
Here’s what to know about the UK’s new payment laws
What the rules mean for your finance and procurement teams, and how to prepare.

A few weeks ago the UK government announced the most impactful reform in late-payment regulation in over 25 years.
The proposed measures will enshrine maximum payment terms of 60 days, create strict payment deadlines, and will require businesses to publish supplier payment timelines. The measures have teeth too, empowering the Small Business Commissioner to levy fines for late payments and even order interest payments. It’s no wonder these are the most stringent supplier payment regulations in the entire G7.
While the reform is not yet law, the consultation period closes on 23 October and the legislation will likely pass early next year, which means UK companies need to start preparing.
The reality is that 2026 is nearly upon us, so with just six months to put measures in place companies need to urgently address their processes, controls, and policies for payments ASAP.
Summary of new reforms
- Maximum payment terms will be set at 60 days and taper down to 45 days.
- Expanded enforcement powers for the Small Business Commissioner, including spot checks, arbitration and issuing financial penalties.
- Large businesses are obligated to publish supplier payment timelines in annual reports.
Interest fees on late payments will be awarded to suppliers.
How Zip can help
Zip is in the business of creating enhanced visibility and control of your end-to-end procurement process, ensuring compliant, and on-time supplier payments. This allows procurement and accounts payable teams to work hand-in-hand through clear process, compliant paper trails, and comprehensive payment tracking.
A ‘single front door’ for all suppliers
With Zip, every supplier goes through a compliant approval and onboarding process, ensuring a record of all suppliers, purchase orders and payment terms. Zip’s intuitive intake-to-procure solution makes it easy for everyone in the organisation to use the platform and avoid out-of-budget spend.
If you’re a Zip customer, you probably know all about this!
Intake-to-procure:
- Increases PO-backed spend
- Automates manual Accounts Payable tasks
- Provides real-time spend insights
A single front door creates a transparent view of spend under management and payment terms, helping businesses track payment compliance at scale and with confidence.
Simplified payments that power growth
Zip can also put in place a robust, standalone payment process with procure-to-pay that enforces payment policies, creates payment approval steps and cuts out manual work for accounts payable, creating greater leeway to meet new deadlines.
Procure-to-pay:
- Automates PO creation
- Extracts invoice data automatically to accelerate processing time
- Dynamically adjusts workflow approvals depending on spend and vendor
Let's prepare for a new world
While these reforms will likely ask a lot of procurement and finance teams, compliance doesn’t need to be a burden. In fact, we put together a ‘Survival Guide’ for navigating the most important new regulations across the EU—you can download that here.
We built Zip to be intuitive, modular, and easy to roll-out. It integrates seamlessly with your existing payment infrastructure; no costly or complex transformation required.
Zip customers are able to adopt compliant, timely payment processes for all their suppliers. We want to help you to mitigate emerging financial risks of finances and interest liabilities, and also support your image as a trusted, responsible buyer in the eyes of suppliers and regulators.
Ready to get started? Book some time and let’s talk about how Zip can help you build compliant, efficient payment workflows that get your suppliers paid on time.

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