Over four in five (82%) UK wholesale CFOs have said that their organisation has been too slow to modernise payments, Corpay has found.

The S&P500 corporate payments company stated that outdated spend management is impacting wholesale firms across the country.

The firm’s latest survey of 300 cross-sector CFOs at companies with £20m+ in turnover found that 72% agree that spend management is still more manual than it should be.

While CFOs are under intensifying pressure to protect margins, many are still relying on outdated approaches to managing business spend, with automation and card-led payments being seen as strategically important.

Corpay said that while finance leaders recognise the importance of digitised, card-led and automated payment solutions, 48% use a mix of manual and automated processes, while 14% say their processes are manual and reactive.

Just 6% have described their processes as “highly automated and well controlled”.

The corporate payments firm said this is an “operational misstep” for the sector, with 79% of CFOs reporting their finance teams spend more than six hours per person, per week on expense, invoice and supplier payment administration, with 20% reporting between 11 and 15 hours.

When asked how they would use 25% to 50% of the reclaimed finance time, business partnering and reporting and analytics were the top responses, within cash flow forecasting, team development and supplier negotiations, tying in third place. Corpay said this highlights the opportunity to redirect capacity towards higher-value activities.

VP product, corporate payments at Corpay, Piero Macari, stated: "What the surveyed CFOs in the wholesale sector are telling us is clear: they are aware of their pain points when it comes to operational efficiencies and expenses and will prioritise solving them this year. By simplifying and modernising their models, CFOs know they will be able to save a wealth of time that they can better invest across other aspects of their business.

"It is increasingly clear that card-led payments with integrated, automated spend management are now critical to driving resilience and growth. Our recently launched Corpay Complete brings accounts payable, domestic and international payments, and corporate card spend into one unified digital platform. It reduces manual processes, strengthens control and provides full visibility across transactions, helping CFOs optimise working capital and time, while reducing administrative complexity."

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