2026 Vendor Payment Report: What 400+ Vendors Told Us About Getting Paid

Vendors finish the job. Then a second job starts: chasing the invoice, resubmitting paperwork, and waiting to find out when the money actually shows up. We wanted to know how big that second job has become, so VendorAccess surveyed 417 small and mid-sized vendors across construction, property improvement, janitorial, security, and facility maintenance about how they get paid, manage portals, and stay compliant.

Six themes came out of the data, and all six point the same direction. 51.6% of vendors name late payment as their single biggest problem getting paid, more than double any other complaint. And even when payment isn't the holdup, the paperwork is: vendors juggling just one or two portals a month still lose 2 to 10 hours a week to logins, status checks, and resubmissions.

This is the first article built on the 2026 vendor payment and portal report.

Who we surveyed

Respondents skew toward construction and contracting, the largest slice of the vendor economy and the segment most exposed to payment friction. Most run lean: 64% operate with 25 or fewer employees, and 30% bring in under $250K a year. Responses cluster in Texas, Florida, and California, which together account for about a quarter of the sample.

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That profile matters. Operators this size don't have a finance department to absorb a slow-paying client or an extra portal login. They feel every delay directly, in cash flow and in hours they don't have.

Six themes, one story

The survey covered payment methods, portal usage, admin hours, compliance load, tooling, and AI adoption. Six different topics, one thread: vendors finish the work, then spend real time and money fighting to get paid and stay compliant. Here's what the data says, theme by theme.

1. Late payment is the top problem, in every segment

Ask vendors what makes getting paid difficult, and 51.6% land on the same answer: clients pay late against the agreed terms. That's more than double the next issue, processing fees, at 22.1%. Disputes over scope or pricing (18.9%) and rejected invoices that require resubmission (18.5%) round out the top four, and all four sit in the same place: between the invoice going out and the deposit landing.

"I wish we could simply get paid faster."

-Anonymous survey respondent

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Late payment isn't a paperwork problem vendors can fix with a better filing system. It's structural: a vendor cannot force a client to pay on time. Roughly 1 in 6 wait 31 days or longer, and for an operator running lean, that gap threatens payroll.

2. Negotiating payment terms is the hardest part of onboarding a new client

Before a vendor even sends an invoice, they have to survive onboarding. Nearly a third, 29%, say negotiating payment terms or pricing is the most painful part, ahead of filing paperwork and compliance docs (24%), long delays before the first invoice is paid (13.9%), and training a team on a new client's processes (13.2%). Learning yet another portal ranks last, at 7.9%. The friction isn't the software. It's the terms.

3. Fewer portals doesn't mean less administrative work

It's tempting to assume fewer logins means less overhead. The data says otherwise. 45.6% of vendors log into just one or two portals a month, but more than 60% still lose 2 to 10 hours a week to portal administration: logins, invoice checks, and compliance paperwork. Vendors managing six or more portals lose even more, with 16.6% spending 11 or more hours a week on admin alone. And 83.7% pay some kind of fee just to use a portal to get paid.

"Some portals cost a percentage of the contract. I wish this cost would be removed."

-Construction vendor, 26 to 50 employees

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Each new client portal adds time whether or not it adds volume. For a vendor scaling fast, that cost builds before anyone notices it.

4. Most vendors still haven't standardized their back office

One tool dominates: 58.5% of vendors run on QuickBooks, nearly three times the next closest platform, Stripe/Square, at 16.5%. QuickBooks was never built to manage multi-client portals or compliance documents, and 26.1% of vendors still run on pen, paper, or spreadsheets. AI is starting to fill some of that gap. 26.9% now use it to generate or send invoices and 23.3% use it to schedule jobs, but 24.9% have no plans to adopt it at all.

"I would find a platform that could do all three processes so I don't have to learn multiple applications."

-Construction vendor, 51 to 100 employees

5. Compliance paperwork is a hidden, recurring drain

Only about a quarter of vendors, 25.7%, spend under an hour a month keeping COIs, W-9s, licenses, and renewals current. On the other end, nearly 12% spend 9 or more hours a month on the same paperwork. It isn't a one-time cost. It resets every month, for every client, whether a vendor manages one portal or twenty.

6. Roughly 1 in 6 vendors wait 31 or more days to get paid

Most vendors, 57.1%, are paid within 15 days of sending an invoice. But 17% wait 31 to 90 days, and for a vendor without a financial cushion, a 45-day wait isn't an inconvenience. It's a cash-flow crisis. Company size compounds the problem here: bigger jobs bring more layers of client approval, and each layer adds days. We'll dig into that pattern in a later post.

What the data means for vendors

Put together, these six themes point to four fixable problems, not one.

Payment acceleration. With 51.6% naming late payment as their top issue and 17% waiting a month or more, anything that shortens the gap between finished work and cash in hand, whether that's early-pay options, faster approval routing, or real-time invoice status, addresses the pain vendors feel first.

Compliance automation. Nearly 12% of vendors spend 9 or more hours a month on COIs, W-9s, and license renewals. Centralizing that paperwork removes a tax on time most vendors don't notice until they add it up.

Portal consolidation. The vendors managing the most portals lose the most time and money to it. A single layer across clients cuts the logins, resubmissions, and reconciliation that eat 2 to 10 hours a week for most vendors, and more for the busiest ones.

Modernizing the holdouts. 26.1% of vendors still run on pen, paper, or spreadsheets. They aren't resistant to better tools. They're underserved by them, and that's real opportunity for whoever builds something they'll actually use.

This is the gap VendorAccess was built to close: one place to manage portals, payments, and compliance instead of a different login and a different paper trail for every client.

More from this study

This recap is the hub. Over the next several weeks, we'll publish deeper dives into each theme, starting with the true cost of late payment and why the hardest part of onboarding isn't the paperwork.

Read the full 2026 vendor payment & portal report.

Methodology

This report is based on an independent survey of 417 small and mid-sized vendors, fielded through the Centiment research panel between June 26 and 30, 2026. Respondents operate across construction and contracting, property improvement and renovation, janitorial and cleaning, security and safety, and facility maintenance and supply. Some questions allowed multiple selections, so percentages in those cases reflect the share of all respondents, and totals may exceed 100%.