How we use the data

Every figure on this site comes from reports that companies file themselves. We do not survey, estimate or adjust anything.

The source

Large companies and limited liability partnerships in the UK must publish a report on their payment practices and performance for every six months of their financial year, under the Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017. The reports go on the government's Check payment practices service, which publishes them all as open data. The government's guidance sets out who has to report and what each figure means.

Our copy was downloaded on 3 November 2026. It holds 116,715 reports, filed between 7 November 2017 and 3 November 2026, from 10,302 companies. We refresh it every week.

What each figure means

Average days to pay is the company's own calculation of the mean number of days between receiving an invoice and paying it, across the period.
Paid within 30 days, 31 to 60 days and over 60 days split the invoices paid in the period by how long they took. The three should add up to about 100%.
Not paid within agreed terms is the share of invoices paid later than the terms the company had agreed with that supplier. A company can pay within 60 days and still be late, if it agreed 30.
Retention figures appear only in reports made under the newest version of the rules, first filed in July 2025.

The rules we apply

Current reporters. Tables, rankings and headline figures use each company's latest report, and only companies whose latest period ended since 4 May 2025. That is 6,220 companies. Companies that stopped reporting still have a page with their full history.
Amended reports. Where a company filed more than one report for the same period, we use the one filed last.
Impossible figures. An average of more than 365 days, or a percentage outside 0 to 100, cannot be right, and usually means a typing error in the filing. Those reports stay on the company page exactly as filed, with a note, but are left out of every table and average. Reports whose period ends in the future, such as the year 3025, are left out altogether. 27 reports fell into that last group in our current copy.
Year-on-year change compares the latest period with the report for the period ending 10 to 14 months earlier, so like is compared with like and seasonal swings cancel out.
Company names are shown in normal capitalisation for readability. Each company page also gives the exact registered name, and links to the Companies House record.

What the figures do not tell you

An average can hide a lot. A company that pays most suppliers in a week and a few big ones in 90 days can report a short average. The payment bands and the share paid outside agreed terms give a fuller picture, and the source report links on every company page include the company's own notes on its terms and processes. Group companies often file separately for each subsidiary, so one household name can appear several times.

Corrections

We publish what was filed. If a figure is wrong, the company can correct it by filing an amended report on Check payment practices, and our weekly refresh will pick it up.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.