Over a fifth (22%) of finance bosses admit they are working with out-of-date accounting software, while 16% said their current systems do not allow them to use early payment discounts.
Research by Opinium for Barclaycard also found that two-fifths of business (40%) have not upgraded their accounting software in the past five years, citing ‘resistance to change’ as one of the main reasons.
Many suppliers now provide preagreed discounts for paying before the standard terms, a model that saves companies £14.4bn a year, says Barclaycard modelling. That means these outdated accounting systems could be preventing UK firms from taking advantage of early payment discounts – costing them £6.7bn a year.
When asked how existing systems could be improved, more than four in 10 (44%) would like more automation, and nearly a third said they would like to add functionality that automatically matches supplier invoices against purchase orders. One way for a business to achieve this is to integrate their payment solution directly into their procurement platform. This could save finance teams significant time and efforts, helping them pay suppliers more quickly, and ultimately capitalise on early payment
