The finding is positioned by Corpay as a capacity problem rather than a skills or motivation gap. When survey respondents were asked how they would reallocate the recovered hours, the most common answer was forecasting and strategic planning, not operational relief. That result points to a structural misalignment between where finance headcount is currently directed and where finance leadership believes it should be deployed.

Corpay frames August as a useful diagnostic moment. Reduced office capacity during summer leave tends to expose process bottlenecks that go unnoticed when teams are at full strength. The company argues that the return from summer holidays, with backlogs freshly visible, is an opportune window to map inefficiencies before the September trading period resumes.

Piero Macari, vice president of product corporate payments at Corpay, said the data points to processes “that, in many cases, have simply never been redesigned.” Macari, who has held roles at Mastercard and GE Capital, added that the gap between where finance teams spend their time and where they want to spend it “does not close by itself.”

Corpay’s commentary does not detail the specific process categories that absorb the most time, nor does it break down the 86% figure by company size, sector or finance team headcount, which limits how precisely the finding can be applied.

The research sits within a broader and well-established market argument for accounts-payable automation, expense management platforms and treasury workflow tools. The segment has attracted significant venture and private equity capital over the past five years, with players including Tipalti, Coupa and Payhawk among those competing in overlapping parts of the corporate payables and expense stack.

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