43% of finance and accounting firms have reduced expenses, Yooz finds

Some 43% of financial and accounting businesses have reduced expenses to minimise the impact of inflation and tighter monetary conditions on the business, according to Yooz’s third annual investigation into the state of automation in finance. 

The investigation gleaned data from more than 1,500 financial and accounting decision makers across the UK, USA, France, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, Belgium, UAE, and Luxembourg took part in the study, which tracks the evolving challenges facing finance teams from 2021 to date. 

This also includes the progress of digital transformation and the evolution of hybrid working. 

The results also highlighted that flexible working (49%) and remote working (38%) are the top two measures organisations use to retain and attract finance talent. 

Meanwhile, it was found that just under a third of accounts payable departments (30%) spend, on average, over 20 hours a month on invoice processing, which is the equivalent of spending almost 3 business days a month on managing invoices. 

Laurent Charpentier, CEO of Yooz, said: “Our annual research over the past three years continues to provide a fascinating insight into the way finance departments have had to constantly adapt to address the most challenging issues of a generation. 

“Finance leaders are increasingly at the centre of any business’ resilience strategy, providing the essential expertise and confidence required to not only manage economic crises, but also drive innovation and growth.”

He added: “Automation is now viewed as a key tool for modern finance leaders to manage the diverse demands of their role. Effective automation allows teams to concentrate on added value activity and to explore new technology such as AI and data visualisation.”

The award-winning cloud-based Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) automation provider conducts this annual research to gain insights into the opinions, challenges, and opportunities that chief financial officers (CFOs) and finance leaders are facing. In 2023, these range from talent shortages, rising inflation, potential recessions, post-Covid recovery and future-proofing to the status of electronic invoicing, and the deployment of the latest technologies in accounting.