Small Business Workbench, the first product launched by Small Business Payments Company (a U.S. subsidiary of Acxsys Corporation), is an online and mobile cash forecasting and working capital tool for small businesses that banks and small business providers can offer their customers to help them succeed. It is a hosted, Software as a Service (SaaS) product that aggregates and integrates data from multiple sources and gives small businesses the ability to forecast projected cash positions as far into the future as they wish.†
Small Business Workbench is a turnkey solution that banks and small business service providers can offer as a “white label” product to their small business customers.† It can be branded and implemented for small business customers to use.
“Based on our experience, we know that banks and other companies focused on small businesses want to offer reliable online and mobile solutions to help their customers prosper, but have struggled to find appropriate tools that are easy to implement and simple for customers to use until now,” says Mark O’Connell, president of Small Business Payments Company.
Banks can become distributors of the Small Business Workbench by entering into a Reseller Agreement with the Small Business Payments Company or through another distributor, branding the Small Business Workbench, and offering it to their small business customers. Non-bank service providers to small business will be able to license Small Business Workbench and distribute it as a SaaS product that can be offered in their stores or through their online sites.
Key features of the Small Business Workbench include:
- Its ability to forecast future cash positions as far into the future as a small business customer wants.
- Its technological links to working capital applications, which connect and integrate numerous value-added applications for small businesses to use and which “talk” to the cash forecast and deliver the timely, up-to-date, relevant cash-flow information small businesses need to make daily business decisions.
- A small business customer can set a dollar minimum below which she/he does not want their business cash to fall on any given day. The Workbench will send an “alert” when the minimum is approaching and suggest solutions to address it.
- “Trigger Marketing” recommendations – Customers are notified that there are actions they can take to maximize their working capital or address potential cash flow problems. For example, if a business has a $100,000 surplus in its forecast, it will get a recommendation to invest the money for a specific time period. If it has too much inventory, it will receive a recommendation to use Small Business Workbench’s loyalty and rewards program to help dispose of excess inventory.
- Apps will focus on working capital categories: cash, inventory, receivables, payables, and payroll as well as other financial functions important to small businesses.
“About 30 to 40 percent of small businesses fail within the first three years, and the ability to forecast and manage cash flow is a critical success factor for them. Having a better understanding of their cash ups and downs allows small businesses to take action to ensure that they can make informed borrowing and investment decisions, pay their bills or meet payroll and other obligations,” adds O’Connell. “Currently, this unique product delivers an unparalleled forecasting ability for small businesses, and we believe banks and other small business service providers will eagerly gravitate to this solution.”
