India is home to one of the world’s fastest-growing fintech ecosystems, projected to reach $421 billion by 2029. As the third-largest fintech hub globally, it processes billions of real-time transactions and over 17,000 crore UPI payments annually, fundamentally reshaping how consumers and small businesses move money.
But inside Indian enterprises, the picture looks very different.
More than 63 lakh MSMEs were registered on the Udyam portal as of March 2025, yet many businesses continue to track cash flows on spreadsheets and manage payment approvals through email chains, phone calls, and informal communication channels.
Despite rapid progress in digital payments, core treasury operations remain largely manual.
This is not simply a matter of slow technology adoption. It reflects a structural mismatch. While fintech has transformed how money moves, treasury operations are still heavily influenced by cost constraints, familiar workflows, and a strong preference for direct control.
The Spreadsheet Default
Spreadsheets remain the most widely used financial tool across Indian businesses. Finance professionals learn Excel early in their careers, and that familiarity creates institutional inertia that is difficult to overcome.
The appeal is obvious: no implementation costs, no vendor onboarding, no dedicated IT resources, and no training requirements. Teams can build forecasting models, reconciliation trackers, and cash-flow reports within hours.
However, flexibility comes with hidden risks. Studies spanning decades have shown that the vast majority of business spreadsheets contain errors, many of which can materially affect financial decisions. In treasury operations, where liquidity planning and payment execution depend on accuracy, these risks become operational concerns rather than theoretical ones.
When Informal Communication Becomes Treasury Infrastructure
Across many Indian businesses, financial decisions often move through informal communication channels rather than structured treasury systems.
Payment approvals, fund-transfer confirmations, and cash-position updates frequently rely on messaging tools, emails, and direct communication because they offer speed and convenience. Decisions can be made quickly without navigating multiple systems or approval of workflows.
The challenge is that these communication channels were never designed to serve as treasury infrastructure.
They typically lack:
- Structured approval workflows
- Audit trails
- Compliance controls
- Governance mechanisms
- Centralized visibility
As transaction volumes increase and businesses scale, these gaps become increasingly difficult to manage.
How Fintech Changed Behavior Outside Finance Teams
The shift toward instant financial experiences began outside finance departments. Consumers became accustomed to UPI, QR-code payments, and real-time transfers. Activities that once required planning now happen in seconds.
Workplace expectations evolved in the same way. Teams expect immediate responses, real-time collaboration, and faster decision-making regardless of location.
Yet treasury processes inside many businesses still depend on spreadsheets, manual reconciliations, and fragmented approval workflows. While money movement has become digital and instant, internal financial operations are still catching up.
The Cost and Complexity Barrier
For many MSMEs, treasury modernization remains difficult to justify on economic grounds. Enterprise treasury management platforms often require licensing fees, banking integrations, implementation resources, and ongoing maintenance costs. For businesses operating under working-capital constraints, such investments can appear secondary to immediate growth priorities.
India’s fragmented banking ecosystem adds further complexity. Many organizations maintain relationships across multiple banks, each with their own portals, reporting formats, and operational processes. Consolidating this information into a unified treasury platform requires both investment and expertise.
As a result, spreadsheets continue to serve as practical workarounds.
The Control Paradox
One of the most underestimated barriers to treasury transformation is the perception of control. Finance leaders often trust spreadsheets because every formula, assumption, and calculation remains visible. Automated platforms, despite offering stronger controls, can feel less transparent.
This creates a paradox: organizations continue relying on familiar tools despite recognizing the risks those tools introduce. Technology alone cannot solve this challenge. Treasury modernization also requires organizations to rethink governance, accountability, and financial decision-making processes.
A Market Beginning to Move
The landscape is gradually changing. Large enterprises and multinational corporations operating in India are increasingly adopting structured treasury platforms to meet compliance, reporting, and governance requirements.
At the same time, fintech providers are building lighter and more affordable treasury solutions specifically designed for mid-market businesses. These solutions aim to preserve the flexibility of finance teams‘ value while introducing controls, visibility, and auditability that manual processes cannot provide.
The future is unlikely to involve abandoning existing tools entirely.
Instead, treasury operations will increasingly follow a hybrid model where spreadsheets remain useful for analysis. Communication platforms support collaboration, and dedicated treasury systems manage approvals, reconciliation, compliance, and governance.The businesses best positioned for growth will be those that establish these controls before operational complexity forces the issue.
Because India’s next fintech transformation may not be about making payments faster. It may be about bringing the same level of efficiency, visibility, and control to the finance departments that manage them.
