Small businesses losing billions as they fail to invoice

British SMEs are said to be losing out on up to £3.7bn every year through forgotten invoices, according to a new study of 450 businesses.

Around 20 per cent of those surveyed said that they have forgotten to invoice for goods or services at least once. 12 per cent of these said that the job was worth between £5,000 and £10,000, and 6 per cent said the job was worth over £10,000.

There are over 4.8million SMEs in the UK, which count for 99.9 per cent of all private sector business, meaning that on a whole, SMEs are out of pocket by as much as £3.7bn.

“We don’t want to blow this issue out of proportion, but these findings do highlight that many SMEs who are eager to grow are not doing themselves any favours, particularly with so many of them expressing concern over their cash-flow,” says Hartmut Wagner, managing director of Exact, the business and finance software provider who commissioned the survey.

Stress factors for SMEs were also highlighted in the study, which found that fighting for new businesses and financial worries came top of the list.

One quarter of business owners admitted that they don’t feel in control of their business finances, with up to 45 per cent saying that they have had to defer payments of some kind at one point or another.

There was, however, good news for company accountants as the majority of business owners said that they trusted their accountant more than anyone else!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.