The UK Autumn Budget is out, and the message is pretty clear: companies are going to have to do more with less. That’s tough, but it’s also a chance to take a step back and think about how you work. Where can you make things simpler? Where can you enhance, or cut out, the activities that slow you down?
There’s a saying I like: focus on what you can control, not what you can’t. Easier said than done, but it’s a good starting point. So, what does this Budget mean for businesses, and what can you actually do about it?
In brief, Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget is all about stabilising the economy. It freezes income tax and National Insurance thresholds, adds pension-related NI changes for 2029, bumps up the minimum wage, and gives some relief to energy-heavy sectors. All good for the bigger picture, but for employers? It means more complexity and higher costs.
On top of that GDP growth is forecast at just 1.5%. That’s low, especially when lots of businesses are still aiming for growth of 10, 20, even 40%. That gap puts real pressure on margins, leaving companies struggling to increase revenue fast enough to keep up.
I spoke with Kevin Grant, Managing Director of Treasury Management, and he put it bluntly:
“Payroll costs are going up, compliance is getting heavier, and working capital is under pressure,” he said. “Being smart about cash flow and visibility was always important… but now, it’s critical.” When all these pressures pile up, they amplify each other, and that’s why efficiency and resilience matter more than ever. For most companies, it means margins are tighter and finance teams are under strain.
The question is how should businesses respond?
You can cut costs, but that only gets you so far. You could try to grow revenue by adding new products or services, but that takes time. A quicker win? Make your processes leaner, improve visibility, and build resilience without piling more work on your team. And one of the best places to start is likely to be in payments.
Zero in on Payments
Payments aren’t just transactions, they’re central to your business existence. They affect cash flow, customer experience, supplier relationships, compliance… pretty much everything. When payments run smoothly, life gets easier. When they don’t, things grind to a halt.
The Budget doesn’t change how payments work, but it does make efficiency urgent. With costs climbing and margins tightening, delays and mistakes aren’t something businesses can afford – and manual processes are often the biggest culprit. Making payments simpler and faster is one of the quickest ways to create breathing room and keep cash flowing.
“Automate the routine stuff,” says Grant. “Payroll, supplier payments, collections, because that’s where you lose time and money. Take those tasks off the table and free up your team to focus on what really matters.” Plus, you get accuracy, which is huge when compliance is tightening and cash flow is under pressure.
Also remember that payments are part of the customer experience. If the process is clunky or confusing, people hesitate, and that hesitation often means delays. “Make it easy, give them choices they’re comfortable with, and you’ll see the difference,” Grant said. Offering payment options like secure payment links or account-to-account transfers via Open Banking makes paying that much easier and build confidence.
Another important step is keeping security strong, but invisible. Nothing kills trust and loses money faster than a breach. Fraudsters are getting smarter every day, compliance is tighter, and businesses need robust fraud checks. Every transaction should include automated measures like bank account verification, sanctions screening, and transaction and user behaviour monitoring – quietly running in the background to protect revenue and reputation without slowing things down.
Next, you want to think about collections. Chasing overdue payments is nobody’s favourite job. Manual retries and endless reminders eat up time and strain relationships. “Automating collections changes the game,” adds Grant. “Using smart rules to handle exceptions you skip the awkward conversations and get paid faster.”
Here’s a simple example: if a Direct Debit fails, the system can retry automatically or send a secure payment link. A quick email or SMS nudge often gets the payment sorted, saving hours of admin and keeping the relationship intact.
And while automating collections helps, another area that often gets overlooked: cash and card payments. Lots of businesses, especially wholesalers and distributors, still deal with big volumes of cash or card payments. That adds cost, risk, and makes reconciliation a nightmare. Switching to account-to-account transfers and automating reconciliation can cut overheads, reduce errors, and give finance teams back valuable time.
Control What You Can
The Autumn Budget sets the tone, but it doesn’t decide how you run your business. You can’t change policy or make GDP grow faster, but you can take control of the things that matter every day. Simplifying payment processes, automating where it makes sense, and building security into every transaction will give you breathing room.
“Focus on the things that really make a difference,” said Grant. “Payments are one of those. They touch everything: cash flow, compliance, customer experience, supplier relationships. Getting them right isn’t just a back-office fix; it’s a move that can truly change the visibility you have and how your business runs.”
You can’t control when customers pay, but you can control what you pay out and how efficiently you manage the order-to-cash process. Every pound and every minute saved here goes straight to your margins.
The Budget pressure is real. For businesses, it’s not about resisting policy but about adapting to it and making smart moves where you have control. That’s where you’ll find the wins, and it’s really a great excuse for progress.
Thumbnail image: Chancellor Rachel Reeves prepares to deliver the Budget” by HM Treasury, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0