Managing late payment

Introduction

There are various ways of getting your customers to pay on time. However, despite your best efforts, you may find that some still end up paying late.

If this happens, you should contact with them to try and resolve the issue and review your procedures to reduce the possibility of customers paying late again in future.

Note that you have rights under the late payment legislation to charge interest and debt recovery costs on late payments. You can exercise these rights at your discretion.

Purchasers cannot contract out of the late payment legislation and cannot, for example, deny the supplier their statutory right to, for example, charge statutory interest.

This guide looks at the various ways to manage late payment. Your choice may depend on who the debtor is, the size of the debt and how late the payment is.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• When does a payment become late?
• Charging interest on late payments
• Charging debt recovery costs
• Taking non-court action to collect debts
• Taking court action to collect debts

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