Ryan FowlerCorpay has warned that UK finance teams are operating with an “automation deficit”, as the gap widens between CFOs’ ambitions to automate and the fragmented reality of their existing finance systems.
The findings, published in Corpay’s whitepaper The Automation Deficit, are based on independent research with 150 UK CFOs and show that while almost all finance leaders plan to automate their functions in 2025, execution remains uneven. According to the research, 47% of CFOs cited integration challenges as the biggest barrier to automation, while 41% pointed to resistance to change and 37% raised concerns around cybersecurity and data privacy.
The report found that 99% of organisations surveyed have some level of automation planned, yet legacy systems, manual processes and siloed workflows continue to dominate core finance operations. Corpay said this disconnect is preventing finance teams from achieving the efficiency, resilience and cost control increasingly demanded of them.
Real-time visibility was highlighted as a major pressure point. The research showed that 94% of CFOs rate real-time oversight of finance and payments as important or very important, but many are unable to achieve this in practice due to disconnected systems. As businesses approach the end of the financial year, Corpay said this lack of visibility makes forecasting, cash flow management and cost control more difficult.
The whitepaper also links fragmented finance systems to increased operational risk. It references KPMG research showing that 57% of executives experience core system flaws every week, alongside UK Finance data reporting 3.31 million fraud cases in the UK during 2024. CFOs surveyed by Corpay identified accounts payable, expense management, cross-border payments and fraud detection as top priorities for automation, despite these areas remaining heavily reliant on manual processes.
Piero Macari, vice president of products at Corpay, said: “Finance leaders are clear about what they want to achieve, but the day-to-day reality inside many finance teams tells a different story. Fragmented systems slow down approvals, introduce unnecessary risk and make real-time visibility difficult to achieve. This is the automation deficit in action.
“It prevents CFOs from moving at the speed they need, particularly as organisations head toward the end of the financial year when accuracy and control are non-negotiable.”
Macari added that Corpay Complete was designed to address this challenge by unifying payments, accounts payable, expenses and supplier management into a single connected automation layer, helping finance teams reduce manual effort and improve control.
