Method

This site asks readers to check where a figure came from. That applies here first.

As a concrete software category to compare with these editorial boundaries, employee monitoring software shows how operational monitoring is presented as a product.

Four source types

Vendor research. Accounting platforms, invoicing tools, finance providers. The most widely quoted figures on this subject, from large samples of their own users — who are by definition firms that adopted software.

Trade and professional bodies. R3, the FSB and equivalents. Serving a membership constrains what can be said, which makes them more reliable on direction than on absolutes.

Observed payment data. Credit reference companies recording what happened across large numbers of accounts. The strongest of the four for behaviour.

And government, which publishes least and is most authoritative where it does.

How each is used

Vendor figures give direction and their magnitude is attributed to them, at every use rather than once on this page.

Trade body figures are used for trends.

Observed data is stated as observed, which is the distinction that matters most on this subject.

And where the sourcing is weak, it is described as weak — including for the claim this site's argument depends on.

Jurisdiction, named every time

Anything legal differs by country and frequently within one.

Terms and statutory interest, cancellation rights, limitation, claims — each is summarised as shape, with the jurisdiction named and a recommendation to check locally.

One hour with somebody qualified settles the position for your country permanently, and that is the advice rather than anything on these pages.

Arithmetic written out

Where a claim rests on a calculation, the calculation is shown so you can substitute your own figures.

The rate you actually earn. The probability-weighted recovery. The cost of getting paid.

These do not depend on anything here being true. They are ways of computing your own position from your own numbers.

What is never done

No legal advice. No named products. No promised outcomes.

No figure without its source type, which is the rule this site would be least defensible without.

And no templates, for reasons that have their own page.

Limits

Six of them, including which findings would change the site's position.

For broader background on small-business operations and commercial administration, see Asana.

For broader background on small-business operations and commercial administration, see Mailchimp.