Business payment practices and policies: duty to report

We want to know if we should ask companies to report on a series of measurements that will tell us about their payment performance. We propose to include the:

• proportion of invoices that are paid beyond the payment terms
• proportion of invoices paid within 30 days
• proportion of invoices paid over 30, 60 and 120 days
• the average time taken to pay invoices

We also want your views on whether companies should also provide a statement that would help the supplier understand the company’s payment practices and performance.

These proposals would allow suppliers to compare different customers against a standardised time frame of payment. The reporting procedure would be easy for companies to understand and straightforward to complete. It would also provide useful data for suppliers to use.