Maintaining a positive cash flow is what keeps your business afloat. A study from US Bank shows that a staggering 82 percent of businesses fail as a result of cash flow issues.
But managing cash flow isn’t just about having enough funds in the bank to run your business — though that’s obviously important. It’s also about timing when transfers hit your account, about knowing sales patterns, and determining when it’s best to invest. And for that, Square has a variety of tools that can help.
Here are six Square tools that make it easier for your business to stay in the green.
Instant Transfer
Square transactions are always transferred quickly — usually in one to two business days. But if you want the money to hit your account even faster (as in instantaneously), you can leverage Square instant transfer. Whether it’s late at night or over the weekend, instant transfer lets you move transactions to your bank account immediately with just a tap. Instant transfer costs a fee per transfer.
Same-Day Transfer
Want to set a specific time at which each day’s sales are transferred? Square Transfers makes that easy. You can customize your transfer schedule to occur just after the close of your business day. That way, if you’re open until 6 p.m. on weekdays and 8 p.m. over the weekend, you can assign each day’s transfers to hit your account when it makes sense for your business.
And you can set it and forget it. You just need to customize it once and then the feature goes on autopilot. Automated same-day transfers cost just one percent of the transfer amount per transfer.
Square Debit Card
If you accept Square payments, you can manage cash flow by using Square Debit Card, a free business debit card. Square Debit Card gives you real-time access to your Square Checking balance so you can purchase inventory, supplies, or anything else you need to run your business as soon as you make a sale.
With Square Debit Card, you can see a complete snapshot of your Square Checking balance spending and activity within your Square Dashboard and in Square Point of Sale. You can also access reporting features that track business and personal expenses to improve cash flow management.
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Cash Flow Management for Small Business Owners [Template]
Square Analytics
Square’s POS comes with free analytics to show you how business is going, both at a granular and a bird’s-eye-view level. You can drill down to see which days are your busiest, and even which times of day you typically ring in the most sales. This type of information can be instrumental to your budgeting strategy and can help you decide when to schedule transfers.
The data is presented in both numerical and graphical form in your Square Dashboard, making it easy to get a quick lay of the land. You can also download it into a CSV file if you’d like to do an even deeper analysis.
Square Capital
Need some additional cash to purchase new equipment? Open a new location? Hire more staff? Square Capital is a simple way to get transparent financing to grow your business. You can check your Square Dashboard to see if you’re eligible to apply for a loan. And accepting the funds is easy — no complicated paperwork required. After you accept, voila: Your small business loan is transferred to your bank account as soon as the next business day.
Accounting software in Square App Marketplace
Square App Marketplace has a wide array of accounting software programs that you can link to your Square account. Tools like Intuit QuickBooks, Xero, Zoho Books, CommerceSync, Shogo, OneUp, and Kashoo Cloud Accounting all have robust functionality to help you manage your finances and cash flow.
We know that staying cash flow positive as a small business is challenging, especially if you’re just getting off the ground. That’s why we’ve specifically designed tools to make managing cash flow easier, so you can focus on what matters — growing your business.
