Worst payers outed online

Companies who refuse to pay bills on time will be named on web site

Resellers could benefit from a free online database launched today that identifies private-sector firms as good or bad payers.

A joint venture between the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), the Credit Management Research Centre and the Better Payment Practice Group, have resulted in the Private Sector Payment Performance League Tables. The tables show how the UK’s publicly quoted companies perform when it comes to paying invoices on time.

The league tables will be updated daily at www.paymentscorer.com. The data is compiled from accounts filed with Companies House.

Stephen Alambritis, representative for the FSB, told CRN: “Resellers could use these tables before entering into contracts to check whether the company is likely to pay them on time.”

FSB’s national policy chairman, John Walker, added: “The league tables show that some firms are failing to honour their obligations and are using their size to get away with it.”

Robin Barker, a director at VAR Blueloop, said: “The ability to quickly check a business for free to see if it is a good payer will be very useful.”

Bill Kenny, finance director at VAR Softcat, added: “We’ve been pretty lucky and had no problems with late payment, but it is certainly a good idea to pool all these statistics into one online database.”

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