How big is the problem of late payment?
The average UK business hit by late payment spends 86 hours a year chasing money it has already earned. Across the economy that’s 133 million hours, and around £26bn sitting unpaid at any one time.
It’s one of the most universal problems small businesses face and a major cause of businesses shutting down. The Small Business Commissioner puts the average unpaid balance at £17,000 per affected business which can be the difference between making payroll or not. Small businesses face a double whammy as they also often can’t afford a dedicated staff member to chase invoices down and so the job falls to someone else on the team who is usually very busy already.
This is the problem that Trove solves.
Trove has now collected £20 million in late payments
Trove's sole aim is to help small businesses chase down the invoices they have already earned. We measure success as invoices collected after at least one payment reminder has been sent in Trove. We do not count invoices paid without Trove's help.
Just over a year after launching, Trove has now helped small businesses collect £20 million, mainly in the UK but increasingly across other English-speaking countries:
Most of this £20 million has been collected in the last 6 months so we're excited to see where the next 6 months takes us.
Why Trove works
Most overdue invoices aren’t disputes. They’re forgotten, stuck with the wrong person, or waiting on a payment run nobody flagged. They get paid when someone asks - but you have to remember to ask.
Trove automates this. It watches your Xero ledger, chases on a schedule you set, from your email address, and stops the moment an invoice is paid.
Trove’s data across thousands of invoices collected backs this up: 58% of overdue invoices are paid after a single reminder, and a second recovers another 21%. That means almost 80% of the invoices are paid after just two emails sent via Trove.
What it looks like for one business
4Site Recruitment, a construction recruitment agency, came to Trove from a tool that had just pushed their bill to £200 a month and was sending emails the team felt were off brand for them. Within three months of switching, their Days Sales Outstanding had dropped 17%. As icing on the cake, Trove cost 75% less than their previous, more expensive solution. The full 4Site Recruitment story is here.
What Trove is doing next
"We spent the last year chasing down unpaid invoices for small businesses. We'll spend the next year doing the same thing. All of the new features on the roadmap are focused on improving the lives of small business owners who have this problem."
Robin Sonefors, CTO & Co-founder
Trove connects to Xero in about five minutes and runs a free 30-day trial, so you can point it at your own aged debt and see what comes back. You can start a free trial here or book a demo if you’d rather see it first.
