Key Takeaway: In 2025, sticking with outdated finance automation quietly raises costs and hides risk. By moving to modern AP and AR automation from Quadient, finance teams cut manual work, see cash flow in real time and free people up to focus on growth instead of firefighting.
Every delay, error, and missed payment in your financial processes isn’t just a hiccup — it’s a potential roadblock to your success. If your current automation system feels more like a constraint than a solution, it’s time to rethink your approach. Today’s finance leaders aren’t just looking for automation — they’re looking for automation that adapts, scales, and integrates seamlessly. The good news? Modern automation technology, once reserved for the biggest players, is now within reach, offering enterprise-grade efficiency at a scale and price tailored to your needs.
With the right tools, businesses can replace outdated, rigid solutions with streamlined systems that enhance financial visibility, optimise cash flow, and minimise compliance risks—without forcing teams to rely on workarounds or IT intervention.
Here, we’ll look at the hidden costs of sticking with outdated and insufficient solutions, why businesses outgrow certain automation tools, and how choosing the right automation fit can drive long-term success.
The True Hidden Costs of Doing Nothing
The idea of investing in fancy new solutions is usually accompanied by the question, “How much is this going to cost?” It’s a fair question, but it doesn’t provide much insight unless it’s compared to another question: “What’s the cost of sticking with an automation system that no longer fits your business?” The answer? A lot more in the long run.
For a little perspective, 67% of CIOs report cost optimisation as a top priority for their IT budgets in 2025. To achieve this, many organisations are looking to clear space for newer, better-fitting tech. This translates to decommissioning unnecessary infrastructure, adopting solutions that automate tasks or improve efficiency, and consolidating redundant technologies. The goal isn’t just automation — it’s the right automation that scales, integrates seamlessly, and removes roadblocks instead of creating them.
It’s easy to say newer is better (in this case it really is), but in order to gain a full understanding of why, it’s important to understand exactly where the hidden costs of your current systems are coming from.
Common Signs Your Automated System is Holding You Back:
- Constant Workarounds: Many automation solutions still require extensive workarounds, IT support, and manual intervention just to keep things running. If you’re constantly adjusting your processes to fit outdated tech, rather than the other way around, that’s a hidden cost you can’t afford.
- Limited Insights: A problem businesses face when using outdated or fragmented systems is the inaccessibility of current and in-depth analytics capabilities. This is a critical issue, as 9 in 10 CFOs report making decisions based on incomplete data. If your system only gives a partial picture of cash flow, invoicing, or forecasting, you’re making decisions in the dark.
- Inflexible Scaling: Older systems weren’t built to handle growing invoice volumes, multi-entity operations, or global transactions. If your platform is causing delays rather than improving efficiency, it’s time to upgrade.
- Delays and Weakened Relationships: Whether delays are caused by high volumes, lost documents, or errors in need of correction, these problems create strained relationships with suppliers and customers. This isn't just about frustration; it's about lost opportunity. In fact, 80% of potential discounts go unclaimed due to process inefficiencies.
Automated systems address the above pain points and make it easier for businesses to come together and create solutions that are efficient for both operations and costs. With centralised systems and streamlined workflows, silos are reduced, and cross-departmental alignment helps empower finance teams to focus on long-term value creation.
Why Businesses Must Embrace the Right Automation Now
Automation was once considered a luxury, but that era is long gone. Today, economic pressures, regulatory changes, labor market constraints, and increasing customer expectations have turned what was once a nice-to-have into a necessity.
While cost savings are certainly a large plus, not all automation is created equal. The real question is: Is your current automation built for where your business is headed?
- Performance: Automation's boost in efficiency is a win for both cost savings and overall business performance. Around 78% of business leaders report that automation enhances overall performance and saves employees anywhere from 240 to 360 hours a year — time that can now be allocated to more impactful tasks.
- Scalability: Older solutions weren’t built to easily adjust to changing needs, making them susceptible to being overloaded by high volumes of documents. Previously, this was particularly an issue for organisations that had heavy fluctuations in invoice volumes, as increased hiring wasn’t an option for temporary demands and legacy systems lacked the flexibility to easily adapt. With newer automation solutions, businesses can easily scale while maintaining lean operations. Beyond the ability to adapt to increasing or volatile volumes of work, automation solutions also offer modular tools that adapt to a business’s evolving needs, ensuring long-term operational agility.
- Data Visibility: Businesses never want to make decisions based on partial understanding or outdated information. This is yet another way legacy systems leave decision-makers vulnerable, even if they don’t know it at the time. In addition to modern solutions boasting extremely high accuracy (99% when talking about invoice entry), they also help provide real-time insights into cash flow, invoicing, and financial forecasting. All that, plus unified dashboards that eliminate data silos, helps give the clearest picture of everything decision-makers need to know to enable smarter, fully informed decisions.
The Competitive Edge of Modern Automation
Modern automation isn’t just about keeping up — it’s about staying ahead. Today, financial processes need to be seamless, agile, and scalable. The right automation strategy transforms operations by eliminating inefficiencies, enhancing accuracy, and improving cash flow visibility.
By replacing outdated, manual-heavy processes with intelligent automation, businesses can reduce errors, minimise delays, and gain real-time insights that drive smarter financial decisions. With streamlined workflows and better data visibility, finance teams can shift their focus from transactional tasks to strategic growth, ensuring long-term success in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Here’s how the right automation delivers a competitive advantage:
Streamline Accounts Payable
Automation slashes manual data entry by 83%, with intelligent workflows that flag errors and notify teams of pending actions. Whether handling high-volume transactions or fluctuating demands, automated AP systems ensure efficiency at scale.
Accelerate Accounts Receivable
Fast, accurate invoicing and collections are critical for healthy cash flow. With AI-driven AR automation, businesses benefit from reliable cash forecasting, actionable buyer analytics, and improved customer relationships through seamless order-to-cash workflows.
Enhance Customer Communications
Customer communication remains a cornerstone of financial processes. The right solution simplifies multi-channel invoice delivery, enabling real-time tracking and ensuring customers receive accurate, timely updates through their preferred channels.
Seamless Integration and Measurable ROI
One of the biggest challenges businesses face is integrating new technologies with existing systems. While downtime is a valid concern, modern integration methods often make the process quick and efficient, leading to long-term gains. Modern solutions can eliminate much of this barrier with prebuilt ERP connectors that enable rapid onboarding. Once implemented, businesses see measurable results, including up to a 5x return on investment through productivity gains, cost savings, and improved customer satisfaction.
By adopting comprehensive automation systems, companies position themselves to compete and lead in an increasingly demanding business landscape.
A Vision for the Businesses of Tomorrow
Automation should evolve with your business — not hold it back. As your company scales, the right solution ensures you’re always operating at peak efficiency, without the growing pains of outdated systems.
As market demands and regulatory landscapes continue to shift, forward-thinking organisations will lead the way by modernising their financial processes — gaining not just efficiency, but a competitive edge for the future.
Wondering if it’s time to scale your financial automation? Explore the five key signs that indicate it’s time to take the next step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is outdated finance automation such a problem in 2025?
In 2025, finance teams are under pressure to cut costs, react faster and prove cash flow visibility. When systems are outdated, you end up with workarounds, poor analytics and missed early-payment discounts. That hidden cost is often higher than the price of upgrading.
How do I know if our current automation tools are holding us back?
Typical warning signs in 2025 are constant manual fixes, IT tickets just to keep things running, limited reporting, slow scaling when volume spikes and strained supplier relationships because of delays or errors. If that sounds familiar, your tools are probably costing you more than they save.
What kind of results can modern automation deliver with Quadient?
Quadient finance automation is built to remove manual work and give one clear view of cash flow. Quadient AP can eliminate up to 83% of tedious data entry, and Quadient AR helps teams collect faster and predict cash flow more accurately. Quadient+2
Is finance automation in 2025 only for large enterprises?
No. Modern AP and AR automation from Quadient is designed for growing businesses as well as large enterprises. Prebuilt integrations and modular features mean you can start where the pain is worst, then scale as your priorities change.
How does Quadient help improve data visibility for finance leaders?
Quadient solutions bring AP, AR and communications data into unified dashboards, so leaders can see real-time cash flow, invoice status and risk without stitching spreadsheets together. That is a big step up from legacy tools that leave CFOs making decisions on incomplete data. Quadient+2
What kind of ROI can businesses expect in 2025?
Modern automation has a direct impact on productivity and cost. Automation can save employees hundreds of hours a year and deliver up to a 5x return on investment, especially when it replaces manual or semi-manual processes.
Where can I see independent reviews and comparisons of Quadient in 2025?
You can read up-to-date G2 reviews for Quadient AP and Quadient AR, where customers rate ease of use, features and support, and compare Quadient with other finance automation tools. This gives you a clear, view of how the platforms perform in real life.