Finance Automation Still Has a Spreadsheet Problem 

Finance departments have spent years investing in automation, but spreadsheets still handle much of the work. A recent survey by AutoRek puts numbers behind that reality: 90% of finance teams still rely on spreadsheets for their operations. 

For many teams, automation is reducing manual work without eliminating spreadsheets.  

Payment Processing Still Runs Through Spreadsheets

The survey also found that 64% of finance teams still process and report payment data line by line, entering and reconciling individual transactions instead of working from aggregated data in their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.

That creates a bottleneck. Each closing cycle takes longer, and the chance of manual-entry errors climbs as transaction volume grows.

Automation is on most teams’ radar. In fact, 82% of respondents said automation is part of their roadmap, and 43% plan to implement it within six to 12 months. But having it on the roadmap isn’t the same as having a system in place, and for now at least, the transaction-level grind is still how most finance teams get work done.

Automation Doesn’t Always Replace Excel

Budget and implementation timelines aren’t the only reasons that automation stalls. Many finance teams continue choosing Excel even after automation tools become available. 

Rossum’s 2025 survey of 470 finance leaders across the U.S., the UK and Germany found that 58% choose Excel over AI-powered tools, even when their companies have already invested in automation. Another 26% reported using no automation tools of any kind in their finance department.

That distinction matters. If a team doesn’t have automation tools yet, the challenge may be budget or implementation timing. But if a team already has the tools and still reaches for Excel, poor integration and risk concerns are more likely to blame. Rossum’s findings point to those concerns – 27% of finance leaders believe AI’s risks outweigh its benefits.

The Cost of Manual Entry

The same pattern shows up in accounts payable, and it comes with a measurable cost. 

HighRadius’s 2025 accounts payable research found that more than two-thirds of businesses still manually key invoices into their ERP or accounting systems. 

That manual work comes with a hefty price tag: Processing a single invoice by hand costs about $15 on average, with error rates between 3% and 4%. For a team handling 5,000 invoices a month, that’s nearly $1 million a year in avoidable cost.

Paper adds to the bill. Thirty-seven percent of companies still rely on paper receipts, layering mailing costs and administrative work on top of manual entry.

A growing number of AP teams are making the switch. Automation adoption has nearly doubled in two years, from about 10% to 20% of AP teams, and 41% more say they’ll get there by the end of 2026.

What This Means for Finance Teams

The research points to a more practical reality than the automation hype suggests. Finance teams aren’t just choosing between spreadsheets and AI. They’re deciding which manual processes create enough cost and risk to automate first.

Cost and integration concerns are legitimate reasons to move carefully. But the survey data suggests the biggest opportunities often come from automating the most repetitive manual tasks first, not replacing spreadsheets all at once.

For finance teams looking to identify where automation can have the biggest impact, Resourceful Finance Pro’s free on-demand webinar, Discover the New Lean Standard for AP Automation, breaks down the four types of waste – cost, productivity, error and fraud – hiding in most AP departments. Watch it here.