Finance leaders are returning to work with renewed pressure to deliver efficiency, resilience and cost control, yet many remain constrained by what global S&P500 corporate payments company, Corpay, describes as an ‘automation deficit’.

The term refers to the gap between the ambition CFOs have for automation and the fragmented reality of their current finance systems.

Findings published in Corpay’s whitepaper, The Automation Deficit, reveal that despite strong intent to automate, manual work and disconnected tools still dominate core finance operations.

According to Corpay’s research with 150 UK CFOs, 47% say integration challenges are the biggest barrier to automation, while 41% cite resistance to change and 37% raise concerns about cybersecurity and data privacy.

Almost every CFO surveyed plans to automate their finance function in 2025, yet execution remains uneven. The whitepaper highlights that almost all (99%) of organisations have some level of automation planned, but progress is repeatedly slowed by legacy systems, manual processes and siloed workflows.

At the same time, real time visibility remains a critical priority for finance teams.

The report shows that 94% of CFOs interviewed rate real time oversight of finance and payments as important or very important, yet fragmented systems prevent many teams from achieving it in practice.

As businesses move toward the end of the financial year, this visibility gap increases the difficulty of managing forecasting, cost control and cash flow with confidence.

The report also highlights that this fragmentation comes with risk.

KPMG research cited in the whitepaper notes that 57% of executives experience core system flaws every week, while UK Finance’s Annual Fraud Report shows that 3.31 million fraud cases were recorded in the UK in 2024.

CFOs surveyed by Corpay confirmed that Accounts Payable, expense management, cross border payments and fraud detection are among their top automation priorities, based on their survey responses, yet these are also the areas most affected by manual work and delayed visibility.

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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.”

“Corpay Complete was designed to close this gap. By unifying payments, Accounts Payable, expenses and supplier management into a connected automation layer, finance teams can replace manual effort with clarity, control and confidence.”

The whitepaper argues that closing the automation deficit represents a significant opportunity for CFOs seeking to strengthen performance. It outlines a modern finance stack that integrates ERP systems with automation, real time data and continuous governance to improve visibility and reduce operational friction. The whitepaper notes that when systems connect, performance compounds, enabling CFOs to focus on strategic work rather than repetitive tasks.