Small businesses exhibit a strong desire to accelerate and simplify current payable/receivable processes and a willingness to adopt new electronic payment solutions in support of this, according to CashEdge Inc. in its 2011 Small Business Payables and Receivables Survey. Most of these small businesses also report a strong loyalty to their bank, representing a key opportunity for banks to provide these payment services.

Conducted by CashEdge, a provider of person-to-person and other electronic payments services through banks, the study examined the behavior and preferences of 405 small businesses as they relate to their overall payables and receivables processes. Small businesses were defined as having $1 million or less in annual sales revenue.

The survey found that while most small businesses still rely on manual, spreadsheet, and paper-based systems for their account payables and receivables processes, the majority are interested in new solutions that would increase the speed of customer payments. In fact, 60% said they would use an ACH receivables service for getting paid electronically if it did not require sharing account information.

“As we've seen with consumer banking, there is a strong, growing desire for more electronic P2P payments solutions among the small business segment,” says Neil Platt, senior vice-president and general manager, Banking & Payments, CashEdge. “Small businesses are looking for faster, simpler, and more efficient options for both payables and receivables. We see this as a tremendous opportunity for banks to strengthen key small business relationships by providing more electronic payment options–such as Popmoney and TransferNow for Small Business–to their small business banking customers.” Those services are both CashEdge products.

Additional survey findings include the following:

Small business owners are looking for new solutions to get paid faster
Respondents reported an average of 19 days to collect payments from customers. Sixty percent of respondents want to reduce the total days to payment.


Demand for electronic vendor payments is strong
Nineteen percent of respondents already leverage ACH transfers for vendor payments. An additional 38% would do so if it were available to them.


Small businesses demonstrate strong loyalty and online banking usage
Sixty-nine percent hold both their personal and business accounts at the same institution; 76% use online banking for their small business.

For more information:
http://www.cashedge.com/news-events-press-releases-20110426.php