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Late payments are the scourge of small businesses, sometimes devastating their cashflow and meaning they can’t carry on trading. But Intuit believes it may have the answer: QuickBooks Payments, a new AI-driven feature that adds a “Pay Now” button directly into invoices.
“With over £21,000 owed on average in unpaid invoices, more than half of UK SMBs are facing cashflow problems, forcing many to make difficult financial decisions just to keep operations running,” said Nick Williams, International Product Director at Intuit.
“From dipping into personal cash reserves to relying heavily on credit cards, these pressures can quickly escalate, especially when payments are overdue by more than 30 days.
“The launch of QuickBooks Payments helps our customers to significantly improve their payment practices, and will play a key role in strengthening their stability.”
The key idea behind QuickBooks Payments is that customers connect their bank account to their invoices. This means they can add a “Pay Now” button, cutting the friction for customers to pay.
It also reduces the chance of errors that stem from manual bank transfers, with the added bonus that it should simplify reconciliation and bookkeeping.
Perhaps even more crucially, it means you can set an AI agent the task of chasing customers for unpaid invoices.
As ever, there is a price to pay, this time per transaction. “For paying by bank, this is set at 1%, with a maximum of £4 payable per transaction,” says Intuit. “For paying by card, the fee is 1.2% plus £0.20 per transaction.”
The feature is already available to Intuit’s US customers, with Pay by Bank and Pay by Card functionality built into the platform.
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Chris Noble, owner of Pest Control Solutions Ltd, was given early access to the software and claims it has made a huge difference.
“I used to manually add bank details to every invoice, things like the business name, account number and sort code,” he said. “Our name alone, Pest Control Solutions Ltd, was a constant stumbling block. Customers had to set us up as a new payee each time, and many would complain their bank wouldn’t accept the name or they’d simply get stuck. It was frustrating and time-consuming for everyone.”
But QuickBooks Payments changed that “instantly”, he says. “It took no more than two minutes, and because I was already using QuickBooks, the process was seamless. The difference it’s made is huge. Payments are now simple and user-friendly, easier for customers and far more efficient for me. I’m now getting paid noticeably faster, on a more consistent basis.”
He adds: “It’s been especially helpful for customers who aren’t as tech-savvy. Instead of struggling to figure out bank transfers, they just click ‘Review and Pay’ on the invoice. That clarity has removed a lot of confusion. For me, it’s been a massive time-saver. It automatically matches payments to invoices and marks them as paid, which has eliminated the manual work I used to do.”
