The increase in business costs in Spain has increased by 24% due to inflation, according to CEPYME. To this must be added a volatile market that requires companies to be more agile, Digitizing financial processes is crucial to saving and differentiating.
However, in Spain, companies are not taking advantage of this opportunity, which leads them to to lose up to €120,000 per year due to lack of digitization. This is indicated by the report that Payhawk, the comprehensive solution for the management of expense notes, company cards, invoices and payments, has prepared to know the processes and financial forecasts of companies in the country.
The report ‘Financial management in Spanish companies: forecasts, expenses and trends‘ by Payhawk analyzes how companies in our country are working to adapt their business plans to the economic and market situation. A task for which technology can be key.
Specifically, 86% of the financiers surveyed believe that digitizing the operations of the financial and accounting area would reduce costs in Spanish companies. Data that shows the profound change in mentality that financial departments are experiencing, for which adopting technological solutions has become essential. Additionally, half (51%) They believe that they could save between €30,000 and €120,000 per yearwhile 2 out of 10 raise this figure above 120,000 euros per year.
In fact, according to the report, the level of digitization of the financial area continues to be medium. Thus, only 8% of financiers consider that these processes are 100% digitized in their company and, in 27% of cases, they are not even halfway done, which significantly affects the strategic potential of their professionals – 42% dedicate 25-50% of their working day to purely operational tasks; 40%, more than half of their time, and 12%, more than three quarters of it.
Optimization of daily work
Along the same lines, 88% of the financiers surveyed consider that their daily work could be optimized thanks to digital technologies. In this way, they would gain work time that they could dedicate to tasks that would allow the company to face current economic challenges more effectively, such as process optimization (42%); financial training for the workforce (33%); risk analysis (33%), budget planning (32%), business planning and strategy (32%) or forecasting and analysis of the future of the business (32%).
Respondents also mention cost savings plans and process auditing (27%); financial advice to the workforce (22%); consultancy to other departments, for example, on issues of optimization of resources (21%); search for new business avenues (20%); participation in the strategy for the development of professional careers for employees and attracting new profiles (20%) and search for investors and/or financing channels (17%), among the tasks that add value to the company.
“The financial professionals they have the knowledge and experience to drive the success of their organizations. However, for this, it is essential that they move from a tactical role to a strategic one that allows them to advise and collaborate with the rest of the organization”, says Iñigo Aguirre, head of the Payhawk business in Spain. “To achieve this, it is necessary to free them from the most routine tasks. The key to this freedom is digital technologies and its key facilitator, having the professional support of a trusted technology partner.”
