Figures published by Bacs, the company behind direct debits and credits reveals that business owners are waiting an average of 28 days longer than the original payment terms to have their invoices settled. Half of all SMEs in the UK – amounting to 861,000 companies – are currently experiencing late payments from customers, according to the research, with each company owed an average of £39,000. 

The worst offenders for paying late were found to be large companies which are behind 48% of SME late payment debt. Government and not-for-profit organisations were the most prompt payers, with just 9% of SMEs experiencing overdue payments from this sector.

Twelve months ago the total figure owing to SMEs stood at £30.4bn, according to Bacs. The amount owing in late payments is the highest since the first late payments survey in 2007.

Michael Moradian, owner, Print Express London, warned that SME printers need to become more "savvy" with their payment terms.

He said: "I feel desperately sorry for printers that are owed money but they have a choice whether to extend payment or not. If you look at a business like Printing.com – and most internet-based companies – full payment is taken at the time of the order. At the moment everyone is looking for low prices; I say to our clients that we can give them a great deal but that I don’t have a credit control department and therefore we take payment immediately over the phone.

"Smaller printers that are taking orders for jobs worth around £2,000 – these are amounts that customers are quite happy to stick on the company credit card or make an electronic payment."

Technoprint managing director Mark Snee said: "Late payment has got progressively worse over the past few years. It has cascaded down from the banking crisis. The root is that the banks aren’t lending and everyone suffers. Hardly anyone pays in 30 days, retailers always try and get 60 and then they push it to 90 days. When you start refusing to do more jobs for companies that already owe you money they just go elsewhere.

"I think the flipside is that we will come back to a time when credit is not the norm. No-one has the margins to be able to write off 1% to bad debt anymore."

Last month a study by Experian found the average late payment for all UK firms increased by almost a day in the third quarter of 2011 to 26.13 days.