Imagine your financial institution (FI) providing digital banking along with the fintech solutions to help smaller businesses in other financial and operational areas. A real need for better efficiency and fewer headaches is calling out from these businesses, and FIs can help by offering a wide range of business tools.
Spend management is one of the areas where small businesses could use some help. Today, 66 percent of small businesses manage receipts and expenses manually while 80 percent of them cite expense reconciliation as their most painful task. Not only would your bank or credit union meet an immediate necessity in your business community for spend management, but you would also be able to drive long-term engagement and utility of mobile and online banking, and thus drive retention for the small business segment.
Spend management for enhanced business experiences
Placing a precedence on enhancing the banking experiences of small businesses is becoming incredibly important to an FI’s success today. Ending manual expense-receipt management by upgrading to a digital alternative is an excellent step forward in proving an FI is focused on making digital commercial banking experiences more comprehensive.
Q2 acquired Sensibill to help make this happen. Like Q2, Sensibill understands that it’s necessary for FIs to produce better experiences to serve businesses—and that businesses should have the same level of “personalization” that consumers are increasingly receiving within the digital channel. Sensibill’s Spend Manager solution saves time, money, and hassles for businesses by supplying seamless receipt capture and auto-reconciliation.
Spend Manager is an agile spend management solution that helps businesses track and manage their everyday spending with mobile integration or cloud-based tools. Besides ease of use and simplicity, predictive analytics deliver businesses tips and custom advice based on a business’s purchases.
A business would be able to see category spend, frequent purchases, changes in cost of an item over time, and even the ability to compare to others with similar spend profiles. An FI would receive this data in aggregate for all the business accounts, and better understand and create personas based on that spending behaviors.
Take the lead in enhancing digital banking experiences for businesses
Spend management is only one example of delivering enhanced experiences. In Q2’s conversations with FIs, areas outside of traditional banking that are attracting the interest of their business customers include:
- Cash-flow analysis and financial health
- Streamlined digital applications for invoicing and payment acceptance
- Virtual assistants for customer service
- AI-driven business insights
Innovation driven by Sensibill and other in-tune fintech leaders can bring more choices and extensibility to a digital banking platform. Highly vetted fintech partners offering consumer and business solutions through Q2 Marketplace bring even more value to the equation.
Show companies your FI is open for business
The end of one-size-fits-all business banking is here. Providing more digital financial and operational solutions for small businesses is the next step in the digital-first evolution. As the primary holder of a small company’s funds, your FI should be the first place its owners turn to for added products and services.
Q2 Chief Strategy Officer Will Furrer, in an article written for Financial Brand, sums up what is required of FIs to remain relevant and competitive: “Leverage data, deliver personalized experiences and forge fintech partnerships. Those that can go beyond traditional banking and provide a broader set of financial solutions that align with their account holder needs will increase their market share and deepen relationships with their current customers.”
Demonstrate a deep understanding of a business and its market needs. Then, deliver tailored business banking with solutions like Spend Manager. This surefire strategy will remove any doubts about your FI’s success in the increasingly competitive market.
