Intuit’s QuickBooks unveiled Wednesday a rebranding of its integrated small business bank account QuickBooks Cash as QuickBooks Checking – a product originally launched in 2020 that allows small businesses to fully manage their finances, access their cash and earn interest.
Since its launch, QuickBooks has seen over 150,000 small businesses sign up for its Checking account offering with more than one-third of those customers being new small enterprises operating for a year or less. The account boasts enticing offerings like zero opening fees, no minimum balance requirements and no monthly maintenance fees.
The platform can also be integrated with QuickBooks Online and with QuickBooks Payments, which processes roughly $91 billion in annual volume. For small business owners this integration means instantly depositing funds from processed transactions for same-day use at no extra cost.
Other features include QuickBooks Cash Flow Planner that helps businesses plan for the future by predicting cash flow 90 days out with the help of machine learning and data analysis. The planner proactively alerts business owners when cash flow might become a concern and provides recommendations on how to navigate potential challenges.
Another QuickBooks Checking feature small businesses will continue to enjoy is Envelopes, which allows them to partition money for planned or unexpected expenditures and avoid spending funds before their intended use. Small businesses commonly use the Envelopes feature to set aside funds for expenses like taxes and payroll, Quickbooks noted.
In an effort to create a more “one-stop-shop” experience for business banking, QuickBooks unveiled a number of product offerings alongside the Checking account rebrand including Mobile Check Deposit, giving small businesses the ability to accept checks from customers or vendors and deposit those funds into their account from anywhere. According to a release, this product will begin rolling out to eligible QuickBooks Checking customers in the coming weeks.
QuickBooks will also be rolling out virtual debit cards, made available immediately upon account approval so customers may start spending their balance even before their physical debit card arrives. The platform will also be accepting Apple and Google Pay when making purchases with the debit card in-store and online.
In tandem with the Envelope feature, Quickbooks is also launching Sales Tax Automation – by applying advanced machine learning, this feature will automatically set aside sales tax for payments in a sales tax envelope.
“Thousands of small businesses are turning to QuickBooks Checking to manage their cash flow and we’re laser focused on continuing to refine and design an even more robust banking experience with their specific needs in mind,” said Rania Succar, Senior Vice President of QuickBooks Money Offerings.
“A banking solution that’s seamlessly integrated with the QuickBooks platform accelerates our ability to deliver tremendous benefits to small businesses and support them with complete visibility of and fast access to their money, all with total reliability.”
According to QuickBooks, small business trends will continue exponentially in to 2022 and projects as many as 17 million new small businesses could be set up in 2022.
The prediction comes from a recent survey of 8,000 U.S. employees, commissioned by QuickBooks in November 2021. The survey reveals that almost three out of five (57%) want to start a business and of these, one in five (20%) will make the leap in 2022 — equivalent to around 17 million people.