Vast majority of businesses use online banking

According to the data, collected in the 2015-2016 Business Characteristics Survey (BCS), 84.7 per cent of companies that employed up to four people used IT for finance, followed by 92 per cent of companies employing five to 19 persons, 91.3 per cent of companies with 20 to 199 employees and 95.1 per cent of companies with 200 or more workers.

IT used for accounting

Seventy-one per cent of financial and insurance services reported using IT for accounting to a 'high extent', the most out of any industry, while 70.5 per cent of rental, hiring and real estate services reported using it frequently.

An average of 64.0 per cent of businesses in all industries used IT for accounting to a 'high extent', while 22.1 per cent reported using it to a 'low or moderate extent', while 13.9 per cent reported it was not applicable, or it wasn’t used at all.

The uptake of internet use for accounting purposes over all industries grew according to company size, with 58.9 per cent of companies of zero to four persons using IT for accounting to a high extent, followed by 69.0 per cent of businesses which employed five to 19 persons.

Over 80 per cent (80.6 per cent) of businesses that employed 20 to 199 persons used IT for accounting to a high extent and 91.9 per cent of businesses with 200 or more employees used IT to a high extent.

How has it grown?

In the 2013-14 period, 60.3 per cent of businesses used IT for accounting, reflecting growth of 3.7 per cent in the 2015-16 period.

The percentage of businesses using IT for financial services has also grown; in the 2013 to 2014 period, 85.3 per cent of businesses over all industries reported using IT for finance; 2.2 per cent less than the 2015-16 number. Again, businesses with 200 or more workers reported the highest rates of IT use for finance (94.3 per cent) and companies of zero to four employees reported the lowest (82.6 per cent).

[Related: Commercial finance ticks downwards in May]