A Sidetrade study, Cash Culture Pulse 2022, revealed the detrimental impact spreadsheets have on a business team’s effectiveness. Firms interviewed from across the UK, Europe, US, Asia and the Middle East, revealed that 42% of finance teams still heavily reliant on spreadsheets reported a high ratio of late payments overall (15%).
Conversely, this number was almost halved (22%) for finance teams that use cash and credit management software.
The puzzle here is that of the 87% of finance teams that rely on spreadsheets to manage accounts receivables, 72% claim to be dissatisfied with the process. Contrast this to the 80% satisfaction rate among those that use a dedicated solution to manage this process.
AI in cash & credit management
While 61% of finance departments are not taking full advantage of new technologies, this trend is expected to change in the coming years, as 79% of respondents say Artificial Intelligence and automation will be a strategic priority to generate cash faster and more efficiently.
In the fallout from the pandemic, cash culture has been positioned higher on business leaders’ agendas, as companies look to secure and accelerate cash flow generation and establish a 360° vision on the whole Order-to-Cash cycle.
This paradigm shift provides seamless collaboration among finance, sales and support functions and ensures that finance has the best technologies available.
Sidetrade’s CFO, Philippe Gangneux, commented that spreadsheets have an increasing number of limits and complexities. Now intelligent technologies support changing methods of delivering enterprise business capabilities.
He opined that CFOs have a vested interest in including these intelligent technologies in their new roles and new challenges, or risk missing opportunities to optimise value and drive growth. The modern CFO should now take advantage of AI technology to streamline financial processes, particularly in cash management, and receivables.
He further argued that there are a whole host of other ways in which spreadsheets prevent finance leaders from reaching their potential; they limit an organisation’s ability to instil a cash culture, they don’t provide any intelligent recommendations, and they cannot promote data centricity and visibility across the business.
“The crisis we have been through has revealed the importance of securing cash flows, and more and more financial leaders are recognising the benefit of working with a dedicated technology for enhanced Order-to-Cash performance,” he concluded.
