Free tool
What does chasing late invoices cost you?
Two numbers most businesses never put together: the hours that go into chasing, and what the late payment legislation already entitles you to claim on the same invoices. Statutory interest is currently 11.75 per cent a year, plus a fixed sum per invoice.
How this works it out
The time half is your own arithmetic.
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Minutes a month
Invoices that need chasing multiplied by the minutes each one takes gives minutes a month.
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Hours, then money
Those minutes become hours, which become money at the hourly cost you gave.
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A year
A year is twelve of those months.
The claimable half
For a business to business debt, GOV.UK puts statutory interest at 8 per cent above the Bank of England base rate. The base rate is 3.75 per cent, held there on 17 September 2026 and unchanged since 18 December 2025, so the statutory rate is 11.75 per cent a year.
Turning that into a figure for one invoice is our arithmetic, not GOV.UK's: the annual interest divided by 365 and multiplied by the days late.
On top of the interest, the legislation allows a fixed sum per late invoice, charged once per payment:
| Size of the debt | Fixed sum |
|---|---|
| Up to £999.99 | £40 |
| £1,000 to £9,999.99 | £70 |
| £10,000 or more | £100 |
Why the rate is fixed for six months at a time
The rate is fixed for six months at a time rather than moving with every Bank of England decision. Under article 4 of the 2002 Order, the base rate in force on 30 June governs interest that starts running between 1 July and 31 December, and the rate on 31 December governs the first half of the next year.
That is why this page names the date the rate was read, and why you should check it again for a debt that falls in a different period.
Our full workings are on the methodology page.
Deliberately left out
- What late payment does to your cash position
- The invoices that never get paid at all
- The ones you write off rather than chase
All three cost more than the chasing does and none of them can be worked out from four boxes. Which parts of the chase run to a pattern, and which need somebody to pick up the phone and use their judgement, is what the free audit separates out.
Questions people ask
- What interest can I charge on a late invoice?
- For a business to business debt, GOV.UK puts statutory interest at 8 per cent above the Bank of England base rate. The base rate is 3.75 per cent, which makes the statutory rate 11.75 per cent a year. You cannot claim statutory interest if your contract sets its own rate for late payment.
- What is the fixed compensation on top?
- Late payment legislation also lets you charge a fixed sum per late invoice: £40 on a debt up to £999.99, £70 from £1,000 to £9,999.99, and £100 at £10,000 or more. It is once per payment, and it is on top of the interest.
- Does claiming it not just annoy the customer?
- Often, which is why most businesses never do. The figure is worth knowing anyway, because it is the size of the thing you are choosing to give away, and because a term in your own paperwork saying you reserve the right to charge it changes some conversations before they start.
- Does this count the cash flow damage too?
- No. This counts the hours spent chasing and what the law entitles you to claim on the invoices being chased. What being paid thirty days late does to your overdraft is a separate problem and a much harder one to put a single number on.
Where these numbers come from
- GOV.UK, Late commercial payments: charging interest on a commercial debt , read 19 September 2026 . Statutory interest is 8 per cent plus the Bank of England base rate for business to business transactions, and cannot be claimed where the contract sets its own rate
- GOV.UK, Late commercial payments: claiming debt recovery costs , read 19 September 2026 . Fixed sums of £40, £70 and £100 by debt size, chargeable once per payment
- Bank of England, The interest rate (Bank Rate) , read 19 September 2026 . Bank Rate held at 3.75 per cent on 17 September 2026, unchanged since 18 December 2025
- The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Rate of Interest) (No. 3) Order 2002, article 4 , read 19 September 2026 . The rate is fixed for six months at a time: the base rate in force on 30 June governs interest that starts running between 1 July and 31 December, and the rate on 31 December governs 1 January to 30 June
Last checked 19 September 2026.
Our workings are on the methodology page .
The real number
This is an estimate. The audit is the count.
A calculator works from what you typed. The free audit works from your actual week: every repeated job, ranked by the hours it eats, with a map of the five worth doing first. It costs nothing and you keep the lot.
Other free tools
- Cost of admin time What the jobs you repeat every week cost in hours and in money
- Cost of missed calls What the calls nobody answers are worth, at your own conversion rate
- True cost of an employee Salary plus employer National Insurance, pension, recruitment and kit, per year and per hour
- Quote turnaround What is sitting unsent in your quote queue, and what a win rate you set would be worth
- Which tasks run on rules Sort the jobs you repeat into rules based, needs a person, and needs a closer look
Guides that go with this
- How we work out the numbers Every assumption behind the free tools, and where each rate comes from
- Cost of admin time What the jobs you repeat every week cost in hours and in money
- Cost of missed calls What the calls nobody answers are worth, at your own conversion rate
- True cost of an employee Salary plus employer National Insurance, pension, recruitment and kit, per year and per hour
- Quote turnaround What is sitting unsent in your quote queue, and what a win rate you set would be worth
- Which tasks run on rules Sort the jobs you repeat into rules based, needs a person, and needs a closer look