Small business banking platform Lili has added accounting software to its toolkit.
The new product — dubbed “Lili Smart” — makes Lili the nation’s first super app for banking, the company said in a news release Tuesday (April 18).
“Banking and accounting are part of the same process, yet legacy banks historically have separated these functions, causing small business owners to spend nearly 100 hours each year on taxes and accounting,” Lili said in the release.
In combining both processes on one platform, the bulk of the reconciliation process can happen in seconds, with paychecks, invoices and payments identified in real time, according to the release.
Lilac Bar David, Lili’s founder and CEO, said in the release the company’s customers point to tax management and accounting as the most frustrating aspect of owning a business.
“Doing everything that a business owner needs to do in order to manage finances is confusing and incredibly time consuming,” she said in the release. “With the addition of accounting, and Lili Smart, small business owners are able to view their finances as one process, saving them time, money and frustration.”
Lili Smart lets small business owners manage their own bookkeeping without needing an accountant, according to the release. A single button click generates profit and loss statements, cash flow statements, and expense reports, and it sends invoices.
“This gives small business owners, for the first time, the advantage in managing outstanding invoices, assisting in reconciling payments, and tracking past due invoices to provide less hassle and more financial visibility,” the release said.
PYMNTS spoke with Bar David last year about the challenges small businesses face when moving money in between accounts, whether it’s for B2B payments or allowing customers to pay for their purchases in an instant.
“Small business owners are highly busy making sure they are getting paid for their products and services, so from their point of view, prioritizing fast payments is the No. 1 key aspect,” she said at the time. “It’s also about making sure that they are managing the payments correctly, ensuring they know who got paid and who is still pending and so on.”
But making that payments are fast and seamless is easier said than done, as many legacy payment systems are much slower than merchants require. Automated clearing house (ACH) or direct deposit systems can take a day or two to clear, a massive setback in an age in which customers demand instant satisfaction.
“If you’re using the traditional rails, whether it’s ACH or direct deposit, it’s not a real-time thing,” said Bar David. “So, we are facing the challenges of the traditional industry dilemma: How do you get access to funds faster?”
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