UK firms still struggle to track payments, study finds

Research commissioned by Finexer found that 42% of UK businesses faced delays over the past year in confirming whether customer or client payments had arrived. The study suggests payment visibility remains a persistent issue despite widespread use of digital payment tools.

The survey of 418 senior business leaders at UK organisations with 10 to 500 employees also found that 40% had experienced delays to approved payouts, including refunds, supplier payments, claims, salaries and deposit returns. Another 39% said employees had to trace, compare or re-enter payment information across multiple systems.

These findings come alongside relatively high use of payment and banking tools. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they use Pay by Bank, while 55% use account ownership verification, 50% use bank data access and 48% use automated transaction matching.

Even so, many businesses appear to manage these processes across separate systems. More than a third of respondents, 38%, said they rely on three or more systems or providers to handle banking and payment workflows.

Fragmented systems

The results suggest finance teams often have to bridge gaps between tools for incoming payments, payouts, bank data, account checks and reconciliation. As a result, staff may have to check payment statuses, compare records and re-enter information to establish whether money has been received or sent.

"If a business has to investigate whether a payment has arrived, something in the payment process isn't working. Finance teams should be able to see when money arrives and know where an approved payment is in the process. Instead, too many are still checking different systems, tracing transactions and moving information between platforms just to build a clear picture of what has been paid and what hasn't. That isn't just an inconvenience, it creates more work for finance teams and makes something as fundamental as payment visibility unnecessarily difficult," Ravi Ranjan, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Finexer, said.

The study covered respondents from accounting and bookkeeping, payroll and HR, ERP and financial management, legal, property, lettings and PropTech, utilities, FinTech and B2B SaaS businesses. All worked at UK organisations employing between 10 and 500 people.

The findings add to a broader debate about whether the spread of digital payment tools has reduced operational friction for finance teams. They suggest adoption alone has not removed delays or manual work when businesses cannot see payment status in one place.

Open Banking

Finexer argues that Open Banking can help reduce this fragmentation by linking permissioned banking data and account-to-account payments directly into the software businesses already use. In practice, this could let financial platforms combine bank data, payment initiation, and verification in a single workflow, rather than forcing teams to switch between providers.

Ranjan said: "Businesses have spent years adding new technology to collect payments, access banking data, make payouts and reconcile transactions, but more technology doesn't automatically mean better visibility. If those capabilities sit across multiple disconnected systems, finance teams are still left connecting the dots, chasing confirmation and trying to build a reliable picture of money moving in and out."

For mid-sized businesses, the operational impact can extend beyond treasury teams. Delays in confirming receipt of customer payments can affect cash application and customer service, while delayed payouts can affect suppliers, employees and claimants.

Separate systems can also create extra work in back-office functions when data has to be matched manually. The finding that 39% of businesses require staff to trace, compare or re-enter payment information suggests automation remains incomplete in many finance operations.

Open Banking services in the UK have expanded from retail use cases into business processes such as payments, data sharing and account verification. The survey indicates that many firms have adopted parts of that stack but have yet to integrate them closely enough to remove uncertainty over whether funds have arrived or left.

Ranjan said: "The goal should be simple: connect the technology, remove the gaps and give businesses a single view of their payments. Finance teams shouldn't have to investigate whether a payment has arrived; the technology should already know."