Taking Stock - We know where you live

Faithful readers of Accountancy Age and Taking Stock will appreciate that the spirit behind the Late Payment Act is held very dear by journalists at our august organ.

Late payers are rightly held by us (and others) to be scoundrels: they prevent businesses large and small from getting on with what they do best – clogging up the time of the fine people in finance departments everywhere and distorting the outcomes of honourable projects and ventures.

And we believed it to be a cause in which we could feel confident our readers were behind us all the way.

Imagine our surprise therefore to learn a larger firm of accountants has yet to pay up for its tables at last year’s Accountancy Age Awards for Excellence function.

There we all were together, enjoying fine wine, fine company in a setting with fine fossils, applauding achievers and celebrating the abilities and professionalism of financial experts.

So it is with disappointment, we feel we must say: ‘Late payers, we know where you live’.