While a comparable percentage of payments companies are worried about the transparency and standardization of their data, the vast majority of them still do manual procedures as part of the reconciliation control process.

According to Nick Botha, Global Payments Lead at AutoRek, "there is a clear trend towards streamlining operations by minimising manual processes in the payments industry, but significant investments remain to be taken."

"Our payments report demonstrates the ongoing difficulty that the market's legacy systems present, a difficulty that we observe in businesses everywhere."

Businesses still rely on spreadsheets
In order to conduct AutoRek's study, researchers spoke with over 500 respondents who were employed by payment companies in the US and the UK, performing a variety of tasks.

The study's conclusions demonstrate that even though reconciliations are an essential accounting and financial management mechanism, many financial services companies still rely on Excel spreadsheets to complete this vital task.

This is a particularly common tendency in the United States, where 88% of respondents admit that their organization uses spreadsheets extensively for crucial financial management procedures.

Excel Spreadsheets Are Still Used by Several Payments Companies
With 69% of US businesses reporting that the cost of their payment operations increases in direct proportion to an increase in payments processing, it is evident that manual processes can result in inefficiencies.

This is also evident in the UK, where 63% of payment companies report a direct relationship between back-office expenses and volume of payments.

The possibility of automatic reconciliation
According to AutoRek, spreadsheets are no longer useful due to the growth of the digital economy, an increase in transaction volume, and constantly shifting regulatory requirements.

It argues that the results demonstrate the need for greater reconciliation education and the ways in which it may assist companies in automating labor-intensive procedures and cutting costs and time.

The study also shows that, in comparison to 2023, the proportion of payment firms anticipating a rise in their cost of compliance over the next 12 months has more than doubled, rising from 38% to 80%.

Roughly half of the participants indicated that increased automation would enable them to save time and facilitate their growth goals. Similar numbers indicated it would help them achieve business growth goals, and forty-five percent said it would reduce operating expenses.

"In order to effectively navigate potential disruptions, businesses must streamline their operational frameworks, and this has become increasingly evident in recent years," the author continues.