Tide has announced it will launch a new invoice assistant for small businesses later this month.

The feature will enable companies to automatically chase and match invoices, insure against non-payment, set up direct debits and be notified when they are paid.

Research from the UK-based financial platform found that smaller business owners currently waste one and a half hours every day on chasing invoices. According to Tide, small companies have on average £8,500 owed to them in late payments at any one time.

It also found that its members spend three to four hours per week on creating invoices and managing expenses on spreadsheets.

The new invoice assistant aims to address some of these issues and will feature automatic invoice chasing - automated reminder emails for unpaid invoices, automatic invoice matching - notifications sent as soon as you are paid, payments automatically linked to invoices for easy bookkeeping, invoice direct Debits – which means businesses get paid automatically as soon as the invoice is due, and invoice protection.

“The Tide Invoice Assistant tackles a number of pain points experienced by small businesses - most importantly, automating manual and time consuming processes and giving reassurance that they will be paid promptly,” said Alastair Travis, vice president of business services, Tide. “The automatic chasing feature is a particularly important addition the Tide platform, with small business owners often feeling uncomfortable chasing their clients for payment, an automated email allows a degree separation from the personal relationship and helps keep cashflow on track.”

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