UK Guide Highlights Advantages of Automated Payments for SMEs

With £24bn now owed to UK small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in late payments, a new guide for businesses has been launched, designed to highlight the cash flow and debt collection benefits of using automated payment methods.

Bacs Payment Schemes (Bacs), the organisation behind Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit, and the Institute of Credit Management (ICM) have developed the Automated Payment Method Guide, as an addition to the Managing Cashflow Guide series. The guides, supported by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and endorsed by Lord Sugar, are designed to help businesses promote best payment practice under the guidelines laid out in the Prompt Payment Code.

Philip King, chief executive officer (CEO) of the ICM, said: “Credit managers have two aims in keeping the cash flowing through their business. They want to ensure they are paid promptly, within terms and conditions that are negotiated and confirmed in advance, and they want to be guaranteed that the money is in the bank on the day that it was agreed. Payment transfer by electronic means is therefore an essential weapon in the credit manager’s armoury to ensure payments are received on the day they are due, without delay, and with none of the uncertainty and inconvenience associated with cheques.”

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