Late Payment Cost Calculator — see your real annual losses

How much do payment delays cost Polish businesses?

Late payments affect virtually every Polish company that trades with other businesses. According to BIG InfoMonitor data, as many as 87% of Polish firms experience late payments from their counterparties, and the average B2B payment arrives roughly 14 days past the due date. Small and medium-sized enterprises feel the impact most acutely — they lack the financial buffer that allows them to wait patiently for an overdue transfer, and working capital credit is more expensive for them than for large corporations.

Frozen cash has real costs: interest on the credit a company has taken out to pay its own suppliers; lost investment opportunities; and above all, time — the time of the owner or employee spent manually monitoring receivables, making calls and writing emails. The Intrum European Payment Report estimates that European businesses spend on average a significant share of total working hours on debt recovery. Every hour spent chasing unreliable payers is an hour that cannot be devoted to sales, customer service or product development.

This calculator converts the abstract concept of a "late payment" into a concrete PLN figure. When a business owner sees that a 30-day delay on a PLN 50,000 invoice costs them several hundred zlotys in capital costs plus several hours of labour — they can make an informed decision about whether it is worth investing in automated reminders that will eliminate most of those losses.

Payment delay statistics in Poland

Statutory interest calculator — calculate the exact interest amount you can charge alongside delay costs.

How to use the late payment cost calculator

The calculator converts your invoice data into a concrete annual loss figure. Four steps are enough to understand the cost of late payments in your business.

1. 1
   Enter monthly invoice count: Type in the average number of invoices you issue each month. If unsure, check the last three months and calculate the average.
2. 2
   Enter average invoice value: Provide a typical net invoice amount in PLN. The calculator multiplies it by the number of invoices to estimate total receivables.
3. 3
   Set average delay and percentage paid late: Specify how many days clients typically pay past the deadline, and what share of invoices arrive late. For Polish SMEs, typical values are 14 days and 60–80%.
4. 4
   Read the annual cost and decide: The calculator shows the cost of frozen cash, wasted admin hours, and lost interest. Compare this figure to the cost of automating payment reminders — the difference is your potential saving.

Worked examples: late payment cost calculations

Frequently asked questions about the late payment cost calculator

Payment demand generator — send the debtor a formal demand showing the calculated delay costs.