Sunil Rajasekar is CEO of Billtrust.
Corporate finance has a Gen Z problem—but it’s not the one most CFOs think.
Conventional wisdom paints Gen Z as simply wanting convenient digital payments, but this surface-level analysis misses the profound disruption underway. Our company’s recent study of 1,000 Gen Z professionals reveals something far more significant: This generation isn’t just changing how financial operations work—they’re fundamentally questioning why those exist.
Your Buyer’s Financial Expectations Are Changing—Are You Ready?
Our research reveals that 65% of Gen Z buyers will abandon a business relationship after just two to three negative experiences. Rigid, outdated payment processes are one of those friction points. In fact, 94% of Gen Z respondents consider payment capabilities important, with 27% calling them “extremely important.”
Business-to-business (B2B) buyers increasingly expect the same seamless, flexible experiences they get as consumers. Gen Z consumers are almost 2.5 times as likely as Baby Boomers to say they want a speedy online purchase journey, according to a recent Mastercard study. With this in mind, your ability to offer customized payment options is becoming a key differentiator. Suppliers that can’t meet those expectations risk getting sidelined—not because of price or product, but because the transaction experience falls short.
Working capital is still essential, but the way you manage it can’t come at the cost of long-term relationships. In today’s market, relationship capital is appreciating faster than financial capital.
Your Financial Reporting Cadence May Be Old School
While most finance organizations fixate on quarterly reporting cycles, Gen Z has grown up with real-time financial visibility. With 93% of respondents in our 2023 survey using peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms and 40% now using them more than five times monthly, this generation experiences financial transparency daily, making monthly financial packages appear antiquated.
This expectation extends to B2B relationships, where Gen Z financial analysts will expect vendor portals with real-time invoicing and payment tracking. Quarterly business reviews are being replaced by continuous financial communication between business partners.
Forward-thinking CFOs recognize that reporting must shift from periodic financial positions to continuous financial narratives. The question is whether your stakeholders can access real-time insights that drive immediate decisions.
Your Financial Tech Stack Is Depreciating Faster Than You Think
Many CFOs take comfort in multiyear enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation timelines. Our data suggests this measured approach is increasingly perilous.
With mobile/digital wallets and credit/debit cards accounting for over 92% of Gen Z’s preferred payment methods, organizations clinging to legacy processes face existential threats. Furthermore, 68% say a company’s acceptance of new digital payment methods directly influences their brand perception. In fact, an EY survey found that Gen Z leads in adopting alternative payment methods.
In B2B transactions, it follows that Gen Z procurement teams will favor vendors with integrated payment platforms and digital options. Previous generations tolerated manual processes, but to Gen Z, these are likely unacceptable friction points in commercial relationships.
This isn’t primarily about technology—it’s about trust. Outdated financial systems indicate deeper organizational dysfunction. The AI-powered payment solutions that define tomorrow’s finance are essential trust signals.
The Competitive Imperative: Finance As A Growth Engine
The most dangerous misconception is that Gen Z’s expectations can be addressed through incremental improvements. Our data tells a different story.
With Gen Z now comprising 27% of global workers, their expectations are an immediate competitive reality. Organizations that treat financial operations as cost centers rather than growth engines may find it harder to attract talent, retain customers or maintain vendor relationships.
Three strategic shifts separate future-ready financial organizations from those heading toward irrelevance:
• From working capital optimization to relationship capital investment: Financial flexibility creates relationship value that often exceeds its capital cost. For B2B organizations, this means implementing flexible payment terms and dynamic discounting programs that strengthen business partnerships rather than merely extracting working capital advantages.
• From financial control to financial enablement: Financial processes should enable rather than restrict activity. B2B organizations must ensure their procurement platforms and payment systems enable rather than restrict their business partners, eliminating unnecessary friction in commercial relationships.
• From backward-looking accounting to forward-looking intelligence: Financial systems need to inform what should happen next. B2B finance leaders must provide business partners with predictive analytics and payment optimization insights, evolving the relationship from transaction processing to mutual value creation.
The Choice: Evolve Or Become Obsolete
For most of corporate history, finance organizations prioritized stability and control over innovation and experience. That equation has fundamentally changed.
In an economy increasingly defined by Gen Z’s expectations, CFOs must choose: continue optimizing traditional metrics while relationships deteriorate, or embrace a paradigm where experience, transparency and flexibility drive financial leadership.
This isn’t merely a technological challenge—it’s a fundamental reimagining of financial leadership. Organizations that recognize this shift will build competitive advantages their traditional competitors cannot match.
The future belongs to CFOs who understand that in the Gen Z economy, finance must create relationship capital that drives growth. Those clinging to outdated paradigms will become irrelevant.
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