By Stacker
- Nearly six in 10 small businesses now have invoices overdue by more than 30 days, creating cash-flow challenges that disproportionately affect Black entrepreneurs with limited access to affordable capital.
- As payment delays become more common, small businesses are paying more simply to access money they’ve already earned, putting hiring, expansion, and wealth creation at risk.
Getting paid is not a single moment for a small business owner. It is a process: send the invoice, wait on the customer, follow up, wait again, watch the payment come in, then wait some more for the funds to actually clear. And new data from Intuit QuickBooks shows that process is getting worse, not better.
Why This Matters: Nearly 3 in 5 small businesses say at least some of their invoices are overdue by 30 days or more, up sharply from 47% last year. Those waiting on unpaid invoices are owed an average of $17,700. But the problem does not stop when a customer finally pays. Nearly half of all owners say standard payment processing times still create critical or moderate cash flow gaps after the money is sent. For 12% of business owners, a single late payment under $1,000 was enough to cause a financial strain. That is not a cash flow problem. That is a survival problem. And for Black entrepreneurs who are already twice as likely to be denied business loans and operating with less financial cushion, that margin for error is even thinner. Nearly 3 in 5 owners also paid extra fees in 2025 just to access money they had already earned through instant transfer or fast deposit services. That is a real cost on top of money that was already owed.
Situational Awareness: The data points to three things that actually help. Tighter payment terms matter; businesses that require immediate payment are nearly twice as likely to have no overdue invoices at all. Faster follow-up on unpaid invoices reduces the gap. And automating bill pay removes the manual friction that delays both incoming and outgoing payments. Nearly 3 in 4 businesses are not fully automated when it comes to managing bills. That is the gap Black business owners need to close first.
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