Helping UK suppliers get paid on time
A personal guarantee can give a supplier a second route to recovery when a limited company stops paying, but only if the document is properly executed and commercially sensible. This guide covers enforceability, a pre-signature checklist and a formal escalation script.
A late-paying customer can leave a UK supplier funding VAT on money it has never received. This article explains how the tax point, bad debt relief and a simple monthly review interact, and where to build a cash buffer before HMRC's deadline arrives.
Every supplier has heard a customer blame its own debtors. HMRC takes no interest in that explanation. This is a practical guide for sole traders and small suppliers to ring-fencing the tax reserve, triaging the ledger in December and January, and using Time to Pay before the deadline rather than after it.
A trade customer entering administration or liquidation is not a single event but a sequence of deadlines, most of which fall inside the first three working days. This playbook sets out how to stop supply, test a retention-of-title clause, register and prove your debt, and avoid the hesitations that turn a recoverable position into a total loss.
The Prompt Payment Code logo appears on websites, tender responses and purchase order footers, and is often cited as though it carried statutory force. It does not. This guide sets out what signatories actually commit to, how to verify that a claim is genuine, and how to use the Code as a rung in an escalation ladder rather than a magic wand.
Credit reference agencies describe a customer's past; a nominal first invoice shows you their present. This article sets out a low-risk screening method — a tiny paid test transaction — that reveals approval speed, paperwork friction and genuine payment behaviour before meaningful credit terms are on the table.
A 30% upfront payment is not a sign of distrust; it is the cheapest credit control a UK supplier can buy. Waiting until the first invoice is overdue means financing someone else's business with your own. This opinion-led guide sets out how to make deposits and stage payments routine.
Most suppliers discover a poor payer only after the due date has passed. A simple A-to-D scorecard, built from average days late, dispute frequency, sector pressure and payment-run patterns, lets you set terms and chase intensity before the first invoice is raised. It is a practical discipline for UK suppliers in 2026.
A payment practices report can reveal how a large customer actually behaves once the invoice is issued. This walkthrough shows UK suppliers how to use the government register as a pre-contract red-flag check, from average days to pay to disputed-invoice rates.
Pay-when-paid wording can look like a sensible back-to-back arrangement, but all too often it transfers an open-ended funding risk to the supplier. This analysis sets out the contract language to watch for, the negotiation positions that work, and the warning signs that a client is avoiding a real payment commitment.
With eight weeks between 7 November 2026 and the first payroll of January, UK suppliers can still influence which invoices are paid before the Christmas shutdown. This week-by-week plan sets out the audit, reminder, escalation and year-end leverage steps to take now — and what to do if the money is still missing in February.
The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 gives UK suppliers a statutory right to interest and fixed compensation, yet most never claim it. This analysis explains the calculation, provides a soft-claim template, and argues that invoking the remedy should be a standard term of trade rather than a last resort.