B2B Payment Practices 2026: 45% Cite Liquidity Issues [Data]

Key Takeaways

45% of US businesses name a customer’s own liquidity issues as a top reason B2B invoices are paid late (Atradius Payment Practices Barometer, US, 2025).
43% of US B2B invoices on credit are currently overdue, versus 51% in the UK, 47% in Western Europe, and 53% in Central and Eastern Europe (Atradius, 2025).
Nearly 50% of US B2B sales are made on credit rather than paid upfront, with average terms of 45 days from invoicing (Atradius, US, 2025).
US businesses write off 5% of long-outstanding invoices as bad debt, versus 7% in the UK and 8% in Central and Eastern Europe (Atradius, 2025).
68% of US businesses used bank loans to bridge B2B liquidity gaps in the past year, ahead of invoice financing (57%) and trade credit (52%) (Atradius, US, 2025).
60% of US businesses blend internal credit-risk provisions with outsourced tools like credit insurance, rather than relying on just one approach (Atradius, US, 2025).

Customer liquidity issues, not disputes, not supply chain problems, are the single biggest reason B2B invoices go unpaid: 45% of US businesses name them as a top cause, according to Atradius’s 2025 Payment Practices Barometer. That single number reframes a lot of conventional advice about getting paid faster. Here is how B2B payment practices actually break down in 2026: why invoices go late, how much of B2B trade runs on credit at all, how overdue rates and bad debt compare across regions, and how suppliers are managing the risk.

Why do B2B customers actually pay invoices late?

Customer cash flow, not billing errors or disagreements, drives most late payment. Atradius’s 2025 survey of US B2B suppliers asked companies to name their top reasons customers pay late, and 45% pointed to the customer’s own liquidity issues, the single most common answer by a wide margin. This complicates any strategy that assumes late payment is mostly a communication or process failure a supplier can simply fix with a better invoice.

Figure 1: 45% of US businesses cite a customer’s own liquidity issues as a top reason B2B invoices are paid late. Source: Atradius, Payment Practices Barometer United States, 2025.

The remaining top reasons are more directly within a supplier’s control. 33% of US businesses point to delays in the customer’s own payment process, the kind of internal approval bottleneck a clearer invoice or an automated reminder sequence can actually shorten. 26% cite supply chain disruptions on the customer’s side, and 23% point to invoice disputes, disagreements over the goods or services billed rather than an inability or unwillingness to pay at all.

Figure 2: Top 4 reasons US businesses say B2B customers pay invoices late, 2025 (multiple response, respondents could name more than one). Source: Atradius, Payment Practices Barometer United States, 2025.

Two of the four top reasons, payment-process delays and invoice disputes, are things a supplier’s own invoicing habits can influence. The other two, a customer’s liquidity and its own supply chain, sit largely outside a supplier’s control, which is one reason no single fix eliminates late payment entirely.

How much of B2B trade runs on credit rather than being paid upfront?

Most B2B commerce is not paid at the point of sale at all. Nearly 50% of B2B sales in the US are made on credit terms, meaning the supplier delivers first and invoices for payment afterward, with average terms of 45 days from the invoice date, according to Atradius’s 2025 US report. That reliance on credit is not shrinking: 70% of US suppliers report they are currently increasing the amount of credit extended to customers, even as overdue rates stay elevated, a sign that competitive pressure to win and keep business is outweighing caution about payment risk.

The pattern holds outside the US too. The United Kingdom runs close behind at 49% of B2B sales made on credit, per Atradius’s 2025 UK report, while Western Europe’s suppliers typically grant terms ranging from 31 to 60 days from invoicing. Granting credit is the default posture of B2B selling almost everywhere Atradius surveys, not an exception limited to large enterprise buyers.

How many B2B invoices are actually overdue, region by region?

Overdue rates vary more by region than the underlying willingness to extend credit does. In the US, 43% of B2B invoices on credit are currently overdue, according to Atradius’s 2025 US report. The UK runs meaningfully higher at 51% overdue, Western Europe sits at 47%, and Central and Eastern Europe is the highest of the group at 53%, per Atradius’s respective 2025 regional reports for each market.

Figure 3: Share of B2B invoices overdue by region, 2025. Source: Atradius, Payment Practices Barometer regional reports (United States, United Kingdom, Western Europe, Central & Eastern Europe, North America), 2025.

Canada and Mexico sit closer to the US figure than to Europe’s: Atradius’s North America report puts Canada’s overdue share at 44% and Mexico’s at 41%, both within a few points of the 43% US rate. That regional clustering, North America running lower than Europe across the board, suggests something about credit management practice or survey methodology differs systematically between the two continents, not just that individual companies in one region happen to pay faster than another.

How much of that overdue value never gets collected at all?

Being overdue and being uncollectible are different problems, and most overdue invoices do eventually get paid. US businesses write off an average of just 5% of their long-outstanding B2B invoices as bad debt, according to Atradius’s 2025 US report, meaning the overwhelming majority of the 43% currently overdue is still expected to be recovered eventually, just later than agreed.

Figure 4: Where the value of US B2B invoices ends up: paid on time, still overdue, or written off as bad debt, 2025. Source: Atradius, Payment Practices Barometer United States, 2025.

Bad debt rates run somewhat higher outside the US. The UK reports a 7% bad debt rate, Western Europe 6%, and Central and Eastern Europe the highest at 8%, all per Atradius’s 2025 regional reports. Within the US, bad debt also varies by industry: Atradius’s sector breakdowns put agri-food at 5%, energy and fuel at 3%, and electronics and ICT at 6%, a reminder that an “average” bad debt rate can still hide meaningful differences depending on what a business sells and to whom.

How are businesses managing B2B payment risk?

Bank credit is the primary tool US businesses use to cover the gap while waiting on B2B receivables. 68% of US suppliers used bank loans to bridge liquidity gaps in the past 12 months, ahead of invoice financing at 57%, internal funds at 53%, and trade credit itself at 52%, according to Atradius’s 2025 US report.

Figure 5: Main financing sources US businesses used to bridge B2B liquidity gaps, past 12 months (multiple response). Source: Atradius, Payment Practices Barometer United States, 2025.

On the collections side, Days Sales Outstanding, the average time it takes a business to collect payment after a sale, moved in different directions for different companies over the past year: 37% of US businesses reported a shorter DSO, 28% a longer one, and 35% no meaningful change, per the same Atradius survey. Rather than picking one single defense, 60% of US businesses now blend internal credit provisioning with outsourced tools like trade credit insurance, a hedge against the fact that liquidity issues, the top reason invoices go late in the first place, are largely outside any one supplier’s control.

B2B Payment Practices at a Glance

Why B2B invoices are paid late (US, 2025, multiple response)

Reason cited	Share of respondents	Mostly supplier-controllable?
Customer’s liquidity issues	45%	No
Delays in the customer’s payment process	33%	Partly
Supply chain disruptions	26%	No
Invoice disputes	23%	Yes

Table 1: Top 4 reasons US businesses say B2B customers pay invoices late. Source: Atradius, Payment Practices Barometer United States, 2025.

B2B payment health by region, 2025

Region	% of B2B invoices overdue	% written off as bad debt
United States	43%	5%
United Kingdom	51%	7%
Western Europe	47%	6%
Central & Eastern Europe	53%	8%
Canada	44%	6%
Mexico	41%	4%

Table 2: Share of B2B invoices overdue and share ultimately written off as bad debt, by region. Source: Atradius, Payment Practices Barometer regional reports, 2025.

The Bottom Line

The data points to a B2B payment problem that is mostly about the customer’s cash position, not the supplier’s invoicing habits. 45% of late payment traces back to a customer’s own liquidity issues, a factor no invoice template or payment terms line can fix on its own. What a supplier does control is the smaller, still-meaningful slice: the 33% of late payment tied to a slow internal approval process, and the 23% tied to invoice disputes, both of which respond to clearer invoices, unambiguous terms, and a consistent follow-up cadence. Sending every invoice through a BillyPaid invoice with clear line items and payment terms, paired with automatic reminders as a due date approaches, targets exactly that controllable half of the problem, while a blended risk-management approach, similar to the mix of internal provisioning and outsourced tools 60% of US businesses already use, is the more realistic answer for the half that is not.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the single biggest reason B2B invoices are paid late? A customer’s own liquidity issues, cited by 45% of US businesses as one of the top reasons their B2B customers pay invoices late, according to Atradius’s 2025 Payment Practices Barometer for the United States. Delays in the customer’s own payment process (33%), supply chain disruptions (26%), and invoice disputes (23%) round out the top four.

How much of B2B trade actually runs on credit rather than upfront payment? Nearly 50% of B2B sales in the US are made on credit terms rather than paid upfront, with average payment terms of 45 days from the invoice date, per Atradius’s 2025 US report. The United Kingdom runs close behind at 49% of B2B sales on credit.

How many B2B invoices are overdue in the US, UK, and Europe? 43% of US B2B invoices on credit are overdue, versus 51% in the UK, 47% in Western Europe, and 53% in Central and Eastern Europe, all per Atradius’s 2025 regional Payment Practices Barometer reports.

How much of that overdue value never gets collected at all? US businesses write off an average of 5% of long-outstanding B2B invoices as bad debt, compared to 7% in the UK, 6% in Western Europe, and 8% in Central and Eastern Europe, according to Atradius’s 2025 regional reports.

For the fuller late-payment picture, including day-by-day delay figures and freelancer data, see BillyPaid’s Late Payment Statistics 2026. For how those delays translate into total days to get paid rather than just an overdue share, see Average Invoice Payment Time by Country.