In Spain, many micro and small companies in the technology sector have made progress in the digitalization of their billing processes. This finding is one of the main conclusions of the report “Economic and banking radiography of micro and small businesses in Spain in the technology sector”, carried out by Qonto in collaboration with Sigma2.
The report examines the main concerns, demands towards the banking sector and financial needs of the founders, owners, CEOs and financial directors of technology companies.
Progress in digitization and electronic billing
The technology sector has shown notable progress in its digital transformation: 71% of companies already use solutions to generate electronic invoices in their work processes and payment communication, while 17% plan to implement them in the coming months. Only 3% have no plans to do so, despite the fact that the regulations will come into force in the medium term.
The technology sector is the most prepared for this process (71%), followed by e-commerce (60%) and the consulting and restaurant sectors (58%), which are further behind in the integration of electronic invoices.
In terms of general digitalization, 72% of companies consider that the level of digitalization of their financial and accounting processes is high or very high.
While waiting for the next entry into force of the Electronic Invoicing Regulation, the technology sector is already assiduous in generating digital invoices
Financial autonomy and financing options
In the current context of credit restriction, the technology sector shows a certain financial independence. However, it is the sector that has resorted the most to some type of financing in the last year (41%), exceeding the national average by sixteen percentage points.
The most used financing solutions are loans (68%), credit policies (40%), renting and leasing, and microcredit (11%).
Reduction of presence
Technology companies have the least need to physically go to bank branches, with almost half visiting them only a few times a year. Only 2.3% of directors and CEOs attend several times a year, while 11.7% do not attend at all.
This low presence is aligned with the trend towards digitalization, highlighting the specific characteristics of the sector in financial management.
The reduction in presence requires greater transparency in banking procedures and services. Three out of ten technology companies do not know exactly how much they spend annually on banking fees, while four out of ten are aware of these fees.
Bureaucratic burden and expansion of staff
Administrative tasks are a challenge for technology companies: 16% spend more than 10 days a month on bureaucratic tasks, and 25% spend between 2 and 5 days. 60% of the companies surveyed believe that they spend too much time on banking management.
Despite the need to reduce the bureaucratic burden, half of managers do not plan new hires. However, the technology sector is the one that will expand its workforce the most, with 50% of entrepreneurs planning to increase their teams, compared to e-commerce (40%), restaurants (38%) and consulting (26%).
The priority areas for staff reinforcement will be the commercial and sales department (15.4%), customer service (15.3%) and technology and product (14.1%).
