Late delivery tends to be seen as mainly a reputational problem — "the customer gets annoyed" — but it also carries a direct, measurable financial cost that is rarely quantified when weighing up the overall impact.
Explicit contractual penalties
Some contracts set out financial penalties for each day beyond the agreed date. Where they exist, this cost is the easiest to quantify, but it is only the visible tip of a wider cost extending beyond the clauses written into the contract.
Discounts granted to make amends
Even without a contractual penalty, it is common to give an informal discount to smooth over a delay — a real cost that erodes the job's margin but is rarely recorded explicitly as a consequence of the delay itself.
The invisible cost: work you never get
The hardest cost to quantify, and probably the most significant over time, is the loss of trust that leads a customer not to return, or to spread their orders across several suppliers to reduce risk. That cost appears on no invoice, but shows up quietly in the revenue of the months and years that follow.