A call for big business to stop treating small business like a bank, by paying invoices late

It comes from accounting software company Xero, which tracks payment times using data from its customers.

The data shows small businesses are - on average - paid around nine days late - even on 90 day invoices.

New Zealand Managing Director, Craig Hudson, says cashflow is the biggest killer of small business and the flow-on effect of late payment is far-reaching.

He says we need to be able to put pressure on big business - and suggests a voluntary code such as that which exists in the UK and US, where big business undertakes to pay for services and products within a certain number of days.