July 2022
Featured in this insight: Financial services
Half of finance professionals say lack of automation is costing them money each month: A survey of companies with between 50–3,000 employees has revealed that almost half of the finance and accounting professionals polled believe that a lack of automation is costing them time and money every month.
The survey by Airbase polled 201 respondents who work in finance or accounting, also revealing that the vast majority (97%) believe they waste time chasing invoice details every month. The vast majority (85%) said they want better visibility, control and automation over employee spending.
Also revealed by the survey was that 54% of finance professionals are not privy to what employees are spending money on until after purchases have been made, with 17% saying they wait for credit card statements or wait for books to be closed until they see any purchases made. Nine out of ten said that they would like to see better visibility of company expenditure in real time, while almost two-thirds believe that the current lack of control over spending with have a negative impact on their company's growth (65%).
When asked where they would like to see more visibility and control, the top answer give was corporate credit cards (58%), followed by employee expense reimbursements (51%), purchase orders (46%) and paying bills (46%). Other areas cited included software subscriptions (42%) and un-budgeted purchases (37%).
The research found that finance professionals believe that automation would lead to better business success, with more than three-quarters (78%) believing it will have a positive impact on growth.
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