QuickBooks, the specialist in tax and accounting software is launching a new digital payment account for small business owners.
The QuickBooks business account will be powered by the fintech Modulr of payments as a service, enabling QuickBooks to offer a one-stop-shop solution that benefits from the latter’s payments infrastructure and leverages its expertise in digital payments .
The QuickBooks Business Account aims to help small business owners in four key areas. First, according to Intuit, owner of QuickBooks, small businesses lose 120 days a year in administration. Offering accounting and financial tools in a single app could help improve efficiency, as using the new account will allow businesses to allocate funds to pay their taxes and more easily manage payroll.
Second, the QuickBooks Business account allows users to access the Cash Flow Planner tool in QuickBooks, which uses artificial intelligence to predict money entering and leaving a business. The new account can be used in tandem with the cash flow planner to make cash flow projections up to 24 months in advance.
Faster payments
Third, the QuickBooks account could help reassure small businesses, of which only one in four is currently confident in their financial situation. Modulr is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK, offers direct access to Faster Payments and Bacs and has the ability to hold and settle funds with the Bank of England.
Fourth, with around £ 50bn currently owed to small businesses in the UK, the launch of the streamlined business account that combines accounting and financial tools into one could help them more effectively recover overdue payments.
Modulr will also add the option of a QuickBooks Business Account Card in due course, adding a physical touch to an otherwise fully digital bank account experience.
“Our direct access to the Bank of England will give small businesses the confidence, security and reliability they need to focus on what really matters: shaping and growing their business,†said Myles Stephenson, CEO of Modulr .
“We want to make payments so easy and reliable that they become an invisible ‘behind the scenes’ transaction, which means business owners across the country can continue their business.”
