Maintaining a healthy cash flow is crucial for any business, regardless of size. Still, small and medium-sized businesses are particularly vulnerable to cash flow issues, especially in today’s volatile market. The good news is that embracing digital payments can help.

A healthy cash flow means you have enough money to pay your vendors, suppliers, utility bills, rent, and employees, and are still left with some extra cash for unexpected expenses or for growing your business. Cash flow health means your business is more resilient in uncertain times as it has some reserves it can lean into if push comes to shove.

Switching to digital payments is not just a matter of convenience (which is also a big deal for busy entrepreneurs like you). It helps businesses improve their cash flow management without requiring monetary investment, special equipment, or training. If you have an internet connection and can operate a computer or a mobile phone, you can start sending digital payments online.

Many digital payment tools allow you to schedule payments in advance. This saves time as you can handle all your payments in one sitting. It also improves your cash flow as it ensures you pay on time and never a minute too soon. So, you can hang on to cash longer without fear of forgetting a bill and incurring late fees and penalties.

By using digital payment tools you can get a clear picture of your finances at any given time. You can also see all of your scheduled payments in order to better plan ahead. Knowing exactly what’s coming in and out of your account and when will help you avoid payments accidentally depleting your cash flow. It will also allow you to know just how much cash you have to play around with at the moment.

Using digital payment tools can save you hours every week on writing and sending out checks. If you’re wasting less time on payments, you’re practically adding to your cash reserves by cutting staff hours and focusing on generating revenue instead of busy work. More cash means better cash flow. It’s that simple.

When it comes to cash flow, sometimes just having flexibility and choices can make all the difference. When you use QuickBooks Online Bill Payments (powered by Melio) for your payments, you can choose to pay with ACH to preserve cash by saving on fees (0% for ACH payments). If you’re currently low on cash and need a little extra float until some money comes in, you can easily pay your bills with a credit card, even if your vendors don’t accept cards. This way, for a 2.9% fee, your vendor gets paid immediately, whichever way they prefer—check or ACH—while you get to hang on to your cash until your next billing cycle, providing up to 60 days of additional float.

One of the newest features is combined payments. Say you need to pay ten different invoices, all from the same vendor. Sure, you can schedule ten individual payments, or, you can pay them all in one payment. Save time, money and make life simpler for you and your vendor. That’s what combined payments are all about! This feature lets you select the bills you want to pay to a single vendor and pay them all in one combined transaction. So, your vendor will see one ACH transfer or get one check for all the bills. And the same goes for you - all the combined bills will show and count as one transaction on your end as well.

Melio gives you the flexibility to pay vendors, suppliers and contractors exactly the way you want. Connecting Melio and QuickBooks Online syncs the two to save time and eliminate double data entry. Once connected, Melio pulls vendor information from QuickBooks, so you don't have to enter any vendor details, just select one from a list or start typing and have vendors auto-completed. Then, once you've completed a bill payment in Melio, your QuickBooks account is updated with the payment's details.

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