer: North America 20262026
Nearly four in five companies in Western Europe say their B2B customers pay invoices late, and about one quarter of invoices are paid after the due date.
Source:Atradius Payment Practices Barometer: Western Europe 20262026
Credit losses from bad debts average 1.6% of B2B invoiced turnover in Western Europe, and more than half of firms cite customers' liquidity pressure as the main reason for late payment.
Source:Atradius Payment Practices Barometer: Western Europe 20262026
59% of US small businesses have invoices overdue by 30 days or more, up from 47% a year earlier (vendor survey).
Source:Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Late Payments Report 20262026
Small businesses with unpaid invoices are owed $17.7K on average, and 22% have at least 20% of their invoices overdue by 30 days or more (vendor survey).
Source:Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Late Payments Report 20262026
39% of small business owners say one late payment made it hard to cover payroll or bills (vendor survey).
Source:Intuit QuickBooks Small Business Late Payments Report 20262026
Invoices from US small businesses using Xero were paid an average of 7.8 days late in the quarter to December 2025, the shortest delay in four years.
Source:Xero Small Business Insights (US), published March 20262026
Invoices from UK small businesses using Xero were paid an average of 8.0 days late in the quarter to December 2025.
Source:Xero Small Business Insights (UK), published March 20262026
24% of US small employer firms with financial challenges made a late payment or did not pay as a response (6,183 responses, survey fielded September to November 2025), passing the delay down the supply chain.
Source:Federal Reserve Banks, Small Business Credit Survey: 2026 Report on Employer Firms2026
Late payments cost the UK economy almost £11 billion a year and cause 38 businesses to close each day, according to the UK government's March 2026 late payment package.
Source:Office of the Small Business Commissioner (UK), 24 March 20262026
UK businesses can claim statutory interest on late commercial payments at 8% plus the Bank of England base rate for business-to-business transactions.
Source:GOV.UK: Late commercial payments, charging interest2026
Under the EU Late Payment Directive, creditors are entitled to statutory interest of at least 8 percentage points above the reference rate and, as a minimum, a fixed sum of €40 for recovery costs.
When these numbers don't apply
Aggregate statistics hide a lot. Read these caveats before quoting a figure as if it describes your specific situation.
- Atradius reports regional averages from its own survey of B2B suppliers. The North America figure is a share of receivables by value; the Western Europe figure is a share of invoices. The two are not directly comparable, and neither applies to sales to consumers.
- The Atradius web summaries do not state sample sizes or fieldwork dates; those sit in the downloadable regional reports. Treat the figures as broad indicators rather than precise national rates.
- QuickBooks figures come from vendor-commissioned surveys of its own panel: about 5,000 respondents a quarter for Small Business Insights and 1,305 US owners surveyed in December 2025. Averages such as $17.7K are pulled up by a few large balances.
- Xero's days-late figures are measured from invoices in Xero small business accounts, so they describe Xero users, not every small business.
- The Federal Reserve's 24% figure is a share of employer firms that reported financial challenges (6,183 responses), not of all firms, and the survey is a convenience sample weighted to the US population. The 2025 questionnaire changed, so it is not directly comparable with earlier years.
- Interest and compensation rules are jurisdiction-specific and depend on the contract. This page is general information, not legal advice.
How we compiled this data
Reviewed on 2026-10-28. We kept only figures we could open on the publisher's own page that day: Atradius' 2026 Payment Practices Barometer summaries for North America (published 16 September 2026) and Western Europe (20 May 2026), Intuit QuickBooks' 2026 late payments report, Xero Small Business Insights posts for the US and UK (3 March 2026), the Federal Reserve Banks' 2026 Small Business Credit Survey report on employer firms (page 4, responses to financial challenges), the UK Small Business Commissioner's 24 March 2026 announcement, GOV.UK guidance and the text of Directive 2011/7/EU (read from the Internet Archive copy of EUR-Lex, capture 20251213234835). Earlier 2025 Atradius and QuickBooks figures were replaced by the 2026 editions, and an untraceable figure of 50,000 UK closures a year was removed. Vendor surveys are labelled as such. On 2026-10-28 the survey's uneven cash flow figure (50% of employer firms) was removed here so it appears only on the cash flow statistics page; the 24% late-payment response figure stays here as its owner.
We hand-collected each figure from its original publisher rather than recycling secondary round-ups, cross-checked the headline numbers against the source documents in 2026-10-28, and link every statistic to the report it came from so you can verify it yourself. Where a publisher issues annual updates, we cite the report edition and flag the year inline.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of B2B invoices are paid late?
It depends on the region and the measure. Atradius' 2026 surveys found that delays affect 23% of B2B receivables in North America, and that about one quarter of invoices are paid after the due date in Western Europe.
How many businesses are affected by late payment?
About seven in ten North American suppliers and nearly four in five Western European companies report late-paying B2B customers (Atradius, 2026). In the US, 59% of small businesses have invoices overdue by 30 days or more (QuickBooks, 2026).
How late are late payments, on average?
Usually days or weeks rather than months. Xero measured US small business invoices at 7.8 days late and UK invoices at 8.0 days late in the quarter to December 2025, and Atradius says most overdue North American receivables are settled within a month of the due date.
What does late payment cost a small business?
Businesses with unpaid invoices are owed $17.7K on average, and 39% of owners say one late payment made it hard to cover payroll or bills (QuickBooks, 2026). In the UK, the government estimates late payment costs the economy almost £11 billion a year.
Can I charge interest on a late business invoice?
In the UK, statutory interest for business-to-business debts is 8% plus the Bank of England base rate. In the EU, Directive 2011/7/EU sets statutory interest of at least 8 points above the reference rate and a minimum €40 fixed sum. In the US, rules vary by state and contract. Check the rules for your jurisdiction.
Put these figures to use
- Late payment statistics, explained: What the 2026 Atradius, QuickBooks and Xero figures mean for a small business, with a worked example for measuring your own late-payment rate.
- Late fee laws by state: How US states treat late fees and interest on unpaid invoices.
- Late fee calculator: Work out simple interest on an overdue invoice from the amount, rate and days late.
- Payments hub: Choosing payment terms, scheduling reminders and working out late fees, with worked examples.
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