Invoice Statistics (2026)

A data analysis of B2B invoice terms, collection speed, small-business cash flow and electronic payment rails, as of October 2026.

The Atradius Payment Practices Barometer for the US (2025) finds 43% of credit-based B2B sales are overdue, only 52% of invoice value is paid on time, and average payment terms are 45 days from invoicing. The Federal Reserve Banks’ 2026 Report on Employer Firms says 50% of small employer firms faced uneven cash flow, which the survey defines to include collecting on receivables. Nacha’s ACH payments fact sheet shows businesses sent 8.1 billion B2B ACH payments in 2025. These are the numbers for owners choosing accounting and free invoice tools.

Key takeaways

• 43% of credit-based B2B sales in the US are overdue (Atradius)
• Average B2B payment terms are 45 days from invoicing; nearly 50% of B2B sales are on credit (Atradius)
• Only 52% of B2B invoice value is paid on time; 5% becomes bad debt (Atradius)
• 50% of small employer firms report uneven cash flow, which includes collecting receivables (Federal Reserve SBCS)
• 24% of firms with financial challenges made a late payment or did not pay (Federal Reserve SBCS)
• 8.1 billion B2B payments moved over ACH in 2025, up 9.9% (Nacha)
• 59% of small businesses have invoices overdue 30+ days (QuickBooks)
• 74% of businesses are not fully automated on managing and paying bills (QuickBooks)

How long do B2B customers take to pay invoices?

Atradius surveyed US B2B suppliers between the end of Q2 and mid Q3 2025. Credit terms are long, and overdue invoices are common.

1. 43% of credit-based B2B sales are overdue (Atradius).
2. 52% of B2B invoice value is paid on time (Atradius).
3. 5% of B2B invoice value is written off as bad debts (Atradius).
4. Average payment terms are 45 days from invoicing (Atradius).
5. Nearly 50% of B2B sales are made on credit (Atradius).
6. 70% of companies are increasing the amount of credit extended to customers (Atradius).

What it means: if half your B2B revenue is on 45-day terms and 43% of credit sales are late, invoicing speed and reminder automation are cash-flow tools, not admin chores.

Is days sales outstanding getting better or worse?

7. 37% of US suppliers report shorter DSO over the past 12 months (Atradius).
8. 28% report longer DSO (Atradius).
9. 35% report no change in DSO (Atradius).
10. Nearly half of US businesses are delaying payments to their own suppliers to maintain liquidity (Atradius).
11. Around 60% use a blended approach to customer payment risk management (Atradius).

What it means: DSO is split three ways. Firms that tightened collection got paid faster; the rest pushed the strain down their own supply chain.

Why do customers pay invoices late?

12. 45% cite customer liquidity issues as a top reason for late B2B payment (Atradius).
13. 33% cite delays in the payment process (Atradius).
14. 26% cite supply chain disruptions (Atradius).
15. 23% cite invoice disputes (Atradius).

What it means: a third of late payment is process friction and nearly a quarter is disputes. Clear line items, PO numbers and online pay links fix part of that before credit risk enters.

How do suppliers bridge invoice cash gaps?

16. 68% of B2B suppliers used bank loans in the past 12 months (Atradius).
17. 57% used invoice financing (Atradius).
18. 53% used internal funds (Atradius).

How many small businesses struggle with uneven cash flow?

The Federal Reserve Banks’ Small Business Credit Survey (SBCS) collected 6,525 responses from employer firms with 1 to 499 employees between September and November 2025 (Fed SBCS).

19. 50% of employer firms report uneven cash flow as a financial challenge (Federal Reserve SBCS).
20. Uneven cash flow includes collecting on receivables, per the survey’s definition (Federal Reserve SBCS).
21. 54% report paying operating expenses as a challenge (Federal Reserve SBCS).
22. 73% report increased costs of goods, services and/or wages (Federal Reserve SBCS).
23. 42% report increased costs associated with tariffs (Federal Reserve SBCS).
24. 77% of firms experienced challenges associated with rising costs (Federal Reserve SBCS).

What do owners do when invoices do not cover the bills?

25. 54% of firms with financial challenges used personal funds (Federal Reserve SBCS).
26. 47% used cash reserves (Federal Reserve SBCS).
27. 24% made a late payment or did not pay (Federal Reserve SBCS).
28. 62% of employer firms regularly use a credit card (Federal Reserve SBCS).
29. 19% regularly use trade credit, and 3% use factoring (Federal Reserve SBCS).
30. Eighty-six percent of firms use financing on a regular basis (Fed SBCS).
31. 56% of applicants sought financing to meet operating expenses (Fed SBCS).
32. Sixty percent of firms applied for financing in the prior 12 months (Fed SBCS).
33. 31% of firms have no outstanding debt (Fed SBCS).

What it means: when receivables run late, owners fill the gap with their own money, cards and lines of credit. Faster invoices reduce how often that happens.

How are invoices getting paid electronically?

Nacha governs the ACH Network, the bank-to-bank rail behind direct deposit and many invoice payments.

34. The ACH Network processed 35.2 billion payments in 2025 (Nacha).
35. Those payments were valued at $93 trillion (Nacha).
36. Businesses sent 8.1 billion B2B payments over ACH in 2025 (Nacha).
37. B2B ACH volume rose 9.9% from 2024 (Nacha).
38. 17.17 billion consumer-initiated bill payments and other transfers went via ACH (Nacha).
39. 1.4 billion Same Day ACH payments were valued at $3.9 trillion, up 16.7% and 21.4% (Nacha).
40. Same Day ACH averaged 5.8 million payments per day in 2025 (Nacha).
41. December 2025 set a record 3.22 billion monthly ACH payments (Nacha).
42. Q4 2025 saw 9.1 billion ACH payments valued at $24.4 trillion (Nacha).
43. Full-year ACH volume rose nearly 5% and value rose almost 8% (Nacha).
44. 2025 was the 13th straight year ACH value grew by at least $1 trillion (Nacha).

What it means: bank transfers are the default rail for B2B settlement. Invoice tools that include ACH or bank-pay links (Square lists ACH via invoice at 1% with a $1 minimum on its Free plan) shorten the path from invoice to cash. See free invoice tools.

What does the small-business invoice backlog look like?

Intuit QuickBooks’ 2026 report (re-fetched today) quantifies the overdue backlog. Our late payment statistics page covers it in full.

45. 59% of small businesses have invoices overdue by 30+ days (QuickBooks).
46. Businesses with unpaid invoices are owed $17.7K on average (QuickBooks).
47. 49% of owners say payment processing times create cash-flow gaps (QuickBooks).
48. 74% of businesses are not fully automated on managing and paying bills (QuickBooks).

What it means: overdue invoices and manual AP/AR still dominate. Pair invoicing with books and payments; compare QuickBooks vs Xero or start free with Wave or Invoice Ninja. Freelancers: see freelancer statistics.

How we compiled these statistics

We recorded 55 data points in docs/content/stats-ledgers/invoice-statistics.json from four primary publishers fetched on October 14, 2026: the Atradius Payment Practices Barometer US 2025 PDF, the Federal Reserve Banks’ 2026 Report on Employer Firms (web summary and PDF) from the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey, Nacha’s ACH payments fact sheet and January 2026 volume release, and Intuit QuickBooks’ 2026 Small Business Late Payments Report. Every numbered figure above quotes those pages. We did not use third-party roundups. The SBCS is a convenience sample weighted to Census data; Atradius covers B2B suppliers selling on credit.

Sources

1. Atradius, “B2B payment practices trends US 2025,” https://atradius.us/dam/jcr%3A5609b617-ac29-4e30-8b01-0663a01d94bd/payment-practices-barometer-us-2025-en.pdf, accessed October 14, 2026.
2. Federal Reserve Banks, “2026 Report on Employer Firms: Findings from the 2025 Small Business Credit Survey” (PDF), https://www.fedsmallbusiness.org/-/media/project/clevelandfedtenant/fsbsite/reports/2026/2026-report-on-employer-firms/2026-report-on-employer-firms.pdf, accessed October 14, 2026.
3. Federal Reserve Banks, “2026 Report on Employer Firms” (web summary), https://www.fedsmallbusiness.org/reports/survey/2026/2026-report-on-employer-firms, accessed October 14, 2026.
4. Nacha, “ACH Payments Fact Sheet,” https://www.nacha.org/content/ach-payments-fact-sheet, accessed October 14, 2026.
5. Nacha, “Same Day ACH and Business-to-Business Payments Propel ACH Network Volume Growth in 2025,” https://www.nacha.org/news/same-day-ach-and-business-business-payments-propel-ach-network-volume-growth-2025, accessed October 14, 2026.
6. Intuit QuickBooks, “2026 Small Business Late Payments Report,” https://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/small-business-data/small-business-late-payments-report-2026/, accessed October 14, 2026.