Pleo, a spend management platform built for European businesses, has published new research revealing that the majority of European mid-market companies are being held back by finance operations that cannot keep pace with their growth ambitions.
The company’s latest Pulse Report found that 91% of European businesses are scaling or planning to scale, yet 83% of those in that group are worried about managing that growth effectively. More than half (52%) of scaling businesses say they are growing faster than their finance systems can support, while 48% have already experienced systems breaking under the pressure of expansion.
Pleo’s research introduces the concept of a “control tax”, the growing operational burden finance teams face as businesses expand. This includes increased cross-border complexity, more manual oversight, fragmented data and reduced time for strategic work.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of scaling businesses say international expansion is critical or highly important to their growth, yet 72% say operating across European markets involves different and complicated processes, and 65% say scaling across borders can feel like launching an entirely new business.
The strain on finance teams is considerable. Some 69% of scaling businesses say growth creates a trade-off between expansion and control, while 65% say maintaining financial control becomes harder as the business grows.
Half of finance respondents say their current finance stack demands too much manual oversight, and 38% say it will not support the next phase of growth. Despite this, 21% of organisations still rely primarily on spreadsheets for expense and spend management.
The research also highlights a strategic deficit within finance functions. On average, finance professionals spend 19% of their time on administrative tasks such as manual data cleaning, processing and reporting, while just 16% is dedicated to strategic work. More than half (56%) say they have not had a single uninterrupted day to focus on strategic finance work in the past month, and 53% say their role now demands more strategic input than they are currently able to provide. Only 29% say their financial skills and experience are being fully utilised at all times.
When asked what capabilities their finance tools are most lacking, respondents highlighted automation and AI (48%), automated workflows (42%) and poor integrations causing excessive admin (36%). In terms of what they need most, better native out-of-the-box integrations came out on top (49%), followed by accurate bookkeeping (40%), HRIS integrations (35%), automatic workflows (33%) and a central view of spend (26%).
Pleo chief financial officer Søren Lonning said, “European businesses have the ambition to scale, but too many are being held back by finance operations that cannot keep pace. As companies expand across markets, finance teams are left paying the price: more manual oversight, disconnected tools, fragmented data and less time for the strategic work that drives growth.
“To scale with confidence, businesses need finance operations built for growth from day one. That means real-time visibility, smarter workflows, better integration and stronger guardrails. Automation and AI can be powerful, but only when they are part of an integrated system that helps finance teams move from firefighting to strategy.
“Pleo is the spend platform built for how European businesses close their books. While others are still translating for European finance, Pleo is already native, as we integrate with more financial tools than anyone else. We don’t just connect to your stack, we live inside it.”
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