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Guides, data and news on late payment, credit control and getting UK businesses paid faster.

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A subcontractor in hi-vis holding out a folder of unpaid invoices while a main contractor with a clipboard looks him over doubtfully, a site barrier closed between them
News
The retentions ban is meant to help subcontractors. Most contractors say they will tighten up instead.
The Commercial Payments Bill will ban retentions and cap payment terms at 60 days. Good news for subcontractors. But 63% of contractors say they will vet SMEs harder in response, and your own aged debt is about to become someone else's risk assessment.
6 min read · 28 July 2026
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Latest
A friendly UK pub landlord behind the bar looking relieved at a smaller business rates bill, with a taller pile of unpaid invoices still on the counter
News
The 20% business rates cut for pubs and clubs: real relief, but cash flow is still the bigger fight
A 20% business rates cut for pubs, clubs and live music venues is welcome. But it saves a typical pub around £1,100 a year, and one unpaid invoice can wipe that out. Here is the fuller picture.
5 min read · 23 Jul 2026
A UK sole trader at a laptop looking slightly overwhelmed by HMRC Making Tax Digital quarterly deadlines and a pile of paper receipts
News
Making Tax Digital is here: the 7 August deadline, and why digital records help you get paid
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax is now mandatory for many sole traders and landlords, with the first quarterly deadline on 7 August. Going digital is not just about tax. It is the same foundation that gets you paid faster.
5 min read · 23 Jul 2026
A UK builder in a hard hat on a busy construction site, weary beside a huge teetering tower of unpaid invoices
Guides
The construction cash-flow playbook: retention, CIS and getting paid
You did the graft. The money is stuck up the chain. Here is how to get paid in construction without torching the relationship with your clients.
9 min read · 21 Jul 2026
A professional accountant at her desk, busy amid tall stacks of client folders and a pile of flagged overdue invoices
Guides
Credit control for accountancy practices: the modern playbook
Two credit-control problems sit on every practice's desk, your clients' late payers and your own aged fees. Here is the modern playbook for both.
8 min read · 21 Jul 2026
Penny, an AI credit controller in a PennyFlow t-shirt, chasing overdue invoices by phone, email and text, with paid invoices and a calendar of green ticks
Getting started
How Penny works: your AI credit controller, explained
What Penny actually does, how you set her up, and how you stay in control the whole way.
6 min read · 21 Jul 2026
A business owner broadcasting automated messages that bounce back unanswered
Guides
Your accounting software doesn't have a cash-flow problem. It has a conversation problem.
You added the reminders, the late fees, the automated statements, and the same names still sit in your overdue column. The unpaid ones are not waiting for another notification. They are waiting for a conversation.
6 min read · 17 Jul 2026
A cautious business owner deciding how much control to give an AI over her money
Guides
Copilot vs Autopilot: how much control should you give AI over your money?
AI can now chase and even negotiate your invoices. The real question is not what it can do, but how much you should let it, and why the middle seat is the right one to start in.
7 min read · 17 Jul 2026
A business owner watching their customers' payments diverted through a third party that skims a cut
Guides
'Free' credit control isn't free: the price of letting someone else hold your money
A tool that chases your invoices for free sounds like an easy yes. Then you notice the free part is paid for somewhere, usually by routing your customers' payments through the provider and taking a slice of each one.
6 min read · 17 Jul 2026
A business owner stuck on one silent overdue invoice that ignores every message
Guides
The last mile of getting paid is a phone call
Software has made 80% of getting paid effortless. The invoices that ruin your month are the other 20%, the silent ones, and the last mile to collecting them is the one step almost no tool will take for you.
6 min read · 17 Jul 2026
A business owner stamping a late fee on an invoice while the payment still does not come
Guides
Late fees don't collect invoices
Automatic late fees feel like taking control. They are easy to switch on, they look decisive, and they almost never get the invoice paid. Here is what actually collects.
5 min read · 17 Jul 2026
A business owner printing identical chase letters with only the name changed
Guides
'Personalized' isn't personal: what a merge field can't do
Every chasing tool promises personalized reminders. Look closely and personalized usually means the customer's name pasted into the same message everyone else gets. Real personalization is a different thing.
5 min read · 17 Jul 2026
A frustrated business owner whose chase emails are being ignored
Guides
Reminder, email, or call: which invoice recovery method actually works?
Reminders, emails and calls each recover invoices, but not the same ones. Here is when each channel wins, and why the invoice itself should decide which one you use.
6 min read · 17 Jul 2026
A small business owner at a desk at night, surrounded by sticky-note reminders, awkwardly typing a chaser email
Guides
Why chasing invoices manually is quietly killing your cash flow
Doing your chasing by hand feels free. Forgotten follow-ups, awkward emails and inconsistency are the hidden tax, and it comes straight out of your cash flow.
6 min read · 16 Jul 2026
A small business owner overwhelmed by a tall stack of overdue invoices
Data
UK late payment in 2026: the numbers every small business owner should know
£26 billion owed at any one time. 72 days to get paid. The real scale of late payment in Britain, and seven things that actually shorten the wait.
8 min read · 14 Jul 2026
A tradesperson frowning at an OVERDUE invoice on their phone
Guides
How to chase an overdue invoice (without wrecking the relationship)
A polite, firm sequence that gets you paid and keeps the customer.
6 min read · 13 Jul 2026

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