Late payments in France: 12.3 days on average, but 19.6 at groups with over 1,000 staff
In an interview with Décision Achats (28 September 2026), Clément Carrier, CEO of Aria, reads Altares' figures: micro-businesses pay 11.7 days late, SMEs 11.1, and nearly one company in two now pays on the due date. His most useful test fits in one sentence: if a reminder unblocks the invoice, it was an incident; if not, it was a choice.
According to Altares, quoted in the interview, the average payment delay fell to 12.3 days, from 14.1 a year earlier, and 49.7% of companies now pay on the due date (45.2% a year before). The average hides a size gap: 11.1 days for SMEs with 10 to 49 staff, 11.7 for micro-businesses, 19.6 for companies with over 1,000 staff and 14 for the public sector. Large companies account for about €12bn of the €17bn in late payments, while more than 71,700 business failures had been recorded by the end of August 2026.
For Clément Carrier, much of the delay is not a refusal to pay: it is invoices that never reach approval for payment (no purchase order, a rejected invoice, a dispute nobody settles). For a branch network that bills many small clients every month, that is where a well-made reminder counts: sent on the right date, with the invoice, the payment method and one simple question (“is anything wrong with this invoice?”). An assistant can prepare that first reminder; a person at the branch approves it before it goes out and takes over as soon as the client disputes the invoice or stays silent.
For AppH
- The “incident or choice” test gives automation a precise job: deal quickly and politely with oversights, so the team keeps its time for real disputes.
- Clément Carrier advises tracking the share of invoices paid on the due date rather than the average: a simple indicator a branch network can follow client by client.
Against / the honest limit
- No reminder, automated or not, makes a client pay who has decided to pay late: that case belongs to the team, to late-payment penalties and, if needed, to legal.
- The interviewee runs an invoice-financing company; the figures come from Altares, cover business-to-business payments in France and say nothing about domiciliation specifically.
The most useful line in the interview is an admission: Clément Carrier says he knows of no solid, independent study showing that AI saves “X days” of payment delay. So we don't promise days saved. What we offer is a reminder sent on the right date, approved by someone on your team, and a reply that tells you straight away what kind of delay you are dealing with.
Reviewed by a human at AppH