Independent research commissioned by Accounts Payable automation and Purchase-to-Payment provider, Yooz, has shown that 97% of UK organisations operate remote/ hybrid working practices. 

Yet nearly half of UK finance leaders (48%) say that remote/hybrid working has had a significant or extreme impact on their ability to process invoices on time.

At a tactical level this presents challenges for finance departments with confidentiality, data security, supervision and training. Overall, finance leaders are adapting to a new way of working and the shift towards remote/ hybrid working practice is here to stay, perhaps with only a few exceptions.

Not convinced? Look at what finance decision makers offer to attract and retain accounting talent. 

Flexible working (49%) and remote working (38%) are the top two measures finance decision makers use to attract and retain staff, far above higher salary bands which is in fourth place at 21% behind offering access to improved or more efficient technology (23%).

These findings are part of Yooz’s third annual State of Automation in Finance report which investigated the opinions of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and finance leaders across nine different countries. 

Commenting on the UK results, Yooz CEO, Laurent Charpentier, said, “We have experienced the biggest shift in the working practices for decades and we shouldn’t underestimate the impact it will have on businesses. Making sure remote workers have access to the latest information is vital if finance departments are going to operate in a hybrid-working world.” 

Time is money and the research goes on to reveal that over a third of finance decision makers (34%) reported that their Account Payable department spends, on average, more than 20 hours a month on invoice processing: the equivalent of spending almost 3 working days a month on managing invoices!

It is no wonder that automation is now recognised as a key tool for modern finance leaders, helping them to manage and streamline the diverse demands of their role. The top three advantages of AP automation for finance leaders are: increased productivity (36%); improved data accuracy (35%); and the ability to use people more flexibly (25%). 

Charpentier concludes, “While organisations seem to be recognising that they can leverage technology to change the way they work, just a quarter of finance leaders see accounts payable automation as a way to use their workforce more flexibly and to help people acquire new skills.”

“Given the skills shortage in finance/ accounting and challenges with talent acquisition, using cutting edge accounts payable software to support a new way of working should be viewed as an opportunity to persuade the other business leaders of the benefits that accounts payable automation can deliver.”

The research has been published in Yooz’s third annual State of Automation in Finance report titled ‘An investigation into how Finance leaders can become drivers for positive change during times of instability’. 

The survey tracks the evolving challenges facing finance teams and assesses the changes from 2021, 2022, and now 2023 - including the progress of digital transformation and the evolution of hybrid working. More than 1,500 financial and accounting decision makers across the UK, USA, France, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, Belgium, the UAE, and Luxembourg took part in the study.