Payment terms tend to be met when your customer agreed them before the work started, can see the exact due date on the invoice, and can pay in a few taps when that date arrives. In Adfin's payment data, very short terms were met less often than a week or two: 59.5% of invoices due on the day they were issued were paid on time, against 76.4% of those due in 8 to 14 days.
In this article
The short version
- Terms are most likely to be met when they're agreed before the work and match on every document.
- In Adfin's data, 59.5% of invoices due on issue were paid on time, against 76.4% at 8 to 14 days.
- 5.5% of invoices went out with a due date already passed.
- Weekend due dates were met less often than weekday ones.
- Write the due date as a date and give customers a way to pay from the invoice.
What makes a payment term stick
With business customers, whatever you agree applies, and if you agree nothing, the law gives them 30 days from the later of the work being done and them being told the amount. A public authority can't stretch payment beyond 30 days, and a term over 60 days with any other customer only stands if it isn't grossly unfair to you.
In practice, a term your customer agreed before the work started is much harder to argue with than one that first appears on the invoice, so put it in your quote, engagement letter or contract, and use the same words on the invoice. If your quote offers 14 days from the invoice date but your invoice is marked due on receipt, you've given your customer two terms to choose from, and they'll probably pick the longer one.
It also helps to know how your customer pays. Many businesses pay suppliers in a weekly or monthly payment run. If theirs is on the 25th, an invoice due on the 20th is likely to be paid on the 25th however politely you ask, while a due date set to match their run tends to be met.
How long your payment terms should be
Tight terms feel like the safe option, but Adfin's payment data points the other way. Among invoices where the customer chose when to pay, the share paid on time rose with the length of the terms:
- 59.5% of invoices due on the day they were issued were paid on time
- 70.9% of invoices due in 1 to 7 days
- 76.4% of invoices due in 8 to 14 days
- between about 74% and 76% for longer terms, up to 60 days
This is an association, not proof. A business that sets a considered 14-day term may also invoice promptly and follow up consistently, which could explain much of the difference. But the figures do suggest that "due on receipt" doesn't buy the speed it seems to promise.
On the other hand, when invoices on longer terms did go late, they tended to go later: the typical late invoice was 5 days late on same-day terms, 9 days late on 8 to 14-day terms and 11 days late on terms of 31 to 60 days.
Due dates your customer can't meet
Some invoices can't be paid on time whatever your customer does. In the same data, 5.5% of invoices went out with a due date that had already passed, and the typical one was paid 42 days late. Some will be catch-up invoices entered after the event, but a due date that's gone before your customer sees it gives them nothing to aim for.
This tends to happen when invoices are produced from timesheets or a month-end close and the due date is calculated from the period the work covered. Calculating it from the day the invoice is actually sent fixes it.
Invoices due on a weekday were paid on time between 65.8% and 67.2% of the time, while those due on a Saturday or Sunday were paid on time 60.4% and 60.6% of the time. The likeliest explanation is that a Saturday deadline means Friday was the last working day your customer had to pay, so the term was shorter than it looked. If your terms run a set number of days from the invoice, some due dates will land on a weekend, and moving those to the Friday before costs you nothing.
How to write a term your customer can act on
Once the term is agreed, your job is to make meeting it easy:
- Write the due date as a date. "Due 14 November 2026" needs no working out, while "14 days" leaves room to argue about when the 14 days began.
- Put the amount, the due date and your customer's reference where their finance team will look, because that's what their payment run matches on.
- Give them a way to pay from the invoice itself, such as a payment link, so whoever finally picks it up on the due date can pay there and then.
- Say in one sentence what happens after the due date, and do it consistently. For business customers, statutory interest can be claimed whether or not you mention it, unless your contract gives a substantial remedy of its own.
- For customers who agree your terms and miss them every month, ask for a direct debit mandate. You give notice of the amount and date, and the collection happens on time without anyone at their end having to remember.
If you'd rather not police terms by hand, Adfin sends invoices with a payment link your customer can pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay by bank or direct debit. Its collection agents follow up before and after the due date on the schedule you set, and can add statutory late fees to overdue business invoices, so the consequence you wrote on the invoice actually happens.
Common questions
What payment terms should I set? Whatever your customer will agree to and you can afford. In Adfin's data, terms of 8 to 14 days were met more often than terms due on the day of issue.
Do longer payment terms mean slower payment? Longer terms mean a later due date, but in Adfin's data they didn't make customers less likely to pay on time, up to 60 days. Invoices on longer terms that did go late tended to go later.
What happens if we never agreed payment terms? A business customer then has 30 days from the later of the work being done and being told the amount owed.
Why are invoices with weekend due dates paid late more often? Probably because Friday was the last working day to pay, so the term was effectively shorter. Moving weekend due dates to the Friday before avoids it.
How do I stop invoices going out already overdue? Calculate the due date from the day you send the invoice, not from the period the work covered.
When should I ask for a direct debit instead? When a customer agrees your terms but keeps missing them, or for regular charges. The collection then happens on the due date without them having to act.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk - Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, section 4 (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/20/section/4
- GOV.UK - Late commercial payments: charging interest on commercial debt (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/late-commercial-payments-interest-debt-recovery/charging-interest-commercial-debt
- Adfin - Credit control (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/credit-control
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
