Abstract Essence LtdFor UK recruitment agencies

Friday, 4:52pm. “Just following up on invoice #1042…”

You've written that email. A free, 48-hour Late-Payer Diagnostic: one page showing what overdue invoices actually cost your agency — and the three most worth recovering this month.

Get the free diagnostic

No call. Nothing to install. Five agency slots this month.

You know the email. Polite. Slightly apologetic. Third one this month to the same finance inbox. You hit send, close the laptop — and the money stays exactly where it was: on someone else’s balance sheet.

The emails feel like doing something. They’re the cheapest thing a late payer could hope you’d do.

Invoice#1042
To — Client A (PLC) Placement fee · Terms — 30 days
£7,400
Issued — Day 0Payable on terms
Average owed to a UK SME in unpaid invoices, right now£66,770
Time a typical affected business spends chasing, per year86 hrs
UK businesses closed by late payment, every day38

Bibby Financial Services SME Confidence Tracker, 2026 · Small Business Commissioner · UK Government late-payment research

The squeeze

Recruitment gets the worst of it

You pay contractors every Friday, whatever happens. Your clients pay in 45, 60, sometimes 90 days. Somebody funds those weeks: a factoring company, for a slice of your turnover; a credit controller’s salary; or you — your overdraft, your margin, your Friday afternoons.

None of those is getting paid for work you already did. It’s paying a second time for it.

Day 61 · statutory interest accruing — £50.28 and counting

The offer, plainly

One page. 48 hours. Free.

  • What you get: one page — your total past terms, what carrying it costs, and the three invoices most worth recovering this month, with the reasons.
  • What it costs: nothing. Five agency slots this month; that’s the only catch.
  • What I need: your aged-debtors export — Xero, Sage, QuickBooks, or rough totals. Two minutes of your time. Your numbers stay between us.
  • What happens after: the page is in your inbox within 48 hours, and you can stop there. No call follows.

Get the free diagnostic

Who’s asking: Marcin Sobczak, Abstract Essence Ltd · info@abstractessence.com · LinkedIn

Next Friday, 4:52pm, could be quiet.

Day 61 is not the end of this story.

Day 61 is not the end of this story.