The benchmark: what collecting payment costs, and what collects.io costs instead

2026-09-24

What does it cost a UK business to collect the money it is owed, and how does collects.io compare with hiring someone to do it?

The answer

• One credit controller costs £58,500 a year fully loaded, fixed from the first day, before recruitment, notice and absence cover.
• Collect costs 3.0% of that at 300 invoices a year, 8.6% at 1,000, 18.7% at 2,000 and 32.1% at 3,670.
• On our first live customer's book*, 29 of every 30 actions were done without a person.

What people cost

• Credit controller: £45,000 London salary × 1.30 on-costs = £58,500 a year, £33.43 an hour over 1,750 productive hours.
• Financial controller: £90,000 × 1.30 = £117,000, £66.86 an hour.
• Finance director: £130,000 × 1.30 = £169,000, £96.57 an hour.

Salary sources: Indeed, Robert Walters, BKL, Glassdoor, Morgan McKinley and Robert Half, 2026. On-costs cover employer National Insurance, pension and overhead.

The time a business spends collecting payment

London Economics measured it for the government in July 2025 (Table 14): 75 hours a year for a micro business, 138 small, 324 medium, 1,084 large. At £33.43 an hour that is £2,507, £4,613, £10,831 and £36,237 a year.

Collect against one new credit controller

• 300 invoices a year: Collect £1,743 — 3.0% of one hire
• 1,000: £5,033 — 8.6%
• 2,000: £10,913 — 18.7%
• 3,670: £18,755.50 — 32.1%

Collect is shown as if we collected every invoice, so it is the most Collect can cost at each volume. A hire is fixed whether or not cash comes in; Collect's per-invoice fee is charged only on invoices we collect, with no minimum fee and nothing to recruit or serve notice on.

How much of the work needs a person

• collects.io, first live customer*, 30 days: 1,174 actions without a person, 41 with one — 29 : 1
• Salesforce Agentforce (SEC filing, 2025): 2% escalated to a human — 49 : 1
• Intercom Fin (2026): 76% resolved — about 3 : 1
• Klarna (2024): two-thirds of chats — 2 : 1
• Vic.ai, accounts payable (2025): 78% with no human input — about 3.5 : 1
• Ardent Partners, accounts payable best-in-class (2025): 51% straight through — about 1 : 1

On that book, 138 hours a year × 96.6% is 133 hours returned — £4,456 a year, 7.6% of one credit controller.

*Our first live customer, Say Digital Ltd (MOHARA), is also our build partner.

What this does not claim

The credit controller cost is a London benchmark; outside London salaries are usually lower. We do not promise a headcount cut. The 29 : 1 is measured on one live book over 30 days.

The full tables and every sum check are in our benchmark paper, on the Risk management & ROI page. The return on the fee is worked out separately, in our customer value paper.