By Ajay John, Director Data Intelligence, Apiture
In today’s data-driven world, your financial institution is uniquely positioned to leverage data to help small business clients solve real-world problems. By making data accessible, approachable, and actionable—essentially democratizing data—your bank or credit union can help small businesses make informed, strategic decisions. Read on to learn four ways you can use data to create tangible benefits for business clients.
Automating Manual Tasks
By leveraging financial data, you can automate manual tasks to help businesses streamline operations, reducing time and effort spent on routine activities such as:
- Invoicing and payments: By analyzing transaction data, you can develop tools that automatically generate invoices and process payments, reducing the burden on small business owners.
- Expense tracking and reporting: Automating expense categorizations based on transaction data can simplify accounting processes. Additionally, taking advantage of real-time expense tracking allows businesses to stay on top of finances without manual entry.
Using Alerts to Inform About Critical Events
You can employ data to create alerts about critical changes and events, helping small businesses respond promptly to opportunities and threats, including:
- Cash flow alerts: When cash flow dips below a certain threshold, alerts can help businesses take corrective actions before issues escalate.
- Market trends and opportunities: Knowing about shifts in consumer behavior or emerging trends can help businesses adapt strategies in real-time.
Optimizing Payments and Savings to Maximize Returns
Use data to offer insights about a business’s payments and savings, not only to help them maximize returns, but also to enhance their overall financial health. Strategies include:
- Create optimized payment schedules: By analyzing payment patterns, your institution can suggest optimal payment schedules for effective cash flow management, ultimately helping businesses avoid late fees and take advantage of early payment discounts.
- Recommend targeted savings plans: Through analysis of spending patterns, you can help businesses create tailored savings plans and investment opportunities, allowing them to align savings with financial goals.
Driving Efficiency Through Benchmarking
Through aggregated data analysis, you can provide business clients with valuable benchmarks against industry standards and peers, helping them drive efficiency and become more competitive. Areas to benchmark include:
- Performance Metrics: With insights into how a business performs against its peers, you can highlight areas for improvement and growth.
- Cost and Revenue Benchmarks: Understanding average industry costs and revenues can help businesses set realistic financial goals and identify cost-saving opportunities.
A Mutual Win
When you provide business clients with data-driven insights and tools, they are more likely to share operational data with your financial institution. And when you know more about your business clients’ needs and challenges, you can develop more targeted solutions, drive innovation, and increase customer satisfaction. Access to data not only empowers your clients to make better decisions, but it also fosters collaboration and allows both parties to thrive.
Fintechs like Apiture play a crucial role in this ecosystem by developing powerful analytics solutions at scale, making it easier for your financial institution to democratize data—and, at the same time, provide businesses with the tools they need to compete. Contact us to learn how you can use data to build better relationships with your business clients.
