Breaking News
SMEs Send an Invoice Every Minute as Digital Adoption Accelerates Ahead of MTD
UK small businesses are already operating digitally and getting paid faster ahead of major changes under Making Tax Digital, according to new data from fintech ANNA Money.
Data from 70,000 UK SMEs shows that a whopping 464,557 electronic invoices were sent in 2025, an average of one every 68 seconds. If printed out and stacked, the invoices would reach around 46 metres high, roughly the height of a 15-storey building.
Crucially, digital adoption is transforming cash flow. The average time it takes ANNA customers to get paid after sending an invoice has fallen from 33.5 days in 2020 to just 11 days in 2025. The brand puts this down to smart payment links that encourage prompt, easy settlement and AI that chases invoices until they are paid. February was the busiest month for invoicing with 85,211 invoices sent, while December was the quietest with 27,785.
The findings reflect a broader shift among SMEs towards digital tools that reduce admin, improve accuracy and tackle late payment. The Small Business Commissioner, Emma Jones, has repeatedly highlighted late payment as one of the biggest threats to small business survival, making faster invoicing and automated chasing increasingly critical.
With Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment launching for higher earners in April 2026, to support the transition to digital record keeping ANNA is offering free MTD Self Assessment quarterly filings forever (yes, forever!) – no strings attached – to sole traders and landlords. Customers will also get their full MTD Self Assessment, including the final return and ANNA’s Auto Accountant free in the first year (so quarterly filings are prepared automatically and ready to file to HMRC with just a few clicks).
Boris Diakonov, co-founder and co-CEO of ANNA Money, says: “Small businesses are already proving they’re ready for MTD. The data shows they are invoicing digitally, getting paid faster and taking control of cash flow. By offering free MTD quarterly filings forever through ANNA, we’re making sure cost and complexity don’t stand in the way of compliance or growth.”
As the MTD rollout approaches, the data suggests SMEs are not waiting to be forced into digital systems. They are adopting them early and seeing real benefits in speed, certainty and financial resilience.
People In This Post
Companies In This Post
- Bluefin and Basis Theory Partner to Enable Unified Tokenization Across Digital and In-Person Payments Read more
- Invest Bank and AUTON8 Build Partnership to Drive Digital Resilience and Banking Agility Read more
- ING’s AI Roadmap: Platform, People, and Agentic AI Read more
- UK-fintech Provided Over £17.5m in Emergency Wage Advances to More Than 55,000 Employees in the Last Year Read more
- TreviPay Announces AI-Powered Growth Center to Help Enterprises Predict Buyer Behavior and Drive B2B Sales Read more
Invest Bank and AUTON8 Build Partnership to Drive Digital Resilience and Banking Agility
Invest Bank today announced the successful outcomes of its strategic partnership with AUTON8, a global leader in intelligent automation. The collaboration marks a milestone in strengthening regulatory resilience, operational efficiency, and customer-centric agility across both core and digital banking landscapes.
AYU Alternative Investment Network Launches Direct Capital Matching Service
AYU, the global private members' community for family offices and alternative investment funds, is launching AYU Capital, a matching service connecting funds and founders with verified family office investors.
Arab National Bank Leverages Intellect’s eMACH.ai Wholesale Banking Platform to Accelerate Digital Innovation
Arab National Bank (ANB) has implemented Intellect’s eMACH.ai Digital Transaction Banking solution to enhance its digital capabilities
Mortgage Magic™ Launches Integrated Remote KYC to Verify Clients Without the Paperwork
Mortgage Magic has announced the full integration of Electronic ID Verification (e-ID) into its broker workflow
IndusInd Bank Expands Gold Loan Network to 500 Branches Nationwide
IndusInd Bank has announced a significant expansion of its Gold Loan offering to an additional 245 branches, taking the total number of branches providing Gold Loan services to 500 across India. This expansion reinforces the Bank’s commitment to making secured credit more accessible, convenient, and reliable for customers nationwide.
State Bank of Texas Launches New Digital Banking Platform Powered by Alkami
Alkami Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALKT) (“Alkami”), a digital sales and service platform provider for financial institutions in the U.S., today announced that State Bank of Texas (SBT) has successfully gone live on Alkami’s Digital Banking Platform (Platform), delivering a modern and intuitive experience for both retail and business banking customers.
Synechron Partners with Cognition to Bring Autonomous AI Engineering to Global Financial Institutions
Synechron, a leading digital transformation consulting firm, and Cognition today announced a strategic partnership to help global financial institutions modernize critical software faster using AI-assisted engineering.
Bluefin and Basis Theory Partner to Enable Unified Tokenization Across Digital and In-Person Payments
Bluefin, the global leader in payment and data security infrastructure and PCI-validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE), today announced a strategic partnership with Basis Theory, a modern, API-driven tokenization and vaulting platform. Together, the companies enable enterprises to implement a unified token strategy across in-store, call center, online, and backend payment environments without expanding PCI scope or introducing new integration complexity.
Invest Bank and AUTON8 Build Partnership to Drive Digital Resilience and Banking Agility
Invest Bank today announced the successful outcomes of its strategic partnership with AUTON8, a global leader in intelligent automation. The collaboration marks a milestone in strengthening regulatory resilience, operational efficiency, and customer-centric agility across both core and digital banking landscapes.
ING’s AI Roadmap: Platform, People, and Agentic AI
Share this post: Share on LinkedIn Share on X (Twitter) Share on Facebook Share on […]
UK-fintech Provided Over £17.5m in Emergency Wage Advances to More Than 55,000 Employees in the Last Year
PayCaptain, the world’s first B Corp-certified payroll solution, reports a landmark year of growth, with a 73% increase in new customers for 2025 and an average of 70% YoY revenue growth in the last two years. As the cost-of-living crisis deepens, PayCaptain has provided financial agility for 55,000 employees across 260 forward-thinking brands including TGI Fridays, Dishoom, Roadchef, NEOM, Charlie Bigham’s and Monica Vinader dedicated to combining efficient payroll with tools to support the financial health of staff.
TreviPay Announces AI-Powered Growth Center to Help Enterprises Predict Buyer Behavior and Drive B2B Sales
TreviPay, a fully managed B2B payments platform, today announced the availability of the Growth Center, a set of capabilities within the TreviPay Client Portal to help identify buyer growth opportunities more strategically and build stronger, longer-lasting supplier relationships. With its advanced features, the new Growth Center enables businesses to explore buyer needs, spot trends and optimize key steps in the order-to-cash (O2C) process. Integrated into TreviPay’s global payments network, the customizable add-ons will help businesses use their O2C programs to deepen buyer relationships and drive lasting engagement.
AYU Alternative Investment Network Launches Direct Capital Matching Service
AYU, the global private members' community for family offices and alternative investment funds, is launching AYU Capital, a matching service connecting funds and founders with verified family office investors.
Chubb Appoints Scott Henck Global Chief Actuary
Chubb announced that Scott Henck, Executive Vice President and Chief Actuary, North America, has been appointed Senior Vice President, Chubb Group and Chief Actuary