US and UK businesses wait weeks beyond terms to be paid
ezyCollect by Sidetrade, a leading accounts receivable intelligence platform for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), today reported that US businesses wait an average of 25 days beyond agreed terms to be paid, and UK businesses 22 days, based on its analysis of Sidetrade’s Order-to-Cash Data Lake.
Across more than US$3.6tn in US B2B transactions, businesses are paid in 54 days on average against 29-day terms. Across more than $930bn in the UK, businesses are paid in 50 days against 28-day terms. For an SMB on a tight cash buffer, those extra weeks are working capital it cannot use.
To close that gap, ezyCollect by Sidetrade today launched Aimie, an autonomous AI agent for collections. Already in use across large enterprises, Aimie works out which accounts to prioritize, acts early on customers likely to pay late, and runs collections to fit how each customer pays.
Aimie works every account, every day. She learns how each customer pays and moves first on the cash most at risk, so a small finance team can cover the ground of a much larger one without the headcount.
The launch comes as SMBs face sustained cash flow pressure. Operating costs, wages and financing costs have all risen, maintaining a healthy cash reserve has become harder, and every day an invoice sits unpaid is more expensive to carry.
Arjun Singh, co-founder and CEO of ezyCollect by Sidetrade,said: “As you grow, you cannot keep hiring experienced finance people just to keep pace with collections. The work grows faster than the team, and most of it goes on chasing accounts that were always going to pay, because you have no real way of knowing where to focus.
“Aimie changes that. She watches every account, knows how each customer has paid before, works out who is likely to be late, and goes after the cash that is genuinely at risk. What she gives a finance team back is time, for the customers and the hard cases where a person’s judgment is what changes the outcome.”
SMBs in construction and building services, manufacturing, food and beverage, and wholesale and distribution already use ezyCollect by Sidetrade to manage collections with data instead of working accounts by hand.