Exploring early payment behavior of the past 5 years

Taulia, a leading provider of working capital solutions, engages businesses on its network for an annual survey regarding early payments, working capital challenges and businesses’ experiences using Taulia’s payment solutions.

The Supplier Survey is used as a means of understanding the reasons and ways in which businesses make use of early payment solutions.

This year, Taulia has developed a special edition of the Supplier Survey, the Supplier Survey 5 Year Review, which shares insights on the ways that businesses on the Taulia network have adapted and changed their behavior over the last five years. This report seeks to understand what has changed and predict what we can expect to see next.

Since the 2017 survey, 79,918 responses have been collected. Taulia has compared and contrasted this data to measure the frequency of early and late payments, how early payments are used, and why.

What did Taulia find?

There has been increasing use of businesses engaging in early payments programs. This may be the consequence of greater awareness and understanding of early payments and their potential, in general. It can also be seen that the greater understanding and increased use of early payments has led to much-improved supplier happiness and satisfaction among customers on the Taulia network.

Over the past five years, suppliers have become more interested in being paid early. This is the consequence of suppliers being more educated about their financing options and knowing that the market has more instruments available to them than just traditional bank loans and overdrafts.

Buyers are likewise becoming more engaged regarding early payments. This is related to the potential growth and recognition of ESG and the importance of supporting small but strategic suppliers along the supply chain. Taulia’s recent survey into the effects of Covid-19 on supplier behavior demonstrated that many businesses were considering early payments during the pandemic, especially smaller and more vulnerable companies, with 62% of respondents interested in being paid early.

Taulia also has seen an 18% decrease in payments being made late. This is the consequence of an increasing awareness of early payment and its benefits, such as the lessening of financial pressure and the ability to focus on growth over chasing invoices.

Read the full survey report and find out just how late and early payments have affected businesses over the last five years, including:

• How and why early payments are growing
• The impact of technology in combating late payments
• How the possibility of early payments is impacting supplier behavior
• What we expect working capital management to look like in the coming years