Unpublished study of the Simple and Visa Account points out that MSMEs spend more than 20 hours a week with expense management

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) dedicate 21.47 hours per week to expense management (THE equivalent of the work of more than 2 and a half days of an employee, based on a workday of 8 hours per day. These data are entered in the “Panorama of Corporate Expense Management in Brazil 2025 edition“, unpublished research conducted by Simple Account, the main corporate expense management platform in Brazil, and the Visa, Global leader in payments technology.The study offers a detailed look at the current state of how companies manage their finances and the obstacles faced by them.  

In 46% of these companies, the task falls on the owners or partners, limiting the time available for strategic activities. In microenterprises, this number rises to 59%. For the CEO and co-founder of Conta Simples, Rodrigo Tognini, this number is still very expressive and shows how much Brazilian MSMEs are managing their financial in a traditional and archaic way, mainly because in most companies are the owners or partners who dedicate themselves to this activity, time that could be destined for other more strategic functions.   

“With the study, it became evident that, with the lack of organization, control and proper conduct of finance management, a barrier and bottleneck is created for the growth and development of MSMEs. This is all because the way it is done still looks like decades ago, without the right tools, and solutions that leverage these journeys.We understand that with a more structured and optimized administration, companies can let their leadership be free to focus on what really matters: the growth of the business”, evaluates Tognini.

The director of Visa, Juliana Amoroso, reinforces that today one of the most precious assets of companies is time management and this is a great pain of entrepreneurs of small, medium and micro enterprises, who end up accumulating functions and hours of work. “When adopting innovative solutions, these entrepreneurs can automate repetitive processes, reduce human errors and free up valuable time that can be directed to the strategic activities essential for the development of the company”, he says.

Finance management at the tip of the pencil & literally

Agile and efficient management is one that promotes more control, security and allows more assertive decisions in the allocation of resources, something impossible for 39% of MSMEs, which still use manual resources, such as notebooks, to manage their expenses & BUDGET approximately 7.5 million of the 21.8 million active companies. Microenterprises (45%) are the ones that make the most of inadequate solutions, followed by small ones with 36% and medium-sized companies with 28%. This old-fashioned method generates more headaches than solutions, since it consumes excessive time and increases the probability of error, which compromises operational efficiency.  

Also according to the survey, spreadsheets are the most used resource by Brazilian companies for expense management (65%), also highlighting the use of applications and bank statements (52%). The main reasons for resistance to the adoption of specialized solutions are habit (45%), the perception of high cost (44%) and do not find it necessary (38%). 

Among the companies in the North and Northeast the number of respondents who pointed out “find easier to manage the way they are accustomed” was higher, 70% and 67% respectively. Already the companies who said they did not find a necessary platform was higher in the South, with 55%. When asked about the factors that could encourage the implementation of management platforms, the answers pointed to the cost-benefit (49%), followed by simple language (39%) and accessible support (36%).  

“Technology is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. Managing expenses efficiently is to enable the success of any strategy. Financial management software allows you to automatically categorize corporate expenses, analyze data in real time, control the budget accurately and generate personalized reports. These benefits make it possible not only to streamline processes, but also significantly reduce the risk of errors and bring insights to a more strategic and agile decision making”, explains Taeli Klaumann, CFO of Simple Account.

Personal and corporate finance on the same card impact business management

Another custom that can represent a limiting factor in the efficiency of daily operations is the use of the Individual credit card for business expenses.The survey points out that 16% of Brazilian MSMEs (about 3.5 million companies) they still have this custom, a practice that not only compromises the financial organization, but also damages the credibility of the company with suppliers and financial institutions, making it difficult to access corporate credit.

Businesses that opt for corporate credit cards have reported benefits such as the elimination of bureaucratic processes, registration of invoices, refund requests and accountability. The preference for the use of credit cards in companies is justified by attributes such as installment and payment terms (52%), financial organization (22%) and practicality (16%).

The director of Visa do Brasil comments that the numbers reflect the importance of investing in a more professional financial management. “It is essential that companies separate personal and corporate finances to avoid complications and ensure greater control and transparency in financial management. With the adoption of business cards, entrepreneurs and employees can enjoy benefits such as streamlining processes, efficiency in operations and expanding financial control. This transforms B2B payment flows, improving efficiency and providing a more fluid and secure payment experience for MSMEs throughout Brazil”.

Still, the study points out that there is room for greater penetration of business cards in the market, given that 5 out of 10 companies that have credit cards have only 1 or 2 units available to the team, which can be a limiting factor in the efficiency of daily operations.

The cost of disinformation

All of this data brings an even more alarming number: 100% of the companies interviewed do not fully understand the meaning of “expenditure management”while industries like sales and marketing have platforms for automation and analytics, the financial sector often becomes dependent on generic solutions that do not meet its specific needs. 

The CEO of Conta Simples clarifies the doubt: “Expend management is the process of planning, monitoring and controlling the expenses of, in this case, a company to ensure that financial resources are used efficiently and aligned with the established objectives.It is a movement that involves the identification of expenses, categorization, analysis of consumption patterns, creation of budgets and implementation of tools or strategies to optimize spending and avoid WAStage”, he summarizes.

Check out the full study of Simple Account and Visa here.