Updated with June 2026 data

Accounts receivable statistics: how fast small businesses get paid in 2026

Small businesses in Australia are paid fastest right now (20.3 days on average, a record low), while those in Canada wait 29.5 days. Compare payment times, late payment days, and sales trends across five countries, monthly from January 2017 to June 2026. Data: Xero Small Business Insights, analyzed by Paidnice.

Fastest paid
🇦🇺 20.3days
Australia (record low)
Slowest paid
🇨🇦 29.5days
Canada
Most overdue
🇨🇦 11.4days late
Canada
Biggest improver
🇦🇺 -4.3days y/y
Australia

How do small business payment times compare across five countries?

Average days from invoice to full payment, monthly. Switch metrics to compare lateness or sales growth, and zoom the range.

Time to be paid and late payment days are seasonally adjusted. Shaded marker: COVID-19 pandemic onset (March 2020).

Context: central bank policy rates (same countries, same colors)

Month-end policy rates. Sources: FRED (US), Bank of England, RBA, RBNZ, Bank of Canada. The cost of credit is one of the strongest forces acting on payment behavior; see "Why payment times move" below.

Which countries pay small businesses fastest?

Country league table, June 2026.

Country Time to be paid Change vs a year ago Paid late by Sales growth (y/y)
🇦🇺 Australia 20.3 days -4.3d 4.3 days +4.8%
🇳🇿 New Zealand 23.2 days -0.9d 5.1 days +11.5%
🇺🇸 United States 29.1 days +1.6d 8.3 days +4.8%
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 29.3 days -0.3d 8.3 days +4.8%
🇨🇦 Canada 29.5 days +1.9d 11.4 days +3.8%
Australia sets the pace 20.3 days from invoice to payment, the fastest month ever recorded in this dataset, and 9.2 days quicker than Canada.
North America is slipping United States and Canada are waiting longer than a year ago, against the improving trend elsewhere.
Canada has the overdue problem Invoices in Canada settle 11.4 days past their due date on average, the worst of the five countries.

Why do payment times rise and fall?

The Xero data tells you what is happening. These four overlays, all from public sources, explain most of the why.

1. The cost of money When credit is expensive, big customers hold onto cash and stretch their payables. US invoices averaged 6.8 days late in 2021 (federal funds rate near zero) and 9.3 days late in 2024 (rate above 5%). Every country page overlays its central bank's policy rate under the main chart.
2. Business distress Late payment is often the first symptom of the cash flow stress that ends in insolvency. In the UK, monthly company insolvencies (1,845 in June 2026) and late payment days have moved together since 2017 (correlation -0.34); in Canada the relationship is similar (-0.41). See the insolvency overlays on the UK, Australia, and Canada pages.
3. Big-business payment behavior Public registers now name how long large companies take to pay suppliers. The median of 2,613 large Australian businesses is 25 days (1.6% average over 60 days); the median of 5,982 large UK companies is 31 days (7.6% over 60). The slowest and fastest are named on the Australia and UK pages. New Zealand, the US, and Canada have no equivalent transparency regime.
4. Demand conditions Slowing sales and slowing payments feed each other: customers under revenue pressure pay later, which starves their suppliers' cash flow in turn. The sales growth metric in the chart above (from the same Xero dataset) shows the demand backdrop for each country; New Zealand's +11.5% sales growth alongside near-record-low lateness is the healthy version of that loop.

These are observed associations in public data, not proof of causation. Sources: FRED, Bank of England, RBA, RBNZ, Bank of Canada; The Insolvency Service (UK), ASIC (AU), Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (CA); Payment Times Reports Register (AU), Check When Large Businesses Pay Their Suppliers (UK).

Deep dives by country

Each country page breaks payment times down by industry and by region, state, or province, with full history back to 2017. South Africa is tracked through National Treasury 30-day payment data and Xero's annual small business survey.

🇦🇺Australia 20.3 days to be paid
-4.3 days vs a year ago
Explore Australia stats → 🇳🇿New Zealand 23.2 days to be paid
-0.9 days vs a year ago
Explore New Zealand stats → 🇺🇸United States 29.1 days to be paid
+1.6 days vs a year ago
Explore United States stats → 🇬🇧United Kingdom 29.3 days to be paid
-0.3 days vs a year ago
Explore United Kingdom stats → 🇨🇦Canada 29.5 days to be paid
+1.9 days vs a year ago
Explore Canada stats → 🇿🇦South Africa R16.8bn owed by government past 30 days
62% of small businesses report cash flow issues
National Treasury and Xero survey data, by province.
Explore South Africa stats →

Frequently asked questions

Do higher interest rates make businesses pay their invoices later?
The data points that way, with exceptions. In the United States, invoices averaged 6.8 days late in 2021 when the federal funds rate averaged 0.1%, and 9.3 days late in 2024 with the rate above 5%: when money is expensive, large customers hold onto cash longer. It is not destiny though. Australia's cash rate rose through 2026 while its payment times fell to a record low, helped by payment-transparency rules and faster invoicing practices.
Which country pays its small businesses fastest?
Australia is currently the fastest of the five countries tracked, with an average time to be paid of 20.3 days in June 2026, a record low for the dataset. Canada is the slowest at 29.5 days.
What is the average time for a small business invoice to be paid?
Across the five countries tracked in June 2026, the average time from issuing an invoice to receiving full payment ranged from 20.3 days in Australia to 29.5 days in Canada. Most invoices carry terms of 7 to 30 days, so real payment times regularly run past the due date.
How late are small business invoices paid on average?
In June 2026, invoices were paid an average of 4.3 to 11.4 days after their due date depending on the country. Canada has the worst average lateness at 11.4 days.
Are late payments getting better or worse?
It depends where you are. Australia improved the most over the past year (average payment times fell 4.3 days), while United States and Canada have slipped backwards.
Where does this data come from?
All figures come from Xero Small Business Insights (June 2026 release), an aggregated, anonymized dataset drawn from hundreds of thousands of small businesses using Xero across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada. Paidnice presents the data with independent analysis.

Methodology, definitions & sources

Time to be paid Average days from invoice issue to full payment, calculated from invoices marked fully paid in the month, weighted by invoice value, and seasonally adjusted. Invoices without payment terms are excluded.
Late payments Average days an invoice is paid beyond its due date, seasonally adjusted. The gap between a country's payment time and its typical terms shows up here.
Comparing countries The same methodology is applied in every country, so cross-country gaps reflect real behavior rather than measurement differences. Sector mix still matters: economies weighted toward slow-paying industries carry a structural handicap.

This page reports how long small businesses wait to be paid, from Xero Small Business Insights. How long large companies take to pay their suppliers is a different measure from government payment filings, and it is on the payment times pages.

Citing this page? You're welcome to use these statistics with attribution: Small business payment statistics for Australia, New Zealand, the UK, US & Canada, analyzed by Paidnice. https://www.paidnice.com/accounts-receivable-statistics

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