Regardless of the fast rise of AI know-how in finance, almost a fifth of UK finance decision-makers nonetheless depend on Excel as their major instrument for processing invoices, a Yooz report has revealed.
The 2024 Yooz State of Automation in Finance survey shares insights from 1,550 finance and procurement professionals working in organisations throughout the US, UK, France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, UAE and South Africa.
It’s the fourth yr working that Yooz, a cloud-based purchase-to-pay (P2P) automation supplier, has performed its analysis to achieve insights into the opinions on the challenges in addition to alternatives finance decision-makers face.
The 2024 report reveals finance leaders now including proactive enterprise worth, a shift from 2021’s give attention to pandemic-driven digital transformation, 2022’s expertise shortages, and 2023’s inflation and hybrid work challenges.
Yooz highlights a transparent disparity between finance departments superior of their digital transformation journey and people lagging behind. Mirroring the figures from each 2023 and 2022, the reliance on spreadsheets is without doubt one of the elements contributing to the widespread lack of finance operate effectivity and productiveness.
Nineteen per cent of UK finance decision-makers admitted to utilizing spreadsheets as the highest methodology to course of their accounts payable (AP) invoices.
Embracing automation
The report highlights a rising emphasis on the mixing of AP automation with enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) programs, in addition to the adoption of AI and machine studying to boost knowledge accuracy and operational effectivity. Regardless of the evident advantages, the tempo of automation adoption stays gradual, with solely 28 per cent of finance decision-makers categorising their organisations as superior in digital transformation.
“After a number of years of reactive measures, our 2024 annual analysis confirms that finance decision-makers at the moment are proactively seeking to ship enterprise worth,” stated Laurent Charpentier, CEO of Yooz. “The emphasis on bettering productiveness and acquiring higher info to facilitate knowledgeable decision-making demonstrates a transparent dedication to elevating the strategic function of the finance division inside the enterprise.
“Finance decision-makers who don’t shrink back from the evolution of AI of their departments shall be in a primary place to make knowledgeable choices shortly and add actual company worth.”
In response to Yooz, the first goals for automating the AP course of are decreasing errors (37 per cent), bettering monetary management and forecast accuracy (33 per cent), and decreasing prices (32 per cent).
Crucial elements when evaluating automated AP options are quick implementation and minimal coaching necessities (31 per cent), highly effective and correct knowledge extraction (29 per cent), and user-friendly platforms (28 per cent).
