Tide hopes to turn the tide on late payments with new tool

If the last year is anything to go by, it’s safe to say that business banking has become even more of a vital lifeline for small businesses up and down the country, and today, Tide is hoping to tackle one of their biggest threats.

Business banking platform Tide is today launching a new tool to help SMEs get paid on time. 

The Invoice Assistant allows small businesses to chase down late invoices automatically, insure against non-payment, set up direct debits and notify them when they get paid. 

As it stands, small business owners waste one and a half hours every day chasing down late invoices, but with Tide’s new tool invoices will get paid at least four days earlier thanks to the automatic chasing feature.

“The Tide Invoice Assistant tackles a number of pain points experienced by small businesses—most importantly, automating manual and time-consuming processes and giving reassurance that they will be paid promptly,” Alastair Travis, VP of business services at Tide said.

“The automatic chasing feature is a particularly important addition to the Tide platform, with small business owners often feeling uncomfortable chasing their clients for payment, an automated email allows a degree separation from the personal relationship and helps keep cash flow on track.”

Tide is planning to roll out the new tool to its customers in mid-May and it will cost roughly £10 per month and is an add-on to the free invoice raising service currently offered to all Tide customers. 

“Tide’s mission is to save small business owners time (and money) on their banking and admin, so they can focus on running and growing their business. Nothing could be more true to this mission than helping our members to get paid, and to get paid on time, protecting their valuable time and their cash flow,” Laurence Kreiger, CEO of Tide UK added.

“The addition of the Invoice Assistance to the Tide platform demonstrates our move towards providing a fully comprehensive financial platform, offering a suite of highly connected products that help our members manage all aspects of financial admin, not just their banking needs.”

According to research from Tide, its customers spend between three and four hours per week creating invoices and managing expenses, but with the new tool, this whole process will be streamlined, taking the weight of small business owners’ shoulders.

Alongside this most recent product launch, Tide has been busily expanding its business banking offering for its customers. 

The fintech integrated with SME accounting firm Crunch in March 2021 and back in December 2020 announced a virtual office address service in collaboration with virtual office address specialist Hoxton Mix, to help the ever-growing list of new companies using its services.

Earlier this year, Tide also revealed that, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, it had doubled its user base over the past year, meaning it is now home to more than 400,000 small business banking accounts.