Zil Money Debuts Payroll Tool Amid Small Business Cash Crunch
B2B payments platform Zil Money says it wants to help cash-strapped businesses make payroll. To that end, the company Monday (June 12) announced the launch of Payroll by Credit Card, a tool to help companies simplify employee payments, even during cash flow shortages. “We understand the common challenges small businesses face in meeting payroll deadlines due to cash […]
The post Zil Money Debuts Payroll Tool Amid Small Business Cash Crunch first appeared on PYMNTS.com.
B2B payments platform Zil Money says it wants to help cash-strapped businesses make payroll.
To that end, the company Monday (June 12) announced the launch of Payroll by Credit Card, a tool to help companies simplify employee payments, even during cash flow shortages.
“We understand the common challenges small businesses face in meeting payroll deadlines due to cash flow issues,” Sabeer Nelli, Zil Money’s CEO, said in a news release.
“Therefore, we have developed a solution that allows small businesses to access the funds needed for smooth payroll operations efficiently.”
Nelli said companies that use Payroll by Credit Card can ensure timely employee payment and reduce payment delays for small businesses.
The company has also debuted an enhanced Pay by Credit Card feature, which lets customers pay any recipient, even those that don’t accept credit cards, by sending funds via checks, wire transfers, or ACH.
In an interview with PYMNTS last week, Chris Trainor, head of product at Paymentus, said that offering a range of payment options — via ACH, digital wallets and even PayPal — can streamline the payables component of cash flow management.
“Every business, just like every consumer, could benefit from automating financial management and making sure that you know what is coming and what is going out,” he said.
The launch of Zil Money’s new offering comes at a time when the flow of cash to small and midsized businesses (SMBs) has essentially slowed to a trickle.
PYMNTS noted a number of signs of this trend last month: The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC), said that in 2021 versus 2020, the dollar amount of small business loans originated fell by 21%, to about $371 billion. The Kansas City Fed showed in its own data that year over year, small business loans decreased by 17.7%.
More recently, the debt ceiling battle in Washington, D.C., illustrated that 9% SMBs reported more problems securing their last loan than in previous attempts.
PYMNTS research has found that only 25% of SMBs had access to more than 60 days of cash to cover an emergency, while 17% of firms had no cash cushion at all. Some industries have it worse than others: Half of all construction firms said they had access to less than 30 days’ worth of cash; about 45% of hospitality firms reported being in the same situation.
“These businesses depend on large-ticket spending from end consumers, and are seasonal — and are certainly brick-and-mortar, which means that operating costs are high too,” PYMNTS wrote. “As to where they’re getting the funds? PYMNTS data reveal that roughly a third of them are tapping into personal credit cards — only about 17% are getting funding from banks.”
The post Zil Money Debuts Payroll Tool Amid Small Business Cash Crunch first appeared on PYMNTS.com.