Whether a company handles dozens or thousands of client and supplier invoices, maintaining clear visibility on cash flows can be a difficult task. Let’s dive into why cash flow management platforms are so important to businesses and how Chift’s Unified Accounting API can help cash flow management software editors gain a competitive edge.
What is a Cash Flow Management platform?
A cash flow management software is a specialized tool used by businesses to manage their financial operations, including cash flow, liquidity, and investments.
It serves as both an operational tool and a strategic tool, allowing businesses to handle payments as well as monitor, analyze, and forecast cash inflows and outflows.
Features of cash flow management platforms vary greatly from one to another, but here is a list of common features:
- Cash Flow Forecasting: Predicts future cash flows based on historical data and expected revenues and expenses.
- Budgeting: Assists in creating and managing budgets.
- Accounts Receivable/Payable Management: Tracks and manages incoming and outgoing payments to maintain healthy cash flow.
- Reporting and Analytics: Provides detailed reports and visualizations on cash flow trends and projections.
- Integration with Accounting Systems: Syncs with accounting software to streamline cash flow monitoring (more on that later).
- Integration with Banking: Thanks to open banking, modern cash flow management solutions can also manage payments.
Why do companies use them?
Companies use cash flow management for multiple reasons, as a strong grasp of cash flows plays a crucial role in growth, stability, and operations. Here are some key reasons:
- Improved Cash Visibility: Enhanced visibility into cash positions across various accounts and entities helps in making informed decisions.
- Optimized Liquidity: Ensures that sufficient liquidity is available to meet obligations while maximizing returns on surplus cash.
- Increased Efficiency: Automation of financial processes reduces manual effort, errors, and processing time, leading to greater operational efficiency.
- Better Decision Making: Real-time data and advanced analytics provide insights that support strategic financial decision-making.
In summary, cash flow management software is essential for businesses looking to efficiently manage their financial resources, mitigate risks, and enhance overall financial performance.
The role of accounting integrations in Cash Flow Management
Cash management solutions provide great assistance to financial teams. However, their processes rely entirely on easy access to payment data to assess the current situation and accounting data to forecast future cash flows.
Accounting API integrations serve as a bridge between diverse accounting systems and the cash flow management platform, enabling real-time monitoring and allowing a more precise understanding of a company’s financial situation. Open supplier and client invoices can be sent from the accounting software to the cash flow management software without the need for manual entry by users.
Thanks to bi-directional accounting flows, payment data can also be sent back to the accounting software to reflect payments and transfers.
The fact that accounting tools vary greatly between countries, markets, and industries makes it necessary to offer a broad range of accounting integrations—something that is made easy with Unified APIs.
Boost your Cash Flow Management platform with Chift’s Unified Accounting API
The scalable and cost-efficient solution for accounting integrations
Chift offers a Unified Accounting API that allows you to easily integrate with all major European accounting tools in a single integration:
- Low Cost / High Scalability: Chift’s Unified Accounting API offers integrations and standardized data for the most popular accounting tools. Quickly scale your integrations while cutting your integration costs and preserving your product’s roadmap.
- 1-Click Integration: Making an integration available for your users is only a click away. View all tools supported by our Unified API and simply select those you want your users to access.
- Close More Deals: Prospects will not consider software that does not integrate with the current tools they use.
- Manage Your Integrations with Ease: Easily monitor and test integrations in real-time with Chift’s integrations dashboard and one-click API connection testing (test payload).
- European Focus: We offer integrations with the most popular accounting tools in European countries.
Key product features for your users
From quality-of-life features to best-in-class user experience, Chift also offers numerous benefits for your users:
- Automated Accounting Entries Data Import: Automatically import accounts payable data into your cash flow management software without time-consuming manual imports.
- Bidirectional Accounting Flows: As you can pull accounting data, you can also push data to accounting software to ensure accounting data reflects recently closed client and supplier invoices. For example, you can update the payment status of an invoice in the accounting software.
- Intuitive & Customizable Integration Activation: Integrations are easily activated in a few clicks through a white-labeled marketplace or embedded in your platform. You decide how your users access and activate integrations. Authentication is handled seamlessly.
- Advanced User Onboarding: With advanced user onboarding, users can invite a third-party, such as their accountant, to enter their credentials for authentication.
Cash Flow Management leaders partner with Chift
Our Unified Accounting API is used by the best B2B SaaS Vendors. You can learn more about its use for cash flow management platforms in our Agicap Case Study.
Gain a competitive edge and position yourself for success in an increasingly data-driven world by working with Chift. Reduce costs and development time associated with integrations, close more deals, and increase product velocity.
Curious about how you can use Chift’s Unified Accounting API for your integrations? Reach out to our team for a demo.