A Whitepaper From ForwardAI Calls Attention to Widening Customer Expectations, Advantages of Providing Cash-Flow Forecasting and Funding Advisory Services To Support Businesses' Financial Health

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 6, 2022 / ForwardAI, a fintech providing aggregated access to accounting & business data and analysis, today released a whitepaper titled "Rising small business expectations and the evolving roles of financial service providers," which focuses on modern, technology-enabled services that accountants, banking and financial service providers offer to their clients across North America.

As consumers have started to enjoy better financial services from accelerated digitization, the report finds that business owners are starting to expect the same full-suite of "anytime-anywhere" services from their service providers and financial institutions. Yet, over half of all surveyed companies provide neither funding advisory nor cash flow forecasting services, which will be essential to attract and retain SMB customers - and to compete with fintech firms that do.

Key highlights from the newly released whitepaper, which is free to download here, include:

• Financial firms across industries need to catch up: 52% of firms are not providing cash flow forecasting or funding advisory services
  • Only one in five firms (19%) provide both funding advisory and cash flow forecasting services
• Bookkeepers, accountants, and accounting firms are ahead of the curve: Among accountants that provide funding advisory, three in four of respondents also offer cash flow forecasting services for their clients, compared to only half of bankers, financial planning, and financial service providers
• Cash flow forecasting is crucial, but not everyone is doing it: Over 48% of accountants offer this service, while the banking, financial planning and services industry (34%), and the fraud, insurance and business valuation industry (32.6%) lag in adopting it
• Geography plays a role in adopting modern technologies: While more Canadian companies provide funding advisory, fewer provide cash flow services or utilize cloud-based accounting software compared to the US across all industries
  • The US has a significantly higher cloud-based accounting software utilization rate of 55% against Canada's 44%

"Small business clients are increasingly expecting full-suite service offerings from their financial services firms - and our survey has shown that the majority of companies has yet to adopt modern technologies," said Nick Chandi, CEO and co-founder of ForwardAI. "Offering cash flow forecasting, funding advisory services, and promoting cloud-accounting software not only enhances a small business's financial health and accounting efficiency but opens the door for companies to offer their clients personalized solutions to make their businesses more competitive while meeting customer demands."

The whitepaper is free to download here.

Methodology

To create this report, ForwardAI surveyed multiple industries across the United States and Canada (n=903) to analyze the current state of different accounting, business and financial service providers. These responses were gathered through questionnaires attached to a CPE accredited webinar hosted by ForwardAI. Participants were asked three questions about their business practices, as well as filling in demographic and geographic information about the company they represented.

About ForwardAI

ForwardAI is improving access to aggregated accounting, financial, and business data for banks, lenders, and fintechs. With leading small business software integrations available, the intelligent PreciseMatch™ tech, deep client analysis, unparalleled forward-looking data insights, and complete suite of calculated KPIs and ratios, ForwardAI customers can turn client intake and assessment into only three quick steps. Solutions available include an API, a partner portal, and a client-facing cash flow forecasting and planning tool. To get started or learn more, visit ForwardAI.com

Contact Info:
Philipp Jago
1-929-255-5652
philipp@calibercorporateadvisers.com

SOURCE: ForwardAI