Iklan

Many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the country are at serious risk of losing their jobs. The country’s 40-year high inflation rate (currently 7.9%) has exacerbated cash flow disruptions, working capital shortages and supply chain bottlenecks. As small and medium-sized businesses struggle to maintain cash flow and secure working capital to fund their day-to-day operations, a new financing product from payment automation company Plastiq aims to help small businesses survive and withstand skyrocketing inflation.

Plastiq, a fintech company that has served small and medium-sized businesses for a decade, announced on Tuesday the launch of Plastiq Pay, giving small businesses the resources they need to improve their cash flow as high inflation threatens their businesses. The company announced that Plastiq Pay enables small and medium-sized businesses to thrive in a rapidly growing economy by automating all aspects of invoice receipt, payment approval routing, filing and invoice reconciliation.

“We created Plastiq Pay to help small business owners organize their back office before the digitization of their business, support remote work, and free up and operate all forms of working capital at the company’s disposal,” said Stoyan Kenderov, chief operating officer of Plastiq in an interview with EragonCred Interview. “If they don’t have working capital available, we offer spot loans to help,” he added.

Iklan

Plastiq was founded a decade ago to help small and medium-sized businesses get working capital from available credit, usually in the form of a credit card. Until then, if you were running a small manufacturing business and wanted to buy raw materials from a non-US supplier, the supplier wouldn’t accept your card; cash or bank transfers were the only acceptable payment methods. If you have a customer waiting for you to make a product, but you can’t buy those supplies, your customer will take their business elsewhere. Plastiq enables businesses to pay suppliers using whatever method they choose, whether they accept it or not, so businesses can run uninterrupted.

Iklan

Today’s new product, Plastiq Pay, helps SMEs free up funds from their existing credit cards and short-term financing options to balance cash flow. “We’ve gathered insights about inflation, and the burden of inflation is so diverse that it’s like a systemic disease,” Kenderoff said, adding that small businesses can’t just raise prices by raising prices to keep up with inflation, as customers are not necessarily buying their high-priced products. In return, small businesses can’t pay their suppliers higher prices, which means no inventory and no opportunity to produce more. “Suddenly, inflation creates labor shortages that distort the balance of power with suppliers,” he said.

In addition to providing back-office services such as billing and billing, team workflows (supporting invoice routing, approval and compliance), and syncing data and reconciling transactions paid in Plastiq, the new Plastiq Pay also offers short-term financing options. Now Plastiq can immediately expand financing options, especially when cash and credit are tight.

Iklan

In addition to being able to pay suppliers via credit card, businesses can also make immediate funding decisions on supplier payments, allowing them to extend payment terms without the complications associated with bank loans. To further facilitate such transactions, Plastiq Pay offers a mobile app where users can manage their payments from anywhere. Additionally, the company’s announcement says it offers a cash flow dashboard where users can view all card and bank account balances at a glance.

Kenderov noted that Plastiq has three main goals for the coming year. The first helps businesses digitize and reduce their reliance on paper transactions. Second, it wants to help U.S. companies level the playing field when it comes to working capital; a company doesn’t have to be a large corporation and have strong backing from big banks to get working capital. He said: “We will be adding more credit options and more ways for you to use any form of credit – credit cards, loans, lines of credit, spot loans – or a combination of these to use the cash you have available to run your business. business.”Third, Plastiq wants business owners to collect payments faster. “We know that 85% of B2B commerce typically doesn’t go through a credit card because of the fees. We solve this problem by telling US companies that they can also accept credit cards. Leave the choice to the customer. If the customer wants to pay with a credit card, he will Pay the fees,” Kenderov said. Plastiq charges 2.85 percent for credit card payments, he said.

In addition, Plastiq works with companies from other software providers who want to offer their payment experience. So Plastiq provides these providers with a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that do everything Plastiq does, allowing these providers to build their own experiences, Kenderov said.

LIHAT JUGA!

Iklan