Advice firms fumbling on expense management
A significant majority of all Australian financial services businesses are concerned about their expense management, according to a UK consultancy firm.
The research, conducted by Opinion Matters and commissioned by UK-based payment technology firm Conferma, revealed that 97 per cent of Australian businesses in financial services admitted to having concerns about their current expenses management systems.
Conferma said in a statement that with heavy regulation from ASIC and APRA, among others, it is understandable that so many businesses in this sector have apprehensions about unproductive expenses processes.
Conferma chief executive Simon Barker said the financial services industry should, however, be leading the way for expenses efficiency.
"It doesn't come as a surprise that so many leaders in financial services would be concerned about inefficient processes, but it is surprising that many are still using outdated and unproductive systems to manage their corporate expenses," Mr Barker said.
"They are more aware than any other industry of the financial cost, the time lost to manual data entry and risks such as employee expenses fraud and inconsistencies in company records."
The research also found that only 60 per cent of Australian big businesses are looking to mobile payments as a possible solution to current problems, while only 22 per cent of financial services companies use virtual cards to combat the same problems.
The Opinion Matters research was based on a sample of 225 people who work in the finance department of companies with over 250 employees in Australia, and was carried out between 4 and 13 May.
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
