Nearly three-quarters (71 percent) of corporate finance professionals do not feel their teams’ platforms and tools are as strong as other departments, according to insights published in a new report from Material, commissioned by Teampay, the all-in-one purchasing platform. 93 percent want to create more efficiencies within the finance department.
Released at Teampay’s Agile Finance Summit on June 16, 2022, the second annual report from Teampay and Material, “Beyond the Balance Sheet,” sheds light on the pain points of 500+ finance professionals Teampay and Material jointly studied. Amid a continued labor shortage and the dramatic shift to hybrid work, this year’s report found consistent or heightened dissatisfaction when compared to last year.
In addition to finance professionals, Material also surveyed more than 1,000 knowledge workers to better understand their relationship with the finance department. More than three in four (76 percent) knowledge workers believe their relationship with their finance department would improve if their company were to implement a new way to manage purchasing, expense, and procurement processes.
“Enabling finance teams to create human-centered finance processes is core to Teampay’s mission,” said Andrew Hoag, Founder and CEO of Teampay. “This report pinpoints inefficiencies and frustrations with outdated processes, identifying opportunities where finance leaders can make a real impact to the business. This is particularly critical in today’s challenging hiring climate. By understanding these challenges, we can enact meaningful change for organizations by providing finance departments and employees with the intuitive tools and processes they need to be successful.”
Additional Key Findings Include:
Employees are spending more than ever before, resulting in a variety of challenges for finance departments:- 38 percent of financial professionals claim more employees are using their personal credit cards for work expenses than ever before, paying out an average of $67,060/month in expenses made on employees’ personal credit cards per company—double the amount reported in 2021 ($32,210/month). Using personal cards means the employees can use the rewards for personal purposes, which also means the employers lose the benefits from the rewards.
- Nearly three in four finance professionals (72 percent) say their company experiences purchases that are made outside of policy, with an average of $116,560 per company in out-of-policy spend this year—a 37.16 percent increase from the average reported in 2021.
- Each month, finance teams spend an average of seven full work days monitoring and resolving issues caused by inefficient systems.
- Processing expense reports (72 percent) is one of finance professionals’ most frustrating responsibilities; similarly, the majority (71 percent) believe submitting expense reports is one of employees’ biggest workplace frustrations.
- 80 percent of finance professionals say their company’s current process for submitting expense reports is not as efficient as it should be.
- Month-end close consumes an average of 43.33 finance team hours each month; still more than one in three (38 percent of finance professionals are “not very confident” month-end numbers are 100% accurate).
- 32 percent would give up one week Pay-Time-Off (PTO) annually for the rest of their career and 22 percent would take a pay cut to never have to experience the frustrations of expense reports again
Teampay helps high-growth companies streamline the purchasing process across virtual cards, physical cards, invoices and reimbursements. The only purchasing software designed with employees in mind, Teampay’s automated workflows empower employees to quickly buy what they need while staying in policy. The platform issues secure payment methods with built-in controls and reconciles transactions into the customer’s accounting system in real time. This modern approach to purchasing eliminates unauthorized and out-of-policy spending, provides full visibility for finance and helps build better relationships between finance and employees. Teampay was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in New York City.
