UK firms still rely on manual finance admin, study

Finexer has published research suggesting many UK businesses still rely heavily on manual finance administration. The study found that only 10% of organisations report highly automated banking and payment workflows across most processes.

The findings are based on a survey of 418 senior leaders at UK organisations with 10 to 500 employees across sectors including accounting, financial management, FinTech and B2B software.

Manual work remains common in payment reconciliation and banking administration. Nearly one in five respondents said their organisations still depend mainly on manual processes to match bank transactions and payments with invoices, customers, cases or internal records, while 45% use a mix of manual and automated methods.

The research also pointed to a significant time cost for finance teams. Almost a quarter of finance leaders surveyed said their organisation can lose 20 to 29 hours each month to manual bank and payment administration, while 15% said the total can reach 39 hours a month.

These tasks include collecting bank information, checking whether payments have arrived, matching payments to internal records, and re-entering banking and payment data into systems.

Automation gap

The figures suggest that investment in financial software has not eliminated routine manual work for many businesses. Instead, finance teams are still covering operational gaps between banking systems and internal software through manual checks, rekeying and reconciliations.

The survey covered businesses in accounting and bookkeeping, payroll and HR, ERP and financial management, legal, property, lettings and PropTech, utilities, FinTech and B2B SaaS. The results were weighted to reflect the wider UK business population.

One issue the study highlights is the complexity of connecting banking data with the finance systems mid-sized organisations already use. Businesses can face technical integration work, regulatory requirements and the constraints of older infrastructure, leaving staff to bridge the gaps manually.

This matters because finance leaders are under pressure to gain a clearer, faster view of cash movements, incoming payments and reconciled accounts. Delays from manual administration can slow how quickly teams confirm receipts, update records, and produce up-to-date financial information.

"Losing several days every month to checking payments, matching transactions and re-entering banking data shouldn't be considered a normal cost of doing business. Yet these findings suggest manual finance admin remains embedded in UK organisations. UK businesses have invested in automating almost every part of their operations, and yet finance processes are still being held together by manual checks and workarounds. As businesses demand faster payments and real-time financial visibility, the infrastructure underneath their finance systems has to catch up," Ravi Ranjan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Finexer, said.

Open Banking role

The findings form part of a wider examination of how businesses handle Open Banking data and payments automation. Finexer describes Open Banking as a way for financial platforms to connect banking data and account-to-account payments directly into the systems businesses already use.

Finexer is an FCA-authorised Open Banking infrastructure provider focused on mid-market B2B platforms. Its services cover payments, financial data and verification through a single application programming interface.

While the research focuses on workflow automation, it also reflects a broader challenge for businesses trying to modernise financial operations without replacing existing core systems. Many organisations appear to have digitised parts of finance while leaving bank data collection, payment confirmation and reconciliation partly dependent on human intervention.

That leaves a wide gap between businesses with extensive automation and those still relying on manual routines. With only one in ten respondents reporting highly automated workflows across most banking and payment processes, the study indicates that full automation remains uncommon among the small and mid-sized organisations surveyed.

Ranjan added: "The problem isn't that the technology doesn't exist; it's that too many businesses are still connecting modern finance systems through processes that rely on people to fill the gaps. As expectations move towards real-time financial visibility, those gaps become increasingly difficult to justify. Automating the movement and reconciliation of financial data gives finance teams that time back to focus on work that actually requires their expertise."