Lost revenue, drained productivity, errors galore – manual financial processes are bleeding companies dry. Recent research shows that companies lose over 25% of their revenues annually due to inefficient manual invoicing, collection, reconciliation, and reporting processes. Similarly, IDC International estimates that human error costs businesses in the U.S. and U.K. £315 per employee per year or $18 billion. The losses compound even more given the labor-intensive nature of these outdated modes of managing finances, with over 30% of total finance staff time spent on manually tracking customer payments and receivables. Yet, many companies still rely on emails, spreadsheets, and legacy systems rather than modern automation. The verdict is clear: outdated manual processes for critical financial operations are sapping companies of substantial time and money. The solution lies in embracing innovative financial automation technologies.
The Tangible Financial Impact of Manual Processes
If you’ve not automated your financial operations as a business owner, you obviously do not understand what it’s truly costing you. And yes, it’s a lot more than you think.
The hard numbers reveal just how heavily manual financial systems drain companies through both direct costs and lost revenue opportunities. In 2020, the global economy lost $118 billion to failed payments and poor payment operations. On average, personnel in the accounts payable departments of B2B businesses spend 30% of their time responding to questions and sorting through numerous documents – two tasks that represent only a part of the burden of manual payment processes.
Nearly 65% of businesses stated that they spend a daunting 14 hours per week on administrative tasks related to collecting payments. Similarly, many companies also experience cash flow issues from unpaid invoices due to a lack of automation in collections. Additionally, employees make accidental errors in expense reports, billing details, or recorded transactions when entering data manually across multiple finance systems. These mistakes lead to incorrect reporting and analytics to the tune of millions in losses for larger corporations. Beyond errors, manually tracking transactions across banking, billing, expenses, and accounting prevents finance leaders from accessing real-time financial insights. Consequently, companies miss out on opportunities to efficiently allocate resources and capital for growth initiatives.
So what’s the solution when your company’s pocket is heavily bleeding due to manual processes?
Embrace technology for Frictionless Finance
Relying on manual processes for critical finance functions is no longer an option in today’s data-driven business landscape. The costs in terms of lost revenue, wasted resources, and limited financial visibility are simply too steep. The good news is that new fintech solutions can entirely automate and streamline invoicing, payment collection, spend management, and accounting reconciliation. Software solutions like Duplo seamlessly integrate with your existing systems to digitize your workflows, apply automation, eliminate errors, and provide total transparency through dashboards and rich analytics. By leveraging fintech to remove all the friction in finance operations, businesses can boost productivity, grow revenue, optimize cash flow, and gain better insights for strategic initiatives.
The Bottom Line
The verdict is clear: manual financial systems have no place in modern business. Between revenue leakage, high labor costs, and mounting errors, outdated processes bleed companies dry. The only recourse is to transition to new fintech solutions that automate finance workflows through integrations, analytics, and error-proof automation. Tools like Duplo enable frictionless financial operations and the time for that transition is now.
About Duplo
Duplo is a leading fintech company in Nigeria, committed to transforming financial operations for Nigerian businesses. Duplo offer a full suite of products to simplify back-end processes for finance and accounting teams, including automated accounts payables and receivables, spend management, and payment. To learn more about Duplo, visit their website www.tryduplo.com.
