Payment practices reporting: what UK companies file twice a year

Payment practices reporting is a UK statutory duty: if your company or LLP crosses the size thresholds, you publish how long you take to pay suppliers twice a year. A director signs off each report, and it goes public the moment you submit it, with no way to edit it afterwards. This guide is for the finance teams who file those reports and the suppliers who read them.

Key takeaways

• The duty applies per legal entity, so each qualifying company or LLP in a group files its own report.

• Size is tested on the last two balance sheet dates using a two-of-three threshold rule.

• Each report normally covers six months and must be published within 30 days of the period end.

• Day counting starts the day after an invoice is received, even if it reaches the finance system later.

• Failing to publish is an offence for the entity and its directors, and publishing misleading figures is an offence for anyone responsible.

What is payment practices reporting?

Payment practices reporting is the twice-yearly publication of a large business’s supplier payment terms and performance on a government website. Each qualifying company or LLP publishes a report for every six-month period on the Check payment practices service run by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), where anyone can search it by business name or company number.

For 2025, large businesses paid suppliers in a median of 32 days and paid 15% of invoices late by number, down from 18% in 2023. These figures appear in DBT’s statistics, published on 14 July 2026. A supplier reading your report will notice any figure well above those marks.

The law behind the duty: the Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017

The duty comes from the Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017, in force since 6 April 2017 and extended to 6 April 2031. Amendments added value and dispute metrics for financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025, and construction retention disclosures from 1 April 2025. LLPs follow parallel regulations, with a designated member approving instead of a director.

Which companies and LLPs have to report?

Your company or LLP must report if it exceeded two or all three of the size thresholds on each of its last two balance sheet dates. From 6 April 2025, those thresholds are £54m turnover and £27m balance sheet total. The employee threshold is 250. The duty-to-report guidance sets out the current test. The previous £36m and £18m figures applied to earlier years, and the new figures apply to both look-back years, so some businesses dropped out of scope from April 2025.

A qualifying company is formed and registered under the Companies Act 2006 or earlier companies legislation. It’s never qualifying in its first financial year, so a newly incorporated subsidiary gets a year to set up invoice date capture. In its second year it tests against first-year figures alone. A qualifying LLP is registered under the Limited Liability Partnerships Act 2000 and follows the same first-year exclusion.

A qualifying contract is one between businesses for goods, services, or intangible property, excluding financial services, with a sufficient link to the UK. Payment or delivery here can create a significant connection. So can performance here or a party established or trading here. The contract’s governing law also matters, so take cross-border cases to a qualified adviser.

What goes in the report: the full metric and narrative checklist

Each report pairs narrative statements about policy with statistics calculated from payments made in the period. The director who signs is vouching for both.

The narrative fields are:

• Standard payment terms: Your shortest standard period in days and any longer standard periods. You also state any changes in the period.

• Maximum contractual period: The longest period agreed in any qualifying contract made in the period.

• Dispute resolution process: How you resolve supplier payment disputes.

• Supply chain finance: You describe your supply chain finance arrangements.

• Electronic invoicing and tracking: You state your arrangements for electronic invoicing and invoice tracking.

• Supplier list charges: Whether you can charge suppliers to stay on a supplier list, and whether you did in the period.

• Code membership: You state whether you’ve signed a payment code, and which one.

The statistical fields are:

• Average days to pay: The arithmetic mean across all payments made in the period.

• Payment bands by number: The share of payments made in 1 to 30 days, 31 to 60 days, and 61 days or more.

• Not paid within terms: The share of payments due in the period that weren’t paid within the agreed period.

• Payment bands by value: The total paid in each band, which the portal converts into percentages. Applies to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2025.

• Value paid late: The total value of payments due in the period and not paid within the agreed period, from the same date.

• Disputed invoices: The share of late payments, by number, that were late because of a dispute, also from 1 January 2025.

For financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2025, businesses with construction contracts also disclose whether those contracts use retention clauses and how retentions work. Every report closes with the name of the approving director or designated member.

How to calculate the numbers: a worked example from an invoice ledger

Apply these calculation rules before building the report:

• Day 1 is the day after you receive the invoice through any route, including email or post. The clock stops on the day the supplier receives the money. Entering the invoice in your finance system doesn’t reset the start date, and neither does an internal approval step. In GOV.UK’s guidance, an invoice emailed on 1 January counts as 210 days when it is approved on 29 June and paid on 29 July. Almost all of that time was spent in approval.

• Include every payment made in the period under a qualifying contract, even if the invoice was received in an earlier period. Enter percentages by number of payments as whole numbers rounded at 0.5; the three band percentages should sum to 100.

Take the 20 payments in GOV.UK’s worked example, assume 30-day standard terms, and treat every invoice as falling due in the period:

The average is 594 total days divided by 20 payments, or 29.7 days. The first band contains 80% of payments made within 30 days. The next contains 15% in 31 to 60 days, while the remaining 5% took 61 days or more. Four of the 20 payments missed the 30-day terms, so 20% weren’t paid within the agreed period.

If one of those four was late because the invoice was disputed, you report 25% in the disputed-invoice field. For the value bands, you enter the sum paid in each band and the portal calculates the percentages. £19,000 within 30 days and £10,000 at 61 days or more would show 66% in the first band. No value falls in the middle band, while 34% falls in the last.

Capturing received dates can take work when invoices land in budget holders’ inboxes or arrive by post. Finance teams also need to track invoices submitted through supplier portals.

Spendesk is an all-in-one spend management platform consolidating company cards, expense management, accounts payable, procurement, and budgeting. Its accounts payable automation connects invoice capture, approval, matching, payment, and tracking, so the team can focus on exceptions. See how Spendesk handles accounts payable automation.

Deadlines and how to publish on the government portal

You normally file twice per financial year: once for the first six months and once for the remainder. Publish each report within 30 days beginning the day after the period ends. If your financial year starts on the fifth of a month, the first period ends on the fourth, six months later.

Common year ends map to these periods and deadlines:

A changed accounting reference date alters the pattern: a financial year shortened to nine months or less needs one report, and one extended beyond 15 months needs three.

Publishing happens on the Check payment practices service, and a named director or designated member must approve the report first. Before the director approves, approval workflows can keep invoice approvals visible to the finance team.

What are the penalties for late, missing, or misleading reports?

Failing to publish within the filing period is a criminal offence for the company and every director at the end of that period. The same applies to an LLP and its designated members. A director has a defence if they took all reasonable steps to secure compliance before the deadline, which is a good reason to document who owns the filing calendar and who approves each report.

Knowingly or recklessly publishing information that is materially false or deceptive is a separate offence, including where the information is misleading. It applies to any person responsible. Both offences are punishable on summary conviction by a fine, as set out in the regulations.

DBT usually contacts a non-compliant business first to remind it of the duty and ask for an explanation, and a business that still doesn’t comply, or provides false information, could be prosecuted.

Group companies, subsidiaries, and LLPs: who files what?

Each qualifying entity in a group files its own report, and a parent can’t file one consolidated report for its subsidiaries. GOV.UK’s guidance says a group-basis report doesn’t meet the requirement, and group members below the thresholds don’t report at all.

A parent company runs a two-stage test. It first checks its own figures against the individual thresholds over the last two financial years. Only if it passes does it test the group it heads against the group thresholds. These are £54m turnover net or £64m gross and £27m balance sheet total net or £32m gross. The employee threshold is 250. Net means after intra-group set-offs and eliminations, and a group can meet a threshold on either basis.

An overseas parent does not report, because the duty covers only companies formed and registered under UK companies legislation. Its UK subsidiary is likely to report if the subsidiary itself meets the size test. Group structures vary, so confirm edge cases with an adviser.

How does it relate to the Fair Payment Code and Prompt Payment Code?

The Fair Payment Code is voluntary, and the Office of the Small Business Commissioner says it has no bearing on the statutory reporting duty. The Fair Payment Code, launched on 3 December 2024, replaces the Prompt Payment Code. It’s free, the Office administers it on behalf of DBT, and awards last two years before you must reapply.

Awards come in three tiers. Gold requires at least 95% of all invoices paid within 30 days. Silver and Bronze use 60-day thresholds set out in the Code criteria.

Statutory report data can support a Code application, but a business failing its reporting duty can’t apply. The report itself asks whether you’ve signed a payment code, and the portal names the Fair Payment Code as its example.

Using published data: benchmarks and how suppliers can check a customer

DBT’s 2025 sector medians give a supplier a reference point before opening a single customer’s report. A selection by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) section shows the spread:

Manufacturing is the slowest sector on both measures. A manufacturer reporting 40 days sits close to its peers, while an insurer reporting the same figure is paying at nearly twice its sector median. DBT’s quality report notes the figures aren’t independently verified, and sector figures can rest on few reports.

To check a named customer, work through their recent reports:

1. Search the service by business name or company number.

2. Compare average days to pay against the sector median.

3. Read the share not paid within agreed terms against their stated standard payment term, which defines what “on time” means for that buyer.

4. Compare two or three consecutive reports to see whether performance is drifting.

For a portfolio of customers, the full dataset downloads as a CSV under the Open Government Licence, with narrative answers reached through the URL in each row.

Frequently asked questions about payment practices reporting

These answers cover separate filings, corrections, excluded contracts, portal access, and missing reports.

Can the two half-year reports be combined into one annual filing?

No, each six-month period needs its own report within its own 30-day window, and the government’s consultation response didn’t adopt annual reporting.

How do I correct a published report?

Publish a corrected version, then email DBT at paymentpracticesreporting@businessandtrade.gov.uk to ask for the original to be deleted, quoting the reference from the confirmation email.

Do contracts for financial services count?

No, financial services contracts fall outside the definition of a qualifying contract, so leave those payments out of every metric.

Where is the report published?

On the Check payment practices service, using your Companies House Online account and authentication code. Order a replacement code early, because it can take up to five working days by post.

What does it mean if a customer has no report on file?

It may be below the thresholds, in its first financial year, incorporated overseas, or not complying, so ask before drawing conclusions.