As a small business owner, having control of cash flow is vital to keeping business operations running. While it’s not always easy to keep cash flow positive, developing the right strategies to keep tabs of the amounts coming in and going out of your business is critical to your success. Melio is a free and simple accounts payable solution to help small businesses stay in business; a powerful tool that can also help you maximize your cash flow. Here’s how:
1. Schedule payments – never pay too early or too late
By allowing you to schedule payments and choose when the funds are deducted from your account, Melio helps you better manage your cash flow and hold on to cash longer. Melio provides a clear view of when your payment will arrive at your recipient, depending on how you choose to pay (ACH or credit card) and how your vendor prefers to receive payment (check or bank deposit). This lets you make the payment as close to the due date as possible, ensure payment will arrive on time and avoid late penalties or early payment cash flow issues.
2. Pay your business bills with a credit card
Melio lets you pay any business bill with a credit card, even where cards are not accepted, allowing your business to defer payments, increase your cash flow, and earn card rewards like cashback, points, and more. Melio delivers payment to your recipient as a check or bank deposit (ACH), so even expenses like rent, utilities, freelancers, etc. can be postponed to your next credit card billing cycle. Melio’s credit card payments can also help you take advantage of early-pay or volume discounts and manage unexpected expenses (Note: credit card payments have a 2.9% fee).
3. Track your payments
Melio lets you track the status of your payments from the moment they’re scheduled. Tracking payments can help you better understand your cash flow status and make business decisions based on real-time information. It also allows you to develop trust with your vendors by providing an accurate update of when your payment arrives. As your relationship grows, your vendors may be willing to offer you better payment terms, helping you to hold on to cash longer. Melio also displays each payment’s status to ensure there are no forgotten bills or oversights.
4. Manage all your payments from one place
Keeping all your small business payments centralized is key to maintaining control and minimizing cash flow issues. Instead of shifting between writing checks, making payments via your bank, and paying with a credit card, Melio lets you do it all from one place.
Also, Melio’s one simple dashboard lets you send and receive business payments in an easy and flexible way, compared to existing automation tools, which are often designed for finance professionals, and overwhelming for small business owners and office admins.
5. Implement payment approval workflows
Having a set of internal rules and processes to review and approve bills before payment gives you better control and transparency of the funds going out. It also helps create a system of checks and balances to minimize human error and reduce fraud that can impact your cash flow. As a small business, Melio lets you implement payment approval workflows for free to help make your payment process much more efficient and keep track of your cashflow.
6. Focus more on your business and less on paperwork
Creating an efficient payment process helps you free up valuable time instead of spending it on manually paying your invoices. With easy onboarding, a user-friendly interface, and access from mobile and desktop that supports businesses at the office or on the go, Melio helps speed up your payment process. So now you can spend more on growing your business and cash flow, and less on time-consuming and error-prone paperwork.
7. Make it easy for your business customers to pay you
Creating a payment flow that’s easy and frictionless is key to helping your B2B customers pay you on time, increase your fulfillment rate, and improve your cash flow. With Melio, you have a free and simple accounts payable tool AND an easy and friendly accounts receivable solution that lets you easily send B2B customers invoices, together with a payment link. The link takes them through a seamless online process where they can choose how and when to pay, and you receive funds on time. No more “check is in the mail.”
Conclusion
Having a healthy cash flow can be the difference between keeping your business open or shutting your doors.
Melio was chosen by CompareCamp as the #1 AP and AR management tool for small businesses. It provides users with powerful features designed specifically for needs the needs of SMBs and can help you manage and maximize your cash flow, creating greater opportunities for your business.