![\"There](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/VWGBDAYXENBDLLB2J5PEMRXUSU.jpg\")
Scott Murray, chair of R3 in Northern Ireland <\/p>\nThere were 167,176 overdue invoices on the books of around 25,00 mostly small businesses in Northern Ireland in the first quarter of this year, a new report reveals.<\/p>\n
Late payments are a significant cause of company insolvencies, and mounting arrears can quickly turn day to-day cash flow issues into a wider crisis,according to R3, the UK\u2019s trade body for restructuring, turnaround and insolvency professionals.<\/p>\n
But the north actually bucked the overall UK trend by being one of the few regions to record a decline in the number of overdue invoices over the three-month period (down by nearly 11% from 187,500 in the first quarter of 2025).<\/p>\n
Scott Murray, chair of R3 in Northern Ireland <\/p>\n
And quarterly insolvency-related activity in the region – including administration and voluntary and compulsory liquidations – increased by 8.2% from 61 cases last year to 66 cases in the first quarter of 2026. This was down by 35% on the final quarter of 2025, when there were 102 instances.<\/p>\n
Scott Murray, chair of R3 in Northern Ireland and managing director at Keenan CF, said: \u201cThis report highlights an early warning sign for local businesses, with a substantial number of companies being affected by late payments. <\/p>\n \u201cAlthough Northern Ireland saw a decline in numbers of overdue invoices, day-to-day cash flow remains under real strain and businesses should remain vigilant.<\/p>\n \u201cLate payments are a significant contributor to business failure, and mounting arrears can quickly turn manageable cash flow issues into a wider crisis, particularly for small and medium sized companies.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWith businesses also facing higher energy and fuel costs linked to global uncertainty, our members expect pressure to intensify as the year progresses.<\/p>\n \u201cWith this in mind, business owners should prioritise credit control and seek professional advice early if they begin to struggle, rather than waiting until problems become unmanageable.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the Department for Business and Trade, late payments cost the UK economy \u00a311 billion a year and leads to the closure of 38 businesses every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were 167,176 overdue invoices on the books of around 25,00 mostly small businesses in Northern Ireland in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[106856,1144,262475,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-939408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-insolvency","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-r3","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116522257335734925","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Live:](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1777988440_951_OGWGZFKFDFGD5JWH7BB3IMK7FM.png\")
<\/a>![\"Belfast](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/INUMJCNNCVGMBEJZCOSDSQRR2U.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n