UK Businesses Leave $150B In Payments Unreconciled

More than $150 billion in B2B payments remain unreconciled within U.K. corporate systems, according to new research from YouGov, conducted for FinTech company Soldo.

The data, covered by FinancialDirector reports, stems from a survey of 4,000 small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that reveal cashflow crunches as they struggle to reconcile payments and efficiently manage spend. Nearly a tenth of SMBs surveyed said 10 percent of monthly spend is unreconciled, and more than a third admitted they must take on burdensome administrative processes to identify and reconcile company spend.

Forty-five percent identified control over company spend as their largest challenge of the year.

“From these survey findings, it is clear that businesses across the U.K. are in need of a better spend management solution,” said Soldo Founder and CEO Carlo Gualandri in a statement. “The time spent on deciding, entrusting and reconciling company expenditure directly leads to lost revenues and reduced productivity.

“Inefficient spend management processes are a huge burden for business owners and employees alike, especially as the business begins to scale,” the executive continued. “By employing the right technology to streamline and fully control company cashflow, U.K. SMEs stand to increase efficiency, save time and money and increase positive transparency amongst staff.”

According to the Soldo report, a fifth of small businesses spend between two and four hours making a single purchase decision, with that timespan increasing as company size grows. Nearly a third said they are willing to leave a portion of company money unreconciled at the end of every month because of how difficult it is to track and categorize spend.

Some businesses are looking toward cards as a way to address some friction in the corporate spending process; half of financial decision makers surveyed said they believe a prepaid company card would be a good way to boost efficiency when employees make purchases with company cash.