75% of companies are experiencing late payments

The 23rd annual survey by the Association Française des Credit Managers et Conseils (AFDCC), published on April 2, 2026, paints an unambiguous picture of the financial health of French businesses.

Late payments are no longer a temporary anomaly — they have become the norm. Conducted among 1,000 companies between November 2025 and February 2026, predominantly mid-sized and large corporates, the latest AFDCC survey reveals that 75% of them are experiencing an increase in late payments, compared to 61% the previous year. For 35% of respondents, these delays now exceed 15 days, a threshold the AFDCC describes as "worrying."

DSO: the barometer of a treasury under pressure

DSO (Days Sales Outstanding) crystallises this pressure. 45% of companies are seeing this ratio rise, while only 20% manage to reduce it. In a context where access to financing is tightening and margins are eroding, paying an invoice has become "an economic decision in its own right rather than a simple administrative process." In other words: your clients choose when they pay you — and increasingly, they choose late.

What we see on the ground confirms it: 57% of companies are facing a rise in payment plan requests, and 31% an increase in amicable recovery procedures. Late payment penalties provided for by law remain almost systematically unenforced, with companies preferring to protect the commercial relationship rather than engage in a battle they rarely win.

A domino effect destabilising the entire ecosystem

Late payments do not stay confined to the client-supplier relationship. They spread: around 30% of companies admit to delaying their own payments because they themselves are not paid on time. One in four European business failures involves liquidity problems directly linked to customer payment defaults. Unsurprisingly, 59% of credit managers now anticipate a surge in business failures in 2026.

SMEs absorb a pressure that larger organisations can more easily withstand — especially since large companies are often the first to impose extended payment terms on their suppliers. The operational burden compounds the financial strain: on average, finance teams spend between 10 and 20 hours per week on manual collection tasks.

A slight improvement in the public sector

The public sector, long considered the worst offender, is showing some signs of improvement. Only 31% of companies still report an increase in public payment delays, down from 48% the previous year, and 66% now observe stability. Real progress, but partial — the situation of public hospitals remains a serious concern for their suppliers.

The credit manager: the treasury's new strategic driver

Faced with this crisis, the credit manager role is reinventing itself. 67% of professionals see their function evolving toward cash management, and 55% toward Order-to-Cash management. Collections and customer risk prevention are emerging as the absolute priorities for 2026.

The technological response is accelerating: 67% of companies have already chosen their e-invoicing platform, and 73% have set up a dedicated working group. But when it comes to AI applied to collections, the gap remains significant — half of companies have not yet adopted it. Yet this is precisely where the most meaningful gains are to be made.

Cleavr: the AI that actually does the work

This is why we built Cleavr. Connected directly to invoicing tools, Cleavr's AI autonomously manages the entire Order-to-Cash cycle — from day 1 after invoicing through to cash collection: reminders, calls, response handling, payment tracking, credit note management, dispute resolution, and debt recovery.

Where half of the companies have not yet taken the leap, Cleavr enables a fully AI-driven accounts receivable management in 2 days. Finance teams stop being data entry operators and become true client relationship managers.

Results observed with our clients:
- 80% fewer manual tasks
+ 40% cash flow
- 37% reduction in DSO

Start collecting automatically with Cleavr