Late payments giving you sleepless nights? Invoice Finance can help you rest easy

Late payments are having a huge impact on Irish businesses, affecting cashflow, credit ratings and even threatening employment. A recent survey by Sage Ireland found that nearly two-thirds of Irish SMEs were affected by late payments.

Late payments can have a very detrimental effect on companies, and can put businesses under huge cashflow pressure.   Suppliers can lose confidence and reduce or withdraw credit lines if they are not paid on time.  Opportunities may be lost because of an uncertain cashflow. Management can spend valuable time chasing money and juggling cashflow, instead of growing  the business.    And if late payments aren’t bought under control, it can lead to staff redundancies and worse.

So, what can business owners do?  Having an effective credit control system in a business is key to addressing this problem.  However, another simple solution , which is often overlooked by business owners and their advisers, is Invoice Finance (Invoice Discounting or Factoring).  It works by releasing cash tied up in unpaid invoices to trade debtors.  The cash is available after the invoice is raised (within 24 hours), so it’s like getting paid COD.  Invoice Finance significantly improves cashflow for companies, and takes away the pressure and uncertainty for business owners – not to mention the sleepless nights – that can result from late payments.

“Cashflow is the lifeblood of businesses, especially for SME’s,” Simon Bell, commercial manager at Sage Ireland, told The Irish Times recently. “There are a number of measures that can be taken to alleviate the effects of late payments and ease the worry of cashflow issues,” he said.

Invoice Finance is a very effective cashflow solution for SME’s as it allows business owners to maximise cashflow and focus on growing their business.  While it can alleviate pressure arising from slow paying customers, it is still crucial that that a business has a good credit control system in place to help stay on top of late payments.