How flexible are your payment methods? How many of your customers pay on time? Late payments are a known issue for many businesses, with our research showing that the average small business being owed £12,000 in outstanding invoices.

It can be hard to know how to address the issue, but by changing your payment methods, you could get paid faster.

Get up to speed with technology

While many businesses think that cheques and cash are free to process, there are a lot of hidden costs involved. From increased security to time to do the banking, the costs of these payment methods can add up.

Switching to newer methods can provide more cost effective. Our research shows that on average, electronic payments are 20-30 days faster than payments by cheque. And there are other benefits too.

Sage Business Expert Hiroki Takeuchi, who works at online Direct Debit company GoCardless, says, “By adopting new payment methods, businesses are gaining more control and certainty of when they are paid.

“New services offer access to payment methods that were previously unavailable or hard to access for SMEs. You can get started immediately without having to talk to your bank.”

There are a number of options:

Online payments

These allow you to take payments through the web, either via your website, an online portal or through a “Pay now” button on your invoices. People can pay securely online and the funds can clear quickly.

There are a number of options, from online direct debits to credit and debit card transactions.

Face-to-face and telephone payments

67% of businesses still rely on cash and cheques for face-to-face payments but research from the UK’s Payment Council shows that, for the first time, customers are more likely to use card or other cashless payments to pay for goods and services. Businesses who want to stay current need to embrace card payments.

You can do this by having a standalone card machine or integrating your payment system with your till. You could also look at mobile payments.

Mobile payments

These allow you to take payments through your mobile phone. You don’t need to provide any bank details as the payments are linked to your mobile phone number. There are a number of different providers - Barclays PingIt is one of the most well-known - but many banks and corporations offer the service.

Find the right provider

Whichever method you choose, you’ll need to ensure you choose a trustworthy provider. Here are some of the things to check:

• What standards of security are offered? For card payments look for PCI DSS, AVS/CV2 checks and 3D Secure authentication.
• What level of customer support is available?
• Is the provider established and financially stable?
• Are they trusted by consumers? People are more likely to use your card services if you can display a logo from a trusted provider.

Link your technologies together

As you offer more ways for your customers to pay you, it’s important you have the right data from each system. By automating the transfer of information, you can save time and keep up to date more easily.

If you use Sage Pay and Sage accounts software, it’s simple to connect your data. By linking the systems together, you can also add a “pay now” button to your invoices to allow people to pay online at the click of a button. Find out more about eInvoicing.

Time to change?

With more and more people embracing contactless, mobile and other new payment types, maybe it’s time to make sure your business is ready for the next stage in payments. Not only does it keep you competitive, but it could also help with your cash flow by enabling you to get paid faster.