U.S. business debt is on the rise, and companies are also having a harder time paying it off.
Credit monitoring and risk management firm Creditsafe surveyed more than 200 finance professionals and found that many companies have taken on debt post-COVID as interest rates remained low, but they’re also not doing enough to preserve their cash as they instead choose to focus more on adding new customers to increase revenue. Companies can lessen potential risks by conducting business credit checks and by keeping tabs on fluctuations in how long firms take to pay their bills.
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A report by Janus Henderson Investors said companies worldwide took on a record $456 billion of net new debt in 2022 and 2023. That pushed outstanding net debt up by 6.2 percent to $7.8 trillion, on a constant-currency basis. But S&P Global also found that corporate debt defaults rose by 80 percent in 2023, a problem that could surface again in 2024.
So why are businesses having a hard time paying off what they borrowed?
One finding from Creditsafe’s study found that just 5 percent of companies said reducing debt is the most important part of growing their business. That’s in contrast to 52 percent who said adding new customers and increasing revenue were most important.
That doesn’t mean companies aren’t aware of the need to get themselves out of spiraling debt as 68 percent of business said they have increased their bad debt reserves by setting more money aside to cover receivables that might not get paid by customers. But Creditsafe found that firms should be more proactive and diligent in protecting their cash flow. The survey found that nearly half, at 49 percent, don’t use credit risk software to run checks on new customers. Creditsafe equates that with “throwing cash away instead of preserving it.” And only 23 percent ask for trade references, which means 77 percent don’t ask at all.
Missed customer payments are also becoming a bigger problem for businesses, with just 14 percent of respondents stating that most—76 percent to 100 percent—of their invoices are paid on time. Thirty-nine percent said invoices are paid 1 to 30 days past payment terms, while 46 percent said their customers paid invoices 31 to 60 days past payment terms. Fifteen percent said their customers paid invoices 61 to 90 days past payment terms. Thirty-five percent of respondents said that in the last 12 months the most common reason customers didn’t pay their invoices within payment terms was due to cash flow issues.