The UK’s economic climate has been fraught with challenges in recent years, from prolonged uncertainty to mounting fiscal pressures. With tax increases under Reeves’ leadership, businesses must navigate a tightening landscape while striving to maintain operational stability.
Despite these headwinds, there are signs of resilience. Results show that the UK economy grew by 0.7% in the first quarter of the year, signalling a flicker of economic optimism. However, for UK businesses to achieve sustainable growth, financial discipline and agility are more crucial than ever.
Finance teams are uniquely positioned to guide businesses through this environment, equipped with real-time data and intelligent automation, finance functions can drive informed decisions and help organisations pivot quickly when needed. By embracing automation and data-led strategies, businesses can strike the right balance between stability and scalable growth – even in uncertain times.
Here are the core strategies companies should consider to stay resilient and growth-ready in 2025 and beyond.
Eliminating inefficiencies in finance operations
Growth is the ultimate goal for any business, but it must be managed carefully to ensure long-term sustainability. Uncertain times present an opportunity to eliminate inefficiencies and build a strong foundation for future success.
A significant bottleneck for many businesses is the finance function’s reliance on manual processes for invoice processing, reporting and reconciliation. These tasks are not only time-consuming but also introduce errors, delays and inefficiencies. As a result, finance teams become stretched thin. Our recent survey found that, on average, over half (51%) of accounts payable time is spent on manual tasks – severely limiting finance leaders’ ability to drive strategic growth.
Repetitive tasks such as data entry, reconciliation, and approvals require considerable time and effort, slowing down decision-making and increasing the risk of inaccuracies. Given the critical role that finance plays in guiding business strategy, these inefficiencies and errors create significant roadblocks to growth.
The pressure on finance leaders is therefore immense and while 71% of UK business leaders believe CFOs should take a central role in corporate growth initiatives, they are simply lost in a sea of manual processes and number crunching. In fact, 82% of finance leaders admit that excessive manual finance processes are hindering their organisation’s growth plans for the year ahead. To remedy this, businesses must embrace automation.
Empowering sustainable growth through automation
By replacing manual spreadsheets with automated solutions, finance teams can eliminate administrative burdens and focus on strategic initiatives. Automation simplifies critical finance tasks like bank feeds, coding bookkeeping transactions and invoice matching. Beyond this, it can also help alleviate the strain of more complex and time-intensive responsibilities, including tax filings, invoices and payroll.
The benefits of automation extend far beyond time saving, to accuracy, improving business visibility and enabling real-time financial insights. With fewer errors and faster-data processing, finance leaders can shift their focus to high-value tasks like driving strategy, identifying risks and opportunities and determining the optimal timing for growth investments.
Unlocking investment potential through operational efficiency
Once businesses have minimised time spent on administrative tasks, they can focus on the bigger picture: growth and securing investment. With access to cheap capital becoming increasingly difficult, businesses must position themselves wisely to attract funding.
Investors favour lean, efficient companies, so demonstrating that a business can achieve more with fewer resources signals a commitment to financial prudence and sustainability. By embracing automation, companies can showcase their ability to manage operations efficiently, instilling confidence that any new investment will be spent and used wisely.
Economic uncertainty provides an opportunity to reassess business foundations and create more agile operations. Refining workflows and eliminating bottlenecks not only improves performance but also strengthens investor confidence by demonstrating a long-term commitment to financial health.
Additionally, strong financial reporting and effective cash flow management are crucial to standing out to investors. Clear, real-time insights into financial health demonstrate resilience and highlight a business’ resilience and readiness for growth.
A clear path ahead for sustainable growth
Despite ongoing economic headwinds, sustainable growth is still within reach – provided businesses adopt a focused and strategic approach. By empowering finance leaders to move beyond day-to-day manual admin and concentrate on long-term planning, organisations can build the agility and resilience needed to navigate uncertainty.
UK businesses have dealt with tough conditions for long enough. It’s time to shift gears – from reacting to tough conditions to proactively managing them. Through adopting smarter financial management, businesses can not only build resilience but also lay the foundation for sustainable growth.
Rob Israch, President at Tipalti