Earlier this month we exhibited to around 6,000 small business owners over two days at the Northern Business Exhibition in Manchester.

The conference gave us an opportunity to ask the various small, early stage and startup businesses how they manage their company’s cash – so we surveyed them! Here are some of the findings:

• Although the majority of respondents said they or a colleague usually look after their company’s cash, less than half look every day.

• …20% said they never look at their company’s finances.

• Most respondents use an accounting package and a small number also use a cash management app or tool, but more than a third said they still rely on spreadsheets.

• …and 13% said they still rely on manual (pen and paper) methods.

• Less than half surveyed answered ‘Yes’ when asked if their company run a cash flow forecast

Gain control over future cash

From building firms to swimming teachers, almost all the companies discussed a desire to focus on their product/service instead of worrying about the ‘necessary evil’ of day-to-day financial management. Many businesses joined the conference to find out about new innovations and options available to them – the presentation agenda at NBE reflected this.

2 minute warning for @NorthernBizExpo attendees to visit Seminar Hall 3 #OpenBanking #SmallBusiness #NBE19 pic.twitter.com/GdQVZHhXBO

— Slide (@theslideapp) 13 March 2019

Our CCO’s speaking slot- Open Banking is here – Get the bank you need and want –  was themed on the raft of new options available to businesses from Open Banking, and explained how combining data from bank and accountancy packages can help businesses see and gain control over their future cash instead of relying on what’s happened in the past. If you’ve been on our website before, you’ll know we call this “the yesterday, the today, the tomorrow”.

Try Slide for Free

Of course, as well as surveying attendees, we exhibited at NBE to get businesses to pilot and give us feedback before Slide’s full App Store release later this year.

If Slide might be of interest to you or someone you know, give it a try (completely free!) and let us know what you think.