What is the overall cost to British SMEs of employees dedicating time to finance related tasks? That’s the question the business spending account Soldo asked to 1,200 companies across various industries and the results are a must read for anyone interested in effective business management.
In an era where technology purports to streamline finance operations for businesses, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth with the average business spending £31,732 each year per employee – the equivalent of employing an additional key member of staff.
Many SMEs are still struggling to cut down tiresome tasks with some employees spending up to an astonishing 7 hours a week embroiled in expense and financial management.
Conducted independently by YouGov, Soldo’s survey reveals that the average employee spends 4.1 hours per week managing a myriad of financial outgoings including invoicing, accounting, expenses, budgeting and forecasting. That’s £2,644.34 per employee or collectively £8.72 Billion lost by SMEs every year.
Unsurprisingly, the larger an organisation the larger the task of expense management becomes for employees. Small businesses are spending, on average, 3.65 hours a week compared with medium sized businesses whose employees spend 5.79 hours every week on financial admin. Startups face the greatest struggle of all when it comes down to day-to-day cash flow management, with 15 per cent responding they find managing outgoings particularly difficult.
Carlo Gualandri, founder and CEO of Soldo says, ‘The time and money taken up by day to day management of a company’s cash flow is astonishing but not surprising. If staff were freed up to dedicate their time to the activities that made a big difference to the company, productivity levels would rocket.’
Further reading on finance management
