Businesses reminded to plan payments around May bank holidays

With two bank holidays falling next month (May), businesses are being urged to plan ahead to avoid missing important payments to suppliers and staff.

Pay.UK, the UK’s independent payment system operator responsible for the Bacs Payment System (which processes Bacs Direct Credits and Direct Debits), is reminding organisations to be aware of the non-processing days when planning payments.

Both Monday 3 and 31 May are bank holidays, which means that the process for debiting / crediting payments due on the following Tuesday and Wednesday in both cases will need to start a day earlier than normal.

For example, if any Direct Debit or Bacs Direct Credit payments are to be debited / credited on Tuesday 4 or Wednesday 5 May, then the latest submission dates for payment files are Thursday 29 and Friday 30 April, respectively.

Likewise, for payments due on Tuesday 1 or Wednesday 2 June, then the latest submission dates are Thursday 27 and Friday 28 May, respectively.

It’s also worth remembering that Bacs payment files can be submitted up to 30 days in advance, which could help take the pressure off finance teams that may still be working remotely, or with limited resource.

In addition, to help businesses stay one step ahead of non-processing days, Pay.UK has produced a handy payment processing calendar which can be found at: www.bacs.co.uk/processingcalendar.