The UK Government has announced the toughest crackdown on late payments in over 25 years, increasing reporting requirements, enforcement powers, and scrutiny on large companies. This marks a major shift in how payment behaviour is monitored and enforced, and signals a broader change in how businesses manage suppliers, invoices, and payment performance.

Accounting Links has published new UK benchmark research analysing payment behaviour, accounts payable fraud risk, and supplier exposure across 19 industry sectors. Late payments cost UK businesses an average of £22,000 a year, and AP fraud now affects roughly one in three organisations. This research gives finance teams a clearer picture of how payment performance and fraud risk vary across industries.

Procure-to-pay visibility is the missing layer in modern finance stacks. Most systems show fragments of the process, but not the full lifecycle from procurement to payment. This article explains why that gap exists, how it impacts cash flow and risk, and what true visibility across P2P actually looks like.

Late payments are usually seen as a cash flow decision, but the real cost is operational, behavioural, and systemic. This article explains the hidden cost of late payments that most businesses never measure.

Accounts payable fraud is evolving rapidly as AI tools make invoice manipulation and supplier impersonation easier to execute at scale. Traditional approval workflows and manual checks are no longer enough to prevent fraudulent payments. This article explores how modern invoice fraud works, why existing AP controls fail, and what finance teams need to implement to detect and prevent fraud before payments are made.

Payment terms like Net 30 promise reliability but rarely guarantee it. Discover why SMEs struggle with late payments and how new financial infrastructure can create real payment certainty for suppliers.

Supplier verification and payment behaviour were historically treated as separate problems. That separation is now creating fraud, inefficiency, and systemic risk. As AI driven impersonation and invoice manipulation rise, finance teams need a unified trust model that combines verified identity with real payment behaviour, continuously and at scale.

Late payment in the UK is usually treated as an ethical failure, but that framing misses the real issue. This article argues that late payment persists because payment behaviour is largely invisible, poorly attributed, and disconnected from incentives. Without shared, verifiable data, regulation struggles and markets cannot self correct.

Become a trusted payer without the bureaucracy. Accounting Links helps you evidence fair treatment of suppliers automatically, embedding Fair Payment Code compliance directly into your day to day accounts payable workflow.

Accounting Links has officially launched its closed beta, offering modern businesses and accountants a smarter way to manage accounts payable. With seamless integrations to Xero, Wise, and Revolut, the platform automates invoice collection, approvals, and batch payments—without the headaches of traditional finance tools. Early users get access to powerful features, direct influence on product development, and locked-in early pricing. Limited spots available—join the beta today.