A refreshing email landed this week.

Not a complaint about rising costs.
Not a request to extend payment terms.
Not another explanation of “challenging conditions.”

Instead, it was a customer explaining why they were choosing to pay their suppliers faster.

And not just in words — in action.

The message behind the message

The business explained that global uncertainty, rising costs and supply chain pressures were affecting everyone.

Fair enough — we hear that every day.

But instead of using that as a reason to delay payments, they flipped the logic:

  • Late payments damage supply chains
  • Smaller businesses suffer the most
  • Cash tied up in invoices creates inefficiency and risk
  • And ultimately, it weakens the entire industry

So they made a decision.

From April 2026, they would:

  • Pay suppliers twice a month
  • Work to 30 days net or faster
  • Aim, in many cases, for 15-day payments

No drama. No grandstanding. Just a clear operational change.

Why this matters

This is what real leadership looks like in credit management.

Because the truth is:

Late payment is rarely about ability — it’s about priority.

And here, priority has been reset.

They’ve recognised something many businesses overlook:

  • Paying late doesn’t strengthen your position
  • It weakens your supply chain
  • It increases risk across your partners
  • And eventually, it comes back to you

Or put more simply:

Your suppliers’ cashflow is your future reliability.

Practice what you preach

This ties directly into a point we’ve made before in our earlier blog:

Friday Reflection: Do You Practice What You Preach on Late Payments?

Too many businesses talk about fairness, partnership and resilience — but their payment behaviour tells a different story.

This example shows the opposite.

It aligns words with action.

And that’s where real change happens.

A small shift… with a big impact

Moving from 45–60 day payments to 15–30 days might not sound revolutionary.

But across a supply chain, it changes everything:

  • Less time chasing invoices
  • More predictable cashflow
  • Reduced reliance on borrowing
  • Greater capacity to invest and grow

And importantly:

Less friction in business relationships.

Because nothing damages goodwill faster than having to chase for money you’re already owed.

The wider reflection

If more businesses adopted this mindset, the UK’s late payment problem wouldn’t need legislation to fix it.

It would fix itself.

But until that happens, we’re still in a world where:

  • Payment terms are stretched
  • Follow-ups are delayed
  • And “later” quietly becomes “never chased properly”

And as we often say:

Delay is expensive.

Where CPA fits in

Not every customer will take this approach.

That’s the reality.

Which is why having a structured, consistent credit control process matters more than ever.

At CPA, we help businesses:

  • Stay on top of their receivables
  • Apply consistent, professional follow-up
  • Recover overdue accounts while preserving relationships

Because whether your customer pays in 15 days or 60…

What matters is that they pay — and that you don’t have to chase endlessly to make it happen.

Final thought

This wasn’t a complicated strategy.

It was a decision.

A decision to recognise that:

Good work deserves prompt payment.

If more businesses made that same decision, Friday reflections like this wouldn’t be noteworthy…

They’d be normal.

James Salmon, Operations Director, Friday 17th April 2026.