Business health check: what are late payments really costing you?

Updated 6 August 2026 · By the Badger team

Late payments hurt — a tight week, a bill you juggle, an overdraft you shouldn't need. Type a few numbers in below and this page tells you two things: how healthy your invoicing is right now, and how many invoices Badger needs to collect before it has paid for itself.

Part one: the health check

You need three numbers from your accounting software: what you invoice in a normal month, what's unpaid right now, and how much of that is late. The calculator turns them into your debtor days — the number of days customers take to pay you, on average — and gives you a straight answer.

How the verdict works

No black box — here's the whole recipe:

• Debtor days = unpaid invoices ÷ monthly invoicing × 30. In plain English: how many days your customers take to pay you, on average.
• Healthy — customers pay within about a week of your terms, and less than 15% of what you're owed is late.
• Needs a watch — payments run one to three weeks late, or 15–35% of what you're owed is late. Not a crisis, but your customers are learning that your due dates are soft.
• At risk — payments run more than three weeks late, or over a third of what you're owed is late. Your customers are sitting on your money — and the older an invoice gets, the harder it is to collect.

Part two: when does Badger pay for itself?

Badger costs A$129 a month + GST (you claim the GST back at BAS time). So the question is small: how many invoices is A$129 in your business?

Keeping it honest

We won't promise a magic percentage — nobody can know your book. The claim is smaller and easier to believe: invoices that get chased get paid more often, and sooner, than invoices that don't. If your average invoice is over A$129, then one invoice a month that gets paid because Badger chased it covers the whole subscription. The hours you get back come on top — and for most businesses those hours alone are worth more than the fee.

Two honest caveats. If none of your invoices ever run late, you don't need Badger. And software can't fix a customer who truly can't pay — for those, see what to do when a customer won't pay.

If your score is bad

1. Fix the start. Shorter payment terms, agreed before the work, and deposits for new customers.
2. Chase early, every time. Send the first reminder within days of the due date, then keep going with a steady escalation ladder. A regular rhythm beats one angry email.
3. Make it someone's job. Badger, or a very disciplined human — someone has to work the list every day. That's the whole difference between healthy books and risky ones.

The calculators run entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent to us or stored. The results are a quick self-check, general information only, not financial advice.