The health crisis has made VSEs and SMEs bad payers.
This is what emerges from the first quarterly BVA barometer for the payment terms crisis committee, published on Thursday.
According to this survey, carried out at the end of last year, 13% of the 600 business leaders questioned noted an increase in the payments received from their customers in November compared to the same period the previous year.
Highlight: 81% of respondents affirm that these delays are the result of structures with less than 250 employees.
Read also: Companies: the worrying explosion of payment terms
In detail, 54% of late payments concern companies with less than 10 employees and 27% companies with 10 to 249 employees.
“
We have done a tremendous job with mid-sized companies and large groups so that they pay their suppliers better.
These efforts have paid off.
But at the end of the year, SMEs were still suffering from late payments.
They in turn were late in paying their bills.
It's a chain reaction,
”explains Pierre Pelouzet, business mediator.
This situation was particularly true during the second lockdown in November, which worsened the payment difficulties encountered by VSEs and SMEs.
During this month, 16% of the companies questioned claim to have noticed an increase in payment terms compared to October.
“
Overall, we have passed the state of crisis and returned to a situation much less degraded than what we experienced at the start of the crisis.
But the second confinement had a definite effect on late payments,
”notes the mediator.
"Vigilance"
Another worrying fact highlighted by the barometer: the resurgence of “
non-cooperative practices
” in November.
These are “
excessive delays in validating work
”, which increased between October and November 2020 according to 42% of the companies surveyed, or “
late purchase orders
” (31%) or “
modification of the contract
” ( 28%).
The increase in these practices, which allow payments to be delayed in a roundabout way, had already been observed and denounced last spring by the crisis committee on payment deadlines.
Read also: Payment delays between companies increase with the Covid crisis, according to KPMG
All these elements call for great "
vigilance
" in the coming months, says the business mediator.
“
If it's the end of a wave, we can understand it.
Otherwise, if this situation continues, we can think that there is a precautionary syndrome among SMEs.
They say to themselves 'I would rather keep the money than pay it'.
And in this case, we must act because the precaution endangers the supplier,
”warns Pierre Pelouzet.
The situation will be closely monitored by the crisis committee on payment deadlines which, with inter-professional organizations (AFEP, CPME, MEDEF, U2P), holds meetings every three weeks.
The barometer will also take stock of the situation with businesses each quarter of this year.
No sanctions
At this stage, the crisis committee is not calling for penalizing SMEs that are slow to pay their suppliers.
"
Faced with an SME which is afraid, it is better to reassure it and have it come to mediation, remind it of the aid from which it can benefit
", explains the business mediator.
The latter encourages small suppliers who suffer from these payment problems to seize his teams to "
re-establish a dialogue and find solutions, restart the machine
".
“
We corrected the shooting on the big actors.
We improved the situation upstream so I think that in the future, the situation will ease for the entire chain.
We have SMEs and VSEs that are holding up thanks to the help and motivated entrepreneurs.
The key will be to ensure economic solidarity and the payment of bills on time.
We have the keys in hand to have a good recovery if everyone plays the game. If it gets stuck at the top, in the middle or at the end, it will not work
, ”warns Pierre Pelouzet.
