UK Payment practices

Statistical calculations

The two first sets of calculations are for payments made within the reporting period. The data is pulled from the PAYMENTH and PAYMENTD tables in GESPAY and is limited to a corporation. Payments to business partners defined as physical persons are not included.

The third statistic is for invoiced open items that are expected to be paid during the reporting period. The data is pulled from the GACCDUDATE table to find the due date and then from the PAYMENTH and PAYMENTD tables in GESPAY to define if the payment has been made and at which accounting date or value date.

Averages and percentages are based on when open items on an invoice are paid or on when they are still open and considered late.

For example, if an invoice has three unpaid open items, the calculations take into account three expected payments dates.

Likewise, if an invoice has one open item that has two payments within the reporting period and that is still open with a due date belonging to the reporting period, the calculations take into account two payments and one expected payment.

Note: Other criteria that are considered:

Invoice open item means that open items with open item type as invoice are considered, even if the invoice document has been entered manually and directly in the Journal entry function (GESGAS).
When the value date is empty for a payment, the accounting date of the payment is considered instead.
The partner control account that is considered is the paid partner or the control account entered in the payment or the Pay-to partner in the open item when there is no payment.

Excluded calculations

The following data is not considered in the report:

Invoice, open item, or payment amounts
Pre-payments open items and payments on pre-payment open items
Discount lines on payments
Credit memos on payments
Unallocated payments, because they are not linked to any invoice open items)

Average time to pay calculations

The average time to pay considers the average number of days it takes for a supplier to receive payment. First, the report takes into consideration all payments within the reporting period based on the Value date or Accounting date parameter setting and calculates the gap in days between the value date or the accounting date of the payment and the invoice date of the open item. The total number of days for the period is divided by the total number of payments to calculate the average time for the reporting period.

Note: The due date of the paid open item is not considered in these calculations.

Example: For a report based on the Value date and the payments below:

156 days divided by 5 payments = An average of 31 days to pay

	Payment	Invoice open item
	Value date	Accounting date	Due date	Interval in # of days between payment value date and invoice accounting date
Payment #1	7/11/2016	7/01/2016	7/15/2016	10 days
Payment #2	7/29/2016	7/01/2016	08/01/2016	28 days
Payment #3	8/14/2016	8/01/2016	8/10/2016	13 days
Payment #4	9/10/2016	7/01/2016	8/20/2016	71 days
Payment #5	10/05/2016	9/01/2016	9/30/2016	34 days
	5 payments			156 days total

Percent of payments within a defined number of days

This is the percentage of invoices paid within a range of days, typically 0 to 30, 31 to 60, and 61 and more days.

For each of the payment considered in the first statistic (Average time to pay), the time to pay is calculated by comparing the accounting date/value date of the payment and the accounting date of the paid open item. Each payment is then associated to a range of days. The number of payments within a range is divided by the total number of payments for the reporting period to determine the percent of payments for that range.

Note: The due date of the paid open item is not considered in these calculations.

Example 1: Calculate percent of payments made within a range of 0 to 30 days:

3 payments within the range divided by 5 total payments for the reporting period = 60%

	Payment	Invoice open item
	Value date	Accounting date	Due date	Interval in # of days between payment value date and invoice accounting date
Payment #1	7/11/2016	7/01/2016	7/15/2016	10 days
Payment #2	7/29/2016	7/01/2016	8/01/2016	28 days
Payment #3	8/14/2016	8/01/2016	8/10/2016	13 days
Payment #4	9/10/2016	7/01/2016	8/20/2016	71 days
Payment #5	10/05/2016	9/01/2016	9/30/2016	34 days
			Only 3 payments within 0 to 30 days

Example 2: Calculate percent of payments made within a range of 31 to 60 days:
1 payment within the range divided by 5 total payments for the reporting period = 20%

	Payment	Invoice open item
	Value date	Accounting date	Due date	Interval in # of days between payment value date and invoice accounting date
Payment #1	7/11/2016	7/01/2016	7/15/2016	10 days
Payment #2	7/29/2016	7/01/2016	8/01/2016	28 days
Payment #3	8/14/2016	8/01/2016	8/10/2016	13 days
Payment #4	9/10/2016	7/01/2016	8/20/2016	71 days
Payment #5	10/05/2016	9/01/2016	9/30/2016	34 days
			Only 1 payment within 31 to 60 days

Example 3: Calculate percent of payments made after 61 days:
1 payment after 61 days divided by 5 total payments for the reporting period = 20%

	Payment	Invoice open item
	Value date	Accounting date	Due date	Interval in # of days between payment value date and invoice accounting date
Payment #1	7/11/2016	7/01/2016	7/15/2016	10 days
Payment #2	7/29/2016	7/01/2016	8/01/2016	28 days
Payment #3	8/14/2016	8/01/2016	8/10/2016	13 days
Payment #4	9/10/2016	7/01/2016	8/20/2016	71 days
Payment #5	10/05/2016	9/01/2016	9/30/2016	34 days
			Only 1 payment after 61 days

Percentage of invoices paid late

This calculation is based on the agreed payment terms. That is, the percentage of payments that were due and not paid during the reporting period. However, if a payment was already overdue at the beginning of the current reporting period, it is not included because it was taken into account in the previous reporting period statistics.

These calculations are based on the gap:

Between the Value date or Accounting date of the payment and the Due date of the invoiced open item. The total number of payments past the due date is then divided by the total number of payments for the period.

Between the Due date of the invoiced open item and the end date of the reporting period when there is a part of an open item that is not paid.

Example: A negative value represents the number of days a payment was made before the due date. A positive value represents the number of days past the due date.

By Value date: 5 late payments in 7 expected payments = 71.5% for the period

By Accounting date: 2 late payments in 7 expected payments = 28.5% for the period

Reporting period: 01/08/2016 – 12/31/2016
	Payment		Invoice open item
	Value date	Accounting date	Due date	Payment delays by Value date	Payment delays by Accounting date
Due date #1	7/11/2016	7/1/2016	7/15/2016	-4	-14
Due date #2	7/29/2016	7/1/2016	8/1/2016	-3	-31
Due date #3	8/14/2016	8/01/2016	8/10/2016	4	-9
Due date #4	9/10/2016	7/1/2016	8/20/2016	21	-50
Due date #6 **	10/05/2016	9/01/2016	9/30/2016	5	-29
Due date #6 **	10/05/2016	10/01/2016	9/30/2016	5	1
Due date #6 **	00/00/0000	00/00/0000	9/30/2016	92*	92*
*Calculation is made by comparing the due date and the reporting period end date
** The same open item appears three times: Two times because it is linked to two different payments and another time because it is still not closed.
No. of overdue payments				5	2

Report control and criteria
List of criteria

Prerequisites

Report control and criteria

This section describes how the parameters in the List of criteria behave.
Details are provided in the Description of the report.

Criteria	Comments
Company	Enter a company or a group of companies. For a group of companies, they must be linked to the same chart of accounts.
Date range	Enter a date range to define the reporting period, typically six months.
Date for lead-time calculation	Select the Value date or Accounting date of the payment. The date selected determines the statistical calculations for Statistics 1 & 2. This date is also used to compare the open item due date and the payment date to check if it has been made late or not for Statistic 3.
No. of days 1	Enter the lead-time calculation range for the 1st set of statistics. Default values are 30 and 60.
No. of days 2	Enter the lead-time calculation range for the 2nd set of statistics. This value must be greater than previous range.
Payment transaction range	Enter a range of payment types to select payments linked to those transaction types. One or a range.
Payment sign	Select Expense or Revenue.
Payment status range	Select a payment status range to filter according to that status.
Range of control accounts	Enter a control account or a range of accounts. If you enter a control account, you cannot enter a control group.
Control group	Enter a control group. If you enter a control group, you cannot enter a range of control accounts.
Range of business partners	Enter, one or a range, or all business partners that are defined as not physical persons.
Average time to pay detail	Select Yes to show payment details in the report.
% of payments by interval data	Select Yes to show payment details in the report.
% of payments made late detail	Select Yes to show payment/invoiced open item details in the report.
Print selections	Select Yes to print report criteria on the first page of the report.

List of criteria

Parameter	Parameter title	Type
societe	Company	CPY
pdatdeb	Date range	D
datcal	Date for lead-time calculation (Local menu Value date, Accounting date)	M882
borne1	No. of days 1	C
borne2	No. of days 2	C
tpydeb	Payment transaction range	TPY
senspay	Payment sign (Local menu Expense, Revenue)	M632
paystadeb	Payment status range (Local menu Entered, Accepted, In draft management...)	M689
coldeb	Range of control accounts	SAC
grpcol	Control group	GSC
bprdeb	Range of business partners	BPR
detavrge	Average time to pay detail (Local menu No, Yes)	M1
detrange	% payments by interval detail (Local menu No, Yes)	M1
detlate	% payments paid late detail (Local menu No, Yes)	M1
impselections	Print selections (Local menu No, Yes)	M1

Description of the report

The report displays a summary page for each company and only includes payment details if you selected these options in the report parameters. Each company data begins on a new page, even if you run the report for a group of companies.

Summary pages

For each company, the report displays a summary page. If you run the report for a group of companies, there is a summary page for each company.

The summary page includes the report criteria:

Company code and name
Report period dates
Based on: Value date or Accounting date depending on the value you selected for the Date for lead-time calculation parameter value
Payment transaction range
Payment sign
Payment status range
Control account range or Control group (you can only select one)
Business partner range
Request number

The summary page also includes results for each statistic:

Average time to pay (number of days)
% Payments made within 30 days*
% Payments made within 60 days*
% Payments made after 60 days *
% Payments not paid within the agreed period

*These values could be different depending on the values you selected for the No. of days 1 and No. of days 2 parameter values.

Detail pages

If you set the Average time to pay detail, % of payments by interval data, and % of payments made late detail parameter values to Yes, the report includes this data for each company followed by the Summary page described above. Whether for a single company or a group of companies, each company begins on a new page and each statistical detail also begins on a new page.

Average time to pay detail – Includes all the payments within the report period by Value date or Accounting date and provides the following details for each payment:

Site
BP
Control (account or group)
Type
Payment no.
Value date or Accounting date (according to the Date for lead-time calculation parameter)
Status

Details for each Invoice:

Doc type
Number
Accounting date
Due date

Interval in number of days

At the end of the list of payments, the report shows:

Total No. of payments
Total No. of days
Average time to pay calculation

% of payments by interval data – Includes payments within the reporting period that also fall within the range of days. Each interval detail begins on a new page and includes the same Payment, Invoice, and Interval details as listed above.

No. of days 1 – This range is typically within 30 days. At the end of the list of payments, the report shows the Subtotal of No. of Payments for the range.

No. of days 2 – This range is typically within 60 days. At the end of the list of payments, the report shows the Subtotal of No. of Payments for the range.

% Payments made after 60 days – At the end of the list of payments, the report shows the Subtotal of No. of Payments for the range and a summary:

Total No. of payments

% Payments made within 30 days

% Payments made within 60 days

% Payments made after 60 days.

% of payments made late detail – Includes open items that were expected to be paid during the reporting period, whether they were paid or not, within or not the agreed period. The same details for Payment and Invoice are included plus the gap between the Value date or Accounting date of the payment and the Due date of the open item. This Delay is displayed in number of days where a negative value represents the number of days before the Due date and a positive value represents the number of days past the due date.

Note: Greyed lines represent open items where the payment is late (the payment has been made later than the due date, or the payment has not been made), whereas not greyed lines represent open items that were paid within the agreed period, that is to say before the Due date.

At the end of the list of payments, the report shows the following:

No. of payments due
No. of payments not paid within the agreed period
% of Payments not paid within the agreed period calculation

Limitations

While the statistics calculation takes into account data stored in GESPAY function, matching and unmatching processes (through LETTRAGE/LETTRAUTO and DELETTRAGE functions) are not considered at all in these statistics.

Generic messages

Error messages

In addition to the generic error messages, the following messages can appear during the entry :

Charts of accounts not compatible in the group

If you select a group of companies, you receive this error message if the chart of accounts is not the same for all companies.

Reserved for a group of companies

If you select a group of sites, you receive an error message. You can only select a company or a group of companies with the same chart of accounts.

A control account range OR control account group must be entered

You can only select one value for either of these two report parameters. They are mutually exclusive.