With conventional banks still turning a blind eye to address the issues faced by small and medium-sized businesses and startups, large fissures in business banking have emerged. The biggest challenge small businesses face is that of credit and payment. Considerable resources are consumed over apparently straightforward tasks such as executing payments to vendors and employees. Moreover, small businesses hardly employ the use of credit cards, and entrepreneurs realize the need to focus their time and effort on core business areas and goals rather than jostling with bills and handling finances.

This is why the digital banking space is buzzing with innovative fintech and neobanks that promise such businesses to help them move their business banking to autopilot mode, taking care of every possible financial service via a simple yet interactive interface. But is it truly possible to put business banking on Autopilot? Let’s find out.

Here’s how neobanks put business banking on autopilot

Neobanks operate as a digital financial assistant of sorts, helping businesses automate their financial tasks while they work towards their goals. Digital or neobanks are monetary service providers offering payment and money transfer services, savings account, loans for business, and individual and budgeting services, among others. Neobanking is all about the ease of finding all probable financial management services under one roof. There are several neobank functions that help businesses go in autopilot mode: 

  • Operating as a unified platform, a neobank helps in making, controlling, tracking, and analyzing all kinds of monetary movements. The transactions related to customers, vendors, and employees can be easily tracked and managed by their financial CRM(Customer Relationship Management). 
  • Neobanks take care of payroll and tax compliance requirements while seamlessly integrating their services into the firm’s process. Payrolls can be automated entirely while statutory compliances such as the provision of PT, ESI, TDS, and PF are automatically performed. 
  • Round the clock banking services ensure on-time disbursal of payments, salaries, refunds via RTGS, NEFT, and UPI among others, and other money-related services. Firms need not worry about banking hours ever again!
  • Each user is granted a personal dashboard, the bank’s app, and integrations, approval workflows apart from the conventional features that come along with the current account.
  • Using data and AI, neobanks customize saving goals to suit a particular firm’s needs and goals.
  • Neobanks offer regular and smart reports and insights via access to financial reports and summaries and other statements giving a financial overview of the firm’s business expenses.
  • The autopilot mode so offered is scalable i.e. it scales with the scope of business operations while taking care of all the bulk payouts, contractor payments, and other such disbursals expanding as a result of the scaling. 
  • The firms can add multiple contacts to their phonebook in one go and start transacting with them immediately without waiting for any cooling period to initiate and complete itself. 
  • Neobanking streamlines the financial operations of a firm using powerful APIs. The APIs so used help the firm to enhance the flexibility and visibility in managing finances.  

What are the advantages of going autopilot on banking?

Being an autonomous entity, a digital bank like Salt proactively helps entrepreneurs running short on time or skills to manage their finances automatically without them being worried or harassed. The firms on autopilot can be assured of availing all the right opportunities.

  • For any business, managing finances and budgeting can be the most mentally taxing jobs besides the usual revenue-profit-sales-cost worries. 
  • Neobanks automate a majority of the financial tasks thus imparting financial discipline to the entire business process. 
  • They use the power of AI and Data in real-time, removing the scope for errors or inefficiencies. 
  • When on autopilot, firms are relieved of the anxiety associated with managing money as such banks operate via apps or websites with a user-friendly interface. 
  • Businesses on autopilot can build their wealth autonomously, as neobanks also help to utilize every saved penny in an optimum way. 
  • Since these banks operate online, a major chunk of costs that were earlier deployed in availing conventional baking services is saved. 

What are the probable challenges? 

Customers still consider neobanks as alternate banking options while employing conventional banking services. SMEs and other startups often face uncertain conditions and a rocky environment. Going autopilot may be lucrative, but not a feasible option for many who survive on hand-to-mouth returns. Complete dependence on automated financial management may cause businesses to go careless with their expenses. At times, firms might find it hard to assimilate the autopilot mode in their planning, given that most of the industries are always in flux. 

Neobanks boast the capability of taking business banking to another level, given their low-cost business models. These banks are also witnessing good rates of adoption owing to their enormous offerings. Amidst the pandemic and economic slowdown, that businesses need work upon their financial health is not something that needs preaching. Putting your business on autopilot can save one from many unnecessary money management hassles. There’s a lot more to explore in digital banking.