Small business owners are paying to access their own money. Congress may have a fix.

For many small business owners, getting paid is only half the battle. The other half is waiting for the money to arrive.

Nearly 3 in 5 small business owners (59%) paid an extra fee for instant transfer or fast deposit in the past year, according to the QuickBooks 2026 Late Payments Report. For 15%, that's not a one-time workaround, it's routine. They're paying, repeatedly, just to access money they've already earned.

That frustration has made its way to Washington. In April 2026, Representatives Sam Liccardo (D-CA) and Young Kim (R-CA) introduced the Payments Access and Consumer Efficiency Act, or the PACE Act, a bipartisan bill designed to speed up the US payment system and lower the cost of moving money by modernizing how payment companies access federal payment rails. 

How payment processing delays affect small business cash flow

When a customer pays by ACH or card, the funds can take one to three business days to clear, even when the transaction is technically complete. For small business owners with thin margins and no cash buffer, that gap shows up fast.

Nearly half of owners (49%) say standard payment processing times create critical or moderate cash-flow gaps. The wait forces real tradeoffs: over the past 12 months, processing delays caused 26% of owners to delay paying their own salary, 19% to take on additional debt or use a credit card they otherwise wouldn't have used, and 18% to pay a bill late and incur a fee or penalty.

What the PACE Act would do

The current US payments system is built on networks, called payment rails, that route transactions and determine when money actually arrives. The Federal Reserve operates three of these networks: FedACH, Fedwire, and FedNow. 

Currently, only banks and credit unions can connect to those Federal Reserve networks directly. When a nonbank payment app processes a transaction, it has to route through a bank first, adding a step and often adding time and fees along the way.

The PACE Act would create a supervised path for qualifying nonbank providers to connect to those Federal Reserve networks directly. To qualify, a provider would need to come under OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency) oversight, the same federal regulator that supervises national banks. 

Right now, nonbank payment companies operate under a patchwork of state licenses that vary in their requirements. Federal oversight would mean consistent consumer protections regardless of where a business operates. Providers that meet those standards could access the Federal Reserve's networks directly, cutting out the bank intermediary and potentially reducing delays and fees in the process.

As Rep. Young Kim put it: "Hardworking Americans shouldn't have to wait days to access their own money or pay extra just to move it."

The Financial Technology Association applauded the bill's introduction, noting that "American consumers and small businesses shouldn't have to wait days for a direct deposit to clear or a vendor check to arrive in the mail."

What’s driving the push for payment reform

The PACE Act is moving through Congress as the broader policy environment shifts toward payments modernization. In May 2026, a White House executive order directed the Federal Reserve to evaluate what it would take to give nonbank companies direct access to its payment systems, the same question the PACE Act addresses through legislation.

For small business owners, the cost of the current system is measurable. The QuickBooks data shows it in instant-transfer fees paid to access money that has already been earned, in credit card balances used to bridge a gap that shouldn't exist, and in delayed payments rippling downstream to vendors and contractors.

Among businesses with overdue invoices, nearly 1 in 4 (24%) say delayed revenue caused them to delay payments they owed to contractors, suppliers, or vendors. One slow payment can start a chain.

What faster payments could mean for small business owners

The PACE Act's most immediate beneficiaries aren't abstract. They're the contractor waiting two days for a card payment to clear after finishing a job, the freelancer who paid $15 to get a payment same-day because rent was due, and the small retailer who took on short-term debt because payroll came before the funds settled.

The bill is still early in the legislative process; whether it passes will become clearer over time. What's already clear from the data: for a significant share of small business owners, slow payments infrastructure isn't just a nuisance, it's a cost they're paying every month, whether they have to or not.

Data in this article is drawn from the 2026 QuickBooks Late Payments Report.