Canada small business payment times & late payment statistics
Small businesses in Canada waited an average of 29.5 days to be paid in June 2026, with invoices settled 11.4 days late on average.
Across the April to June 2026 quarter, the period Xero headlines in its own commentary, the average wait was 29.0 days, with invoices 11.3 days late.
Explore payment times and late payment trends by province, monthly from January 2017 to June 2026. Data: Xero Small Business Insights, analyzed by Paidnice.
Time to be paid
29.5days
+1.9 days vs a year ago
Paid late by
11.4days
+0.8 days vs a year ago
Sales growth (y/y)
+3.8%
+2.4% a year ago
Canadian small businesses face the longest overdue times of the five countries we track: invoices settle 11.4 days past their due date on average, up 0.8 days on a year ago. Ontario businesses wait 11.5 days longer than those in British Columbia to be paid.
How long does it take to get paid in Canada?
Monthly averages, January 2017 to June 2026. Pick a metric, zoom the range, and overlay provinces to compare against the national line.
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Time to be paid and late payment days are seasonally adjusted. Sales, jobs, and wages are year-over-year growth. Shaded marker: COVID-19 pandemic onset (March 2020).
Context:
Which Canadian provinces wait longest to be paid?
Small businesses in Ontario waited longest to be paid in June 2026, at 33.5 days on average, and those in British Columbia were paid fastest, at 22.0 days.
How long businesses wait to be paid across Canada's provinces, June 2026. Click a column heading to sort.
Province
Time to be paid
Change vs a year ago
Ontario
33.5 days
+5.5d
Maritime Provinces (NB, NS, PEI)
31.0 days
-2.1d
Alberta
29.6 days
+3.8d
British Columbia
22.0 days
-13.6d
Slowest: Ontario
Businesses in Ontario waited 33.5 days on average to be paid in June 2026.
Fastest: British Columbia
British Columbia leads at 22.0 days, 11.5 days ahead of Ontario.
Is late payment getting worse in Canada?
Average days from invoice to payment, every month since January 2017, with the record months marked.
Right now
29.5 days
June 2026
Five-year average
28.1 days
now 1.4d slower
Fastest month
25.7 days
January 2021
Slowest month
34.5 days
July 2018
Overdue range
8.4–16.8 days late
now 11.4 days
The cost of money. The Bank of Canada target overnight rate stood at 2.25% in June 2026. The cost of credit shapes how aggressively customers stretch their payables; use the context panel under the explorer chart above to overlay the full rate history.
Business distress. Canada recorded 405 business insolvencies in May 2026, and since 2017 monthly insolvency counts and late payment days have tended to move together (correlation -0.41). Late payments are frequently an early symptom of the cash flow stress that ends in insolvency.
Frequently asked questions: Canada payment times
How long do small businesses in Canada wait to be paid?
As of June 2026, small businesses in Canada waited an average of 29.5 days from issuing an invoice to receiving full payment (+1.9 days vs a year ago). This is the actual observed payment time across anonymized Xero invoices, not the stated payment terms.
How late are invoices paid in Canada?
Invoices in Canada were paid an average of 11.4 days after their due date in June 2026 (+0.8 days vs a year ago). The historical range runs from 8.4 days (May 2021) to 16.8 days (July 2018).
Which province has the slowest payment times in Canada?
Ontario is currently the slowest, with businesses waiting 33.5 days on average to be paid. British Columbia is the fastest at 22.0 days, a gap of 11.5 days.
Are payment times in Canada getting better or worse?
Payment times are getting slower. The average wait of 29.5 days in June 2026 compares with 27.6 days a year earlier and a five-year average of 28.1 days.
Where does this data come from?
All figures come from Xero Small Business Insights (June 2026 release), which aggregates anonymized data from hundreds of thousands of small businesses using Xero. Payment metrics are calculated from invoices marked fully paid in the month, weighted by invoice value, and seasonally adjusted. Paidnice presents the data with independent analysis; the underlying dataset is published by Xero.
Can I charge late payment interest in Canada?
For most business-to-business invoices in Canada there is no statutory late payment rate; interest and late fees must come from your contract terms, and annualized rates need to be stated clearly. In construction, prompt payment legislation (federally and in provinces such as Ontario) sets deadlines for paying contractor invoices.
Why are Ontario payment times so slow?
Ontario recorded the longest payment time of the tracked provinces, at 33.5 days in June 2026. Its economy is weighted toward industries with longer invoice-to-payment cycles, and larger corporate supply chains tend to stretch terms further. British Columbia is at 22.0 days.
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 firm-level sample weights, and seasonally adjusted. Invoices without payment terms are excluded.
Late payments
Average days an invoice is paid beyond its due date, seasonally adjusted. An average of 11.4 days late means the typical invoice dollar arrives 11.4 days after the agreed terms.
Sales growth
Year-over-year growth rates from anonymized, aggregated small business accounting data. These show the demand backdrop against which payment behavior moves.
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.
Payment dataXero Small Business Insights, June 2026 detailed results for Canada. Paidnice's analysis (rankings, comparisons, and commentary) is independent of Xero.
Citing this page? You're welcome to use these statistics with attribution:
Canada small business payment statistics, analyzed by Paidnice. https://www.paidnice.com/accounts-receivable-statistics/canada
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