Over the past week, as the government has begun lifting restrictions, we have seen many small and medium businesses (SMBs) across Canada reopen their doors and slowly resume operations. However, we’re far from business as usual. SMBs are navigating new regulations and unpredictability, and planning for the future is more important than ever.

To support SMBs through the recovery phase and beyond, today, Intuit QuickBooks Canada launched their new Cash Flow Planner, which infuses QuickBooks’ accounting software with artificial intelligence (AI) to help better predict cash flow positions.

The Cash Flow Planner will help SMBs make informed financial decisions to manage cash flow more effectively, at a time when it is needed more than ever.

“The QuickBooks Cash Flow Planner is a first in the industry in Canada,” said Melika Hope, Head of Product at Intuit QuickBooks Canada. “Our AI sees transactions across the platform, looking at cash flow, expenses and invoices pending.”

Unprecedented Times

The impact of COVID-19 and the restrictions placed on business activity have been felt deeply by the SMB community. According to a recent study done by CIBC, 81% of Canadian small business owners’ operations have been negatively impacted by COVID-19, and 32% worry about the viability of their business over the next year.

These struggles are not isolated to this moment in time. Prior to the pandemic, Canadian small businesses were already struggling with their cash flow. 53% said they have experienced cash flow problems in the past.

In response to this, the Cash Flow Planner is an innovative digital solution, powered by AI, that will help SMBs and their accounting professionals analyze their current cash situation and develop a forecast to identify the best ways to manage cash flow.

This analysis looks at both money coming into the business and money being spent, using the data in QuickBooks to model future scenarios and recommend courses of action.

Cash (Flow) is King

Cash flow has, and always will be key to small business success, The Cash Flow Planner is an interactive tool that predicts cash flow over the next 30 and 90-days in real time. It gives users a variety of options to avoid cash problems, including when they should pay bills, if their cashflow position is strong enough to make payroll and whether they can afford new expenses.

It also provides the option to play with different scenarios to help predict cash flow positions and make more financially savvy decisions, which will be vitally important for SMBs as they slowly emerge from the COVID-19 lockdown.

In addition, the more you use and interact with the Cash Flow Planner, the more it learns, based on users’ previous expenses and incomes entered on the QuickBooks platform.

Backing SMBs, Today and Tomorrow

“Many SMBs are fighting to survive. As such, new technology innovations that can take existing data, analyze it and make recommendations in real time, will not just save time, but give small business owners more confidence in their financial abilities,” concludes Hope.

As we move through this next stage of the pandemic, and back towards a new normal; the Cash Flow Planner will support small businesses through every stage of their businesses, to plan for their future.

By predicting recurring money in or out, based on patterns found in users’ bank history, reducing manual inputs and in return, saving time, it will give small business owners more time to do what they are passionate about for years to come.

Start using the Cash Flow Planner today. Join 5.6 million people and sign-up for QuickBooks for all your small business needs.