The Cloud-based Purchase-to-Pay (P2P) automation software company, Yooz has commissioned the first edition of their global report based on a survey of over 1,000 Finance and Accounting decision-makers across eight countries (US, France, UK, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and Belgium).

“The State of Automation in Finance 2021” report takes stock of Accounting and Finance practices and identifies the expectations, fears, and vision of these decision-makers for 2022, as well as the technologies that will enable them to move into automation now.

The key findings of the Yooz report include:

Covid Impact on Business/Operations

• As a result of the Covid-19 health crisis, 50% of finance leaders think it will take at least a year, if ever, to recover from its effects.
• 80% of companies confirm the pandemic has affected their ability to process invoices on time (revealing the need for automation).
  • Accounts Payable departments spend 32 hours on average managing vendor invoices.
  • 11% of companies are spending more than 100+ hours managing vendor invoices per month; 20% of which are large enterprises (500+ employees).

Covid Recovery and Automation

• US businesses believe it will take roughly 13 months to financially recover from the effects of Covid-19.
• 43% of respondents said the pandemic had an extreme impact on their ability to process an invoice on time.
  • Out of that group, only 18% have adopted fully automated invoice processing, and 23% are fully prepared for electronic invoicing.
  • Companies (31%) with AP Automation solutions during the pandemic anticipated recovery more quickly, within 6 months, compared to just 23% of those without it.

Top Priorities Moving Forward

• Cybersecurity (36%) and Cloud/Software-as-a-Service systems (30%) are top areas of investment for the year ahead.

The results of “The State of Automation in Finance 2021” report were recently dissected further during a webinar with accounts payable experts Mark Brousseau, President of Brousseau & Associates, and Nimia Amaya, Senior Marketing Director, Americas of Yooz.

The webinar added ongoing dialog around the true impact Covid has had on the financial industry, and how it changed the top priorities for finance leaders globally.