BIG InfoMonitor: Approx. 35% of SMEs struggle with late payment contractors

The problem of contractors delaying their payments by more than 60 days affected approx. 35% of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises at the beginning of Q2, according to a survey of the SME sector carried out for BIG InfoMonitor. 39% of SMEs faced similar difficulties in Q1 and almost 46% in the last months of last year.

In individual industries, the problems with customers who do not pay on time are distributed in different ways, the situation is also changing differently. It has improved the most in services and currently companies providing services are the least likely to have unreliable payers among their business partners. For customers delaying payments by more than two months Currently, almost half as many companies are complaining than in October 2020, the percentage of indications fell from 43 to 24%.

The number of unreliable payers in the commercial sector decreased by 17 percentage points, but despite this fact, trade most often struggles with recipients who cause problems. Almost half of commercial enterprises (46%) have them. The second largest industry is currently construction, with 39% of unreliable customers. The third industry in terms of the share of companies with unreliable contractors is transport. In transport, about one third of companies have been complaining about delays in settlements for a long time. In industry, after a drop by 11 percentage points. the percentage of companies with contractors who delay their payments for more than 60 days in the past 6 months, problems with lagging customers are now reported by almost every third entity (30%).

Taking into account the size of enterprises, in the micro group with a max. For 9 employees, problems with non-paying principals are reported by 27%, among small entities employing 10 to 49 people, 37% of entities complain about unreliable payers, and among medium-sized entities, where 50 to 249 people work, 41%.

"As the research carried out for us shows, the negative experience with unreliable contractors is the more common, the more customers the company has. In the group of entities with over 50 contractors, as many as 60% of them have those who make them wait for payment for the received goods or services for more than Two months. It is particularly dangerous to have many clients paying with deferred deadlines by small companies, but even medium ones, employing from 50 to 249 people, it is difficult today, because two out of five complain about unreliable clients here "- said the president of BIG InfoMonitor Sławomir Grzelczak.

Entrepreneurs take a number of steps to recover their debts. According to the survey, in Q2 they declare that they are most willing to talk to their unreliable contractors, this was indicated by 18.5% of respondents. Every tenth enterprise also chooses the option of entering unreliable contractors in the register of the Economic Information Bureau. More than a third of them only do so for large amounts in arrears and long overdue payments (36.7%). Slightly fewer, 28.6% of respondents, decide to make such a move when customers are not eager to cooperate, do not want to reach an amicable agreement, do not answer calls or do not fulfill subsequent payment promises, underlined.

According to the latest data from BIG InfoMonitor and BIK, overdue liabilities towards suppliers and banks, delayed by min. 30 days, for the amount of at least PLN 500 towards one creditor, at the end of February, almost 324 thousand. companies. From the beginning of April last year to the end of February this year, 9.5 thousand new unreliable payers were added. (3%)

"Problems with settling own liabilities are often the result of the lack of influence on the receivables account, which the company is waiting for. In this way, a domino effect appears and enterprises fall into payment gridlocks. The amount of arrears of enterprises towards suppliers and banks amounted to 33.87 billion PLN, during 11 months of the pandemic it increased by PLN 715 million (2.2%). Many industries, especially those affected by the pandemic, however, recorded a dozen or so percent increase in arrears during this time.

Another quarter of bad or very bad condition is mentioned by approx. 15% of companies, 42% assess it neutrally, and 40% believe that the situation is good or very good, finished.

Survey conducted by Keralla Research, conducted quarterly among micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

Source: BIG InfoMonitor and ISBnews