Modern procurement leaders are at the sharp end of business change.
SaaS subscriptions for niche tools. Freelancers and contractors brought in for quick-turn projects. Travel bookings for customer visits, events, and team offsites.
Company spending is more fragmented and frequent. Every transaction demands speed, flexibility, and autonomy. Simultaneously, every autonomous purchase creates exposure to risk, waste, and inefficiency if left unchecked.
So, most procurement leaders find themselves at a crossroads. Should they:
- A: Sacrifice agility to get more control over the everyday, low-value purchasing that threatens to drain budgets?
- B: Sacrifice control to give their business the agility it needs to move fast and capture fleeting opportunities before they disappear?
Our answer? Neither.
Businesses can have both. They can make purchasing decisions fast without sacrificing control.
The cost of prioritising control over agility
Only 25% of procurement leaders feel recognised as exceptional performers.
Why? Because admin is holding Procurement back from doing more of the work it loves.
According to Soldo Core Finance Research (2024):
- Employees spend an average of 17.8 hours/month managing Decentralised Spend
- Managers spend 30.4 hours
- Finance teams spend a staggering 60.9 hours
Well-meaning procurement leaders may believe their strict cost controls are protecting the business. But protecting pennies diverts their attention from pursuing the kind of returns that redefine Procurement’s role as a growth driver.
It’s not just time that’s lost.
Procurement leaders can’t afford to stay buried in admin. The average cost to process a PO is estimated at £50–1,000. For many businesses, that cost outweighs the benefit of routing low-value spend through complex approval processes.
So, how can procurement leaders focus on higher-value work?
Automate the admin in your procurement process
Modern procurement teams no longer need to choose between control and efficiency. By embracing automation, leaders can free their people from repetitive admin and focus on the bigger levers of value creation.
Here’s how:
- Put controls in place before spend happens: Automating pre-spend guardrails removes the burden of micromanagement. Leaders can set clear rules, limits, and approval flows that keep purchases compliant without slowing down employees. It also means recurring expenses and renewals are tracked automatically, reducing surprises later.
- Enable smarter, faster spending at the point of purchase: Employees expect flexibility when they need to pay for tools, services, or travel. By automating card issuance, usage limits, and policy controls, procurement can give teams the autonomy to act quickly, all while ensuring every transaction is within policy and captured in real time.
- Take the friction out of spend reconciliation: Chasing receipts and categorising transactions drains hours of valuable time. Automating these processes right at the point of purchase with (virtual cards or receipt capture apps) standardises data capture, flags anomalies instantly, and builds reliable records that don’t require manual cleanup.
- Drive visibility and insight post-spend: Automation doesn’t end when money leaves the account. Integrating spend data directly into ERP and BI tools, maintaining a real-time audit trail, and automating VAT collection means finance has accurate, analysis-ready data at their fingertips. Instead of firefighting, teams can focus on forecasting, strategy, and growth.
- Modern procurement isn’t about slowing the business down or letting spend slip through the cracks. It’s about balancing control with agility. By putting guardrails in place, you can keep budgets protected while giving every department the freedom to move at speed.
Talk to us about how Soldo can help you get there.
