A new study by Pleo analyzes how increasing operational complexity is making it difficult to manage business growth in Europe. In Spain, where 94% of companies are growing or planning to expand, many acknowledge that their financial operations are not evolving at the same pace as the business.
According to Pleo's latest Pulse Report, 91% of European companies are growing or plan to expand their business in the coming years. In Spain, this figure reaches 94%, the highest percentage among the markets analyzed. However, this growth also generates concern, as 89% of these companies admit to being worried about their ability to manage this expansion effectively. The data highlights an increasingly present tension in the European business fabric: while organizations maintain strong growth ambitions, many find it difficult to manage the increasing operational complexity that comes with it.
Growth is generating a "control tax"
As companies grow, finance teams increasingly face what Pleo calls a "control tax": increased operational complexity due to international expansion, more manual oversight processes, data scattered across multiple systems, and less time available for high-value strategic tasks.
According to the study, 64% of European companies consider operating in multiple markets to be fundamental for continued expansion, and in Spain, 62% share this view. However, 72% indicate that managing activity in different European countries involves dealing with complex regulations, processes, and requirements, while 65% state that entering a new market can be as demanding as starting a company from scratch. Among Spanish financial managers, this perception is even more pronounced, as 71% claim that expanding internationally feels like launching a new company from zero, compared to 53% who feel this way in Germany.
72% of companies looking to expand state that scaling increases the financial complexity of the organization, while 65% indicate that maintaining visibility and control over finances becomes more complicated as the company grows. Thus, 82% of companies surveyed in Spain acknowledge that growth forces them to find an increasingly difficult balance between driving the business and maintaining control over operations.
Financial systems are not prepared to support growth
Many companies are trying to face a new phase of growth with financial systems that were not designed to support them in that process. More than half of expanding companies (52%) state that their business is growing faster than their financial tools can manage. Furthermore, almost one in two (48%) acknowledge experiencing failures or limitations in their financial systems as a consequence of the pressure generated by growth.
Manual oversight remains another major obstacle, as half of the financial managers consulted state that their current tool ecosystem requires too much manual intervention to function correctly. In Spain, 34% of financial managers believe that their current technological ecosystem will not be able to support the company's next phase of growth. Despite this, 21% of organizations continue to manage corporate expenses primarily through traditional spreadsheets. The lack of integration between systems appears to be one of the factors that most contribute to this situation. In fact, 38% of Spanish financial managers state that the disconnection between tools generates an excessive administrative burden for their teams.
Strategy is buried under administrative tasks
The results show that increasing operational complexity is displacing strategic work from finance teams. On average, finance professionals spend 19% of their time on administrative tasks, such as manual data cleaning, information processing, or report generation. In contrast, only 16% of their day is dedicated to strategic activities focused on growth and decision-making.
The data suggests that finance leaders are getting caught up in the day-to-day management of the business. In Spain, 60% report not having had a single uninterrupted day for this type of work. Furthermore, 53% of expanding Spanish companies believe that finance teams are too absorbed by administrative tasks and manual processes to effectively support business growth.
Ultimately, a series of important strategic tasks are being relegated to the background, including financial scenario planning, innovation initiatives, market analysis, and strategic modeling. In Spain, the activities most frequently displaced by operational demands are professional development (31%), innovation initiatives (28%), competitor analysis (27%), market analysis (26%), and financial scenario planning (24%).
Companies need finance operations designed to grow
The study suggests that the answer is not simply to add more tools. On the contrary, companies need finance operations designed to grow at the same pace as the company itself.
Almost half of expanding companies (48%) believe their current financial tools lack sufficient automation and artificial intelligence capabilities. Additionally, 42% identify automated workflows as one of the most needed and least present functionalities in their technology ecosystem. Added to this is the lack of integration between systems, a deficiency that generates an excessive administrative burden for 36% of the finance leaders surveyed.
When asked Spanish financial managers what capabilities they consider priorities in their management tools, the main demand was automation and data quality, an issue that is reflected in demanding better native integration with platforms and tools (48%), more accurate accounting (38%), automation of tax processes (36%), greater data integrity (35%), integration with human resources systems (34%), and automation of supplier management (32%).
Søren Lonning, CFO of Pleo, stated: "European companies have the necessary ambition to grow, but too many are still held back by financial operations that are not evolving at the same pace as the business." "Pleo is the expense management platform designed specifically for the way European companies close their accounts. While other companies are still adapting to European finance, Pleo is already native, integrating with more financial tools than anyone else."