Colleen Williamson started Kisco Print Shop to be creative. She didn’t get into business to update multiple spreadsheets. She didn’t get into business to worry about tracking expenses. QuickBooks® Online simplified that for her.
“It allows me to do what I enjoy — making art — as opposed to figuring out what expenses I have. Everything is so automated.”
Colleen’s experience mirrors what a lot of your clients in small businesses go through. As their businesses grow and become more complex, managing their business starts to get in the way of doing the actual job they love. We’ve heard from our customers that the complexity of end-to-end money movement creates too much worry. Making sure they have enough money in their accounts to prevent fees is a constant concern. Juggling spreadsheets, bank accounts, payments and payroll systems across several different browser tabs takes time and energy that should be devoted to their craft — in Colleen’s case, her art. But there hasn’t been one place for small business owners to do everything they need for their business finances — until now — with the introduction of QuickBooks Cash, doing for banking what QuickBooks did for accounting.
QuickBooks Cash is a business bank account with debit card1 that’s free to open, has no minimum balance or required daily balance, and no monthly service fee2. With free instant deposit for eligible users3, there’s no more waiting for funds from payments processing to clear, which means no more latency math to figure out when your clients can pay their team or restock supplies. The money is ready when they are, and earns a truly high-yield interest — 25 times the industry average4. And, with the addition of QuickBooks Cash into the QuickBooks family, small business owners not only have access to an all-in-one business bank account, but can also see their entire financial picture, pay employees and bills, accept payments, and get access to capital — all from the same platform.
In traditional systems, money takes too much time to get where it needs to be. Here’s an example: Normally, a business can’t accept a payment and immediately have access to that money to run payroll the same day. Some systems can tack on a 1- to 2-day waiting period before a payment is deposited, and then customers need up to a week or more to run payroll, according to research conducted in 2019 by QuickBooks. But with the instant deposit feature in QuickBooks Cash working in tandem with QuickBooks Payroll — which can set up and run payroll on the same day — the latency goes away and people can run their business in a timely fashion. When cash moves faster, businesses can grow faster. And with their full money picture in one place, businesses are better informed, and can make better financial decisions.
QuickBooks Cash arrives at a vital moment for small businesses: In the current COVID-19 environment, they need as much help as possible to gain faster access to, and to keep track of, their money. And they need to do it remotely. Unlike the traditional small business bank account model, small business owners can sign up for QuickBooks Cash online from mobile or desktop, without ever having to go to a bank. Approval can take only a few minutes1. And, because machine-learning prediction is built into the system, small businesses can get predictive analysis of their upcoming 90-day cash flow, including when an invoice is likely to be paid. This provides critical information to help make decisions like whether to work on drumming up new business or collecting outstanding payments.
Using one platform that performs so many functions is more than just convenient. It can even save small businesses money in the end. By allowing small businesses to manage all the services that impact cash flow at once, from bill pay to payments, payroll, and banking, there is the potential to eliminate fees and allow businesses to better understand, manage, and predict their cash flow trajectory. QuickBooks Cash combines the capabilities of varying services, ranging from payments to cash flow planning to banking, into one core service, potentially saving customers money by eliminating service fees and increasing efficiency when managing their business.
QuickBooks Cash will include:
- QuickBooks Cash: A business bank account that allows small businesses to fully manage their finances, access their cash, and earn interest. QuickBooks Cash is free to open, and it has no minimum opening deposit or daily balance requirements and no monthly service fees2.
- QuickBooks Debit Card: A physical debit card that enables a small business to spend from its QuickBooks Cash balance. It reconciles seamlessly with QuickBooks and is linked to the QuickBooks Cash business bank account.
- Envelopes: Envelopes7 allow business owners to set aside money for specific planned or unexpected expenditures, helping ensure that their future spend is not accidentally used. This means that small businesses can easily budget and directly partition funds into categories they will need to pay — for example, for quarterly taxes, employee bonuses, or supplies and materials.
- High-Yield Interest Rate: Small business banking accounts today offer zero to low interest rates, yet come with fees and minimum balance requirements. QuickBooks Cash, on the other hand, will offer customers a high-yield interest rate of 1%,6 — 25 times higher than the average rate of .04%4, on all balances.
- Free Instant Deposit: With free instant deposit3, small businesses no longer need to wait for incoming funds to clear when they’re processed through QuickBooks Payments. For eligible transactions, instant deposit will provide immediate access to funds from QuickBooks Payments in the QuickBooks Cash account — for free.
- Cash Flow Planner: Powered by machine learning, the Cash Flow Planner10 within QuickBooks Cash provides a full view of a business’s finances via a dashboard that indicates how much money is coming into the business and how much money is going out. This end-to-end look analyzes all financial inputs to predict a business’s cash flow over the next 90 days, proactively alerting business owners when a cash flow concern might arise and providing recommendations for navigating the challenge.
- Bill Pay: With bill pay11 available in QuickBooks Online, small businesses will be able to schedule vendor payments and manage all their money out transactions in one place. The transactions are recorded in QuickBooks, so their books are automatically reconciled.
- Seamless QuickBooks Integrations: QuickBooks Cash seamlessly integrates across the QuickBooks Online platform, so small businesses can use the funds in their QuickBooks Cash account to run payroll, accept payments and send invoices — all of which are automatically reconciled and accounted for in their QuickBooks file for a complete money-in and money-out view.
With the availability of QuickBooks Cash, small businesses can use the power of the QuickBooks platform to manage their business finances while also benefiting from an all-in-one bank account that provides access to their cash whenever they need it. As your clients’ trusted advisor, you are in a unique position to help them understand their options.
This information is intended to outline our general product direction but represents no obligation and should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision.
1 QuickBooks Cash bank account opening is subject to identity verification and approval by Green Dot Bank. Banking services provided by and the QuickBooks Visa Debit Card is issued by Green Dot Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. Visa is a registered trademark of Visa International Service Association. QuickBooks products and services, including Instant Deposit, QuickBooks Payments, Cash flow planning/forecasting are not provided by Green Dot Bank.
2 Other fees and limits apply. See Deposit Account Agreement here.
3 Instant deposit is an additional service offered by QuickBooks Payments subject to eligibility criteria. Standard rates apply for ACH and card transactions. Deposits are sent to the bank account linked to your QuickBooks Debit Card or, at your election, another eligible debit card in up to 30 minutes. Deposit times may vary for third party delays.
4 According to published FDIC Weekly National Rates as of July 27, 2020.
5 You can create up to 10 Envelopes. Money in Envelopes must be moved to the available balance in your primary deposit account before it can be used. Each Envelope will automatically earn interest once created, which will be separately tracked from the primary account and any other Envelope. See Deposit Account Agreement for terms and conditions.
6 According to published FDIC Weekly National Rates July 20, 2020. The annual percentage yield (“APY”) is accurate as of 7/29/20 and may change at our discretion at any time. The APY is applied to deposit balances in the fund within your primary QuickBooks Cash account and each individual envelope. We use the average daily balance method to calculate interest on your account. See Deposit Account Agreement for terms and conditions.
7 Cash flow planning is provided by QuickBooks as a courtesy for informational purposes only. Actual results may vary. 8 Bill pay is a service provided by Evolve Bank and powered by Melio. Bill Pay is not available for QuickBooks Online Simple Start.
