Weighing both on their cash flow, their productivity and capacity for growth, payment delays have established themselves as a structural obstacle for French companies. According to an OpinionWay study carried out for banking payments company GoCardless, 65% of business leaders anticipate a worsening in 2026. A concern that is part of an economic context still under tension.
Nearly nine out of ten companies (94 %) say they lose money every month due to late payments, and 91% spend collection time on it, making this activity an operational charge in its own right. While 32% of businesses cite late payments among their main payment irritants, pressure is not distributed evenly : Thus, 27% of companies with more than 5,000 employees lose more than 10,000 euros per month due to late payments. And when the cash flow gets tight, growth is running out of steam. Late payments don’t just undermine cash flow : they directly influence the strategic choices of companies, forcing them to adopt defensive measures : 27% increased their prices, with a direct impact on consumers already affected by the cost of living ; 22% postponed new product launches ; and 19% have frozen recruitment. The phenomenon is particularly significant in banking and finance, where almost half of the actors (46 %) postponed their hiring plans due to payment delays, further weakening the overall economic dynamic.
Behind the resignation, the subject remains taboo
Companies have largely integrated late payments into their daily operations, perceiving them as an almost inevitable cost of their activity (73 %). However, this form of resignation does not rhyme with indifference. Nearly three-quarters of them remain concerned about their effects (72 %), while two thirds believe that payment delays directly hamper their ambitions and growth plans (66 %). If they are now “accepted”, they continue to weigh heavily on business confidence and long-term decisions. Despite this widely shared concern, late payments remain taboo in many commercial relationships. During the last twelve months, more than half of companies (52 %) avoided discussing the issue with their customers. But silence has a price : 80% of companies would be ready to sacrifice up to 20% of their annual turnover to no longer have to manage these situations ! A percentage which illustrates the tension between economic pragmatism and operational weariness.
“A deeply rooted problem”
Clementine Destrez, sales and business manager at GoCardless : “This study shows that delays are no longer a simple cash flow hazard., but now constitute a structural brake on the French economy. What is particularly striking, this is the level of resignation : many organizations have learned to deal with these delays, while fully measuring their deleterious effects on growth, employment and investment. When some prefer to absorb losses rather than open a dialogue with their customers, this reveals how deeply entrenched the problem has now become. »
