Whether you are a solopreneur or the CEO of a large corporation, chances are your business will rely on loans at one stage or another. Modern digital lenders are leveraging technology to revolutionize access to financing. Let’s dive into why lending and financing platforms are so important and how Chift’s Unified Accounting API and Unified Invoicing API can help lending and financing software editors gain a competitive edge.

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What is a Digital Lending Platform?

B2B fintech lenders provide financing to companies for a wide range of uses that can be grouped into two categories. Investments, such as new facilities, vehicles, or machines, cover strategic long-term expenses. Working capital, on the other hand, represents short-term expenses like stock, marketing, and B2B receivables.

In its simplest form, a digital lending platform’s workflow involves:

• Accessing any accounting document that is needed to assess the financial health and financing needs of a company, such as accounts receivable to evaluate future positive cash flows.
• Extracting data from said accounting documents (payment status, amount, invoice date, etc.).
• Aggregating the data and producing a loan eligibility status.
• Sharing the status with the user.
• Following through with the loan if the status is positive and the user proceeds with it.

More advanced processes and features include, among other things:

• Automated data import using API integrations (see more below).
• Fast loan eligibility status output.
• Direct loans and banking for lenders that act as the bank.

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Why do Companies Use them?

Companies need lending and financing for various reasons, as these financial mechanisms play a crucial role in their growth, stability, and operations. Here are some key reasons:

• Covering working capital needs: Day-to-day operations require funds for inventory, salaries, rent, utilities, and other operating expenses. Loans can help maintain smooth operations when cash flows are inconsistent.
• Investing in Technology and Innovation: To stay competitive, companies often need to upgrade infrastructure or invest in R&D.
• Managing Cash Flow: Many companies have significant amounts of money tied up in accounts receivable or face long payment delays, which is common in service industries like agencies.
• Capital for Growth and Expansion: Entering a new market or acquiring a competitor can yield increased revenue down the line, but it requires short-term costs that few companies can finance themselves.

In summary, lending and financing are critical for companies to sustain operations, grow, innovate, and remain competitive in the market.

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The Role of Accounting Integrations in Digital Lending

Lending and financing solutions provide a necessary inflow of cash for businesses. However, with traditional lenders, the process can be very slow as it often relies on manual accounting data transfers to the lender and human assessment of loan eligibility.

Digital (or fintech) lenders address the need for rapid and flexible financing by offering a lending experience where clients onboard autonomously and receive their financing eligibility almost instantly thanks to algorithms.

To automate onboarding and offer fast eligibility status, digital lending platforms’ algorithms leverage as much data from as many accounting software as possible. This data is not readily available, and this is where integrations become an essential part of their product and growth strategy. They cannot serve a prospect if they cannot integrate with the accounting software that prospect uses.

The fact that accounting tools vary greatly between markets and industries makes it necessary to offer a broad range of integrations—something that is made easy with Unified APIs.

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Boost Your Digital Lending Platform with Chift’s Unified Accounting API

The Scalable and Cost-Efficient Solution for Accounting Integrations

Chift offers Unified Accounting APIs that allow 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 lending platform without time-consuming manual imports.
• 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.

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Lending and Financing Leaders Partner with Chift

Our Unified Accounting API is used by the best B2B SaaS vendors. You can learn more about its use for lending platforms in our Defacto Case Study.

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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.

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