What Percentage of Invoices Are Paid Late? [2026 Data]

About 10% of all invoices sent by US small businesses are more than 30 days overdue, and among small businesses that have unpaid invoices at all, 47% have at least one that is more than 30 days late, according to Intuit QuickBooks’s 2025 Small Business Late Payments Report. That single number changes hard depending on what counts as “late,” which country is being measured, and which industry sent the invoice. This post breaks the percentage down by each of those variables using named, dated 2025 and 2026 data rather than repeating one headline figure.

What percentage of invoices are paid late in the United States?

On average, about 10% of all the invoices a small business sends are more than 30 days past due, and among small businesses that have unpaid invoices at all, 47% have at least one that is more than 30 days late, according to Intuit QuickBooks’s 2025 Small Business Late Payments Report, a survey of 2,487 small businesses. That 10% figure measures something narrower than the widely cited “55% of B2B invoices were overdue” number from Atradius’s Payment Practices Barometer, covered in full in Late Payment Statistics 2026: the Atradius figure counts any invoice paid past its due date, however briefly, while QuickBooks’s 10% counts only invoices that are severely overdue by more than 30 days. Measured either way, 56% of small businesses report being owed money on unpaid invoices at any given time, averaging $17,500 each.

Figure 1: On average, about 10% of the invoices a US small business sends are more than 30 days overdue. Source: Intuit QuickBooks, 2025 Small Business Late Payments Report (2,487 small businesses surveyed).

A 10% severely-late share still adds up fast across dozens of invoices a month, which is why the next section checks whether that share holds steady outside the US.

What percentage of invoices are paid late in the United Kingdom?

UK large businesses paid 15% of their invoices late in 2025, down from 25% in 2018, according to the UK Government’s Large Businesses’ Payment Practices and Performance Statistics, an official dataset built from mandatory twice-yearly filings under the Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017. That report drew on 11,178 valid filings in 2025, versus 13,175 in 2018. Average time to pay a supplier fell alongside it, from 35 days in 2018 to 32 days in 2025, an improvement that held steady or ticked down in every single year of that seven-year window rather than swinging back and forth.

Figure 2: UK large businesses have shortened their average payment time, or held it flat, every year since 2018. Source: UK Government, Large Businesses’ Payment Practices and Performance Statistics 2025.

The percentage paid late fell in step with days to pay, from 25% of invoices late in 2018 to 15% in 2025, a ten-point drop over the same period the government has been requiring these businesses to publish the number.

Does the percentage of late invoices vary by industry?

Industry matters more than country in some cases. Among UK large businesses, Manufacturing pays 21% of its invoices late by count, the worst of any sector in the 2025 data, and takes 45 days on average to pay a supplier, also the slowest. Two different sectors hold the best results on two different measures: Accommodation and Food Service pays the smallest share of invoices late, just 9%, while Finance and Insurance Activities pays fastest overall, in 21 days on average, according to the same 2025 dataset. A separate measure in the same dataset, based on invoice value rather than count, puts Water Supply, Sewerage, Waste Management and Remediation Activities as the worst sector, with 22% of invoice value paid late.

Sector	Days to pay (average)	Percent of invoices paid late
Manufacturing	45 days (slowest)	21% (worst by count)
Water and sewerage (by value)	Not disclosed by day count in this dataset	22% (worst by value, not by count)
Finance and Insurance Activities	21 days (fastest)	15%
All large businesses (average)	32 days	15%

Table 1: Manufacturing is both the slowest UK sector to pay and the worst by percentage of invoices paid late; Finance and Insurance pays fastest overall. Water and sewerage’s figure is measured by invoice value, not count, a different basis noted directly in the source data. Source: UK Government, Large Businesses’ Payment Practices and Performance Statistics 2025.

The same pattern holds outside the UK. In Australia, 11.37% of Food and Beverage Services invoices are more than 60 days overdue, compared with 7.15% in Construction, according to CreditorWatch’s Business Risk Index for April 2026, even though construction has more of a reputation as a slow-paying trade than hospitality does.

Figure 4: Share of B2B invoices more than 60 days past due, by Australian sector. Source: CreditorWatch Business Risk Index, April 2026.

Neither country’s worst sector is the one most people assume from reputation alone, which is a reason to check a named source before repeating an “industry X is bad at paying” claim.

How does the US percentage compare with the UK, Australia, and Europe?

Stacking the headline percentages side by side shows how much the definition changes the answer. The US’s 10% counts only invoices 30 or more days late, per invoice, on average. The UK’s 15% counts any invoice paid after its due date, across all invoices from large businesses. Australia’s 11.37%, its worst sector, counts only invoices 60 or more days overdue. Europe’s 11% is a share of revenue rather than invoice count, according to Intrum’s European Payment Report 2025, based on 9,150 executives surveyed across 25 European countries and published in April 2025. None of these four figures measures the same thing, which is the main reason “what percentage of invoices are paid late” has no single universal answer.

Figure 5: Four different national or regional late-payment percentages, each measuring something different. Sources: Intuit QuickBooks (US, 2025); Intrum European Payment Report (Europe, 2025); CreditorWatch Business Risk Index (Australia, April 2026); UK Government payment practices statistics (UK, 2025).

Region / scope	Percent measure	What it counts	Source (year)
United States, all small businesses	~10% of invoices	30+ days overdue, average share per business	Intuit QuickBooks (2025)
United Kingdom, large businesses, overall	15% of invoices	Any invoice paid after its due date	UK Government (2025)
United Kingdom, Manufacturing sector	21% of invoices	Any invoice paid after its due date, worst sector by count	UK Government (2025)
Australia, Food and Beverage Services	11.37% of invoices	60+ days overdue	CreditorWatch Business Risk Index (April 2026)
Australia, Construction	7.15% of invoices	60+ days overdue	CreditorWatch Business Risk Index (April 2026)
Europe, all industries	11% of revenue	Revenue typically paid late, not invoice count	Intrum European Payment Report (2025)

Table 2: Six differently defined “percentage paid late” measures. Compare within a row’s own definition rather than across rows.

The Bottom Line

There is no single correct answer to “what percentage of invoices are paid late.” It runs from about 10% in the US, counting only severely overdue invoices, up to 21% in the UK’s worst-performing sector, counting any late payment at all, and the definition matters as much as the country. What holds constant across every one of these datasets is the direction: a scheduled reminder cadence and a built-in payable link measurably shrink whichever percentage a business is dealing with, a pattern already documented in Invoice Statistics 2026. A BillyPaid invoice ships with a payable link and automated reminders on every document by default, so a business doesn’t have to build that fix separately once it knows its own number.

Frequently Asked Questions

What percentage of invoices are paid late? It depends on how “late” is measured. About 10% of all invoices sent by US small businesses are more than 30 days overdue, according to Intuit QuickBooks’s 2025 Small Business Late Payments Report. UK large businesses paid 15% of all their invoices late in 2025, counting any invoice paid after its due date, per official UK Government payment practices statistics.

What percentage of invoices are paid late in the UK versus the US? UK large businesses paid 15% of invoices late in 2025, down from 25% in 2018, according to the UK Government’s Large Businesses’ Payment Practices and Performance Statistics. In the US, about 10% of all invoices sent by a small business are more than 30 days overdue, per Intuit QuickBooks’s 2025 report, a narrower and stricter measure than the UK’s any-lateness figure.

Does the percentage of late invoices vary by industry? Yes, substantially. Among UK large businesses, Manufacturing pays 21% of its invoices late by count, the worst sector measured, while Accommodation and Food Service has the lowest share paid late at 9% and Finance and Insurance Activities pays fastest overall at 21 days (UK Government, 2025). In Australia, 11.37% of Food and Beverage Services invoices are more than 60 days overdue, compared with 7.15% in Construction, per CreditorWatch’s Business Risk Index (April 2026).

What percentage of invoices are more than 60 days overdue? In Australia, CreditorWatch’s Business Risk Index (April 2026) put invoices more than 60 days overdue at 11.37% in Food and Beverage Services and 7.15% in Construction, the two sectors it tracks separately in that data. Across Europe, businesses report that 11% of revenue is typically paid late overall, according to Intrum’s European Payment Report 2025.

Sources and References

1. Intuit QuickBooks - Small Business Late Payments Report (2025), US percentage of invoices 30+ days overdue, share of businesses affected, amount owed. Survey of 2,487 small businesses.
2. UK Government - Large Businesses’ Payment Practices and Performance Statistics 2025, UK percentage of invoices paid late overall, by sector, and days-to-pay trend 2018-2025.
3. CreditorWatch - Business Risk Index (April 2026), Australian sector breakdown of invoices 60+ days overdue.
4. Intrum - European Payment Report 2025, European share of revenue typically paid late. Based on 9,150 executives across 25 countries, published April 2025.
5. Atradius - Payment Practices Barometer (2025), referenced for US any-lateness comparison figure.

Note: All figures verified as of August 2026.