Small businesses are quietly spending an average of $340 each month cobbling together disconnected financial tools just to keep their operations running. According to industry research, this spending covers accounting software, payment processors, invoicing platforms, and customer management systems. None of these tools talk to each other, which means business owners also lose hours every week manually reconciling data and switching between platforms.
Your small business clients need these operational capabilities. But they’re paying premium prices across multiple vendors while dealing with constant friction. Here’s where that money actually goes and why it represents a significant opportunity for your institution.
Where the Money Goes Each Month
Accounting Software: $30-$100 Monthly
Most small businesses use QuickBooks Online or similar platforms, typically paying $65-$99 monthly for mid-tier plans. These costs have been climbing steadily, with QuickBooks pricing increasing 10-17% in 2025 alone. Businesses need accounting software to track income and expenses, prepare for taxes, and maintain the financial records their accountants require.
(Source: NerdWallet QuickBooks Pricing, Fusion CPA QuickBooks Pricing 2025)
Payment Processing: $50-$150 Monthly (or More)
Credit card processing fees run 1.5-3.5% per transaction. For a business processing $10,000 monthly, that’s $150-$350 in fees. Small businesses need payment processing to accept customer payments, but every transaction chips away at already thin margins.
(Source: NerdWallet Credit Card Processing Fees)
Invoicing Tools: $15-$50 Monthly
Platforms like FreshBooks charge $15-$60 monthly. Service businesses need these tools to create professional invoices, manage recurring billing, and track which customers have paid. This matters because 56% of small businesses are currently owed money from unpaid invoices, with the average outstanding amount at $17,500.
(Source: Intuit QuickBooks Late Payments Report 2025)
Customer Relationship Management: $25-$75 Monthly
CRM platforms run $15-$100+ per user monthly. Businesses need CRM to track client information, payment history, and project details. Without integration, this information scatters across spreadsheets and separate systems.
Administrative Time: The Hidden Cost
Small business owners spend more than 20 hours monthly on financial tasks including accounting and invoicing. That’s 25% of a standard work week devoted to administrative work instead of serving customers. Most of this time goes to manually reconciling data between systems that don’t communicate.
(Source: HBK CPA Hidden Cost of DIY Accounting)
The Problem: These Disconnected Tools Don’t Talk to Each Other
Small businesses don’t plan to spend hundreds of dollars monthly on financial tools. The spending accumulates gradually. A contractor signs up for an invoicing tool to send professional estimates. They add a payment processor to accept credit cards. They subscribe to accounting software because their CPA requires it. They pay for a separate CRM to track customers.
Each decision makes sense individually, but the result is a fragmented system. When a customer pays an invoice, the business owner manually updates their accounting software. When they add a new customer, they enter that information in multiple places. Payment data sits in one system, customer records in another, and invoicing in a third. Nothing connects.
SMBs spend an average of $10,000 annually on software, with 80% using at least one cloud-based application. They’re not spending on the wrong tools. They’re paying for overlapping functionality across platforms that don’t work together.
(Source: Keevee Software Spending Statistics)
The Solution: Finli Reduces SMB Clients Software Spend
Your small business clients are already paying hundreds of dollars monthly for operational tools they desperately need. Finli gives you a better solution to offer under your brand that saves them money, saves them time, and actually works as an integrated system.
Finli provides financial institutions with a white-labeled platform that replaces all those disconnected tools with one integrated solution. Your clients get everything they’re currently paying for separately, but connected. Professional invoicing replaces their standalone invoicing tool. Payment processing with 0% ACH fees eliminates the transaction costs eating into every sale. Integrated CRM consolidates customer management. Everything talks to each other.
When a customer pays an invoice through Finli, that payment automatically updates accounts receivable and customer records. No manual data entry. No switching between platforms. No reconciling at month-end. One integrated system under your brand that handles all their operational needs.
Your clients save money by eliminating multiple subscriptions and reducing transaction fees. They save time by eliminating manual reconciliation. They get better functionality because integrated tools work together in ways disconnected platforms never can. And they get all of this through their trusted banking relationship, which makes adoption natural and reinforces your position as their primary financial partner.
What Finli Delivers for Your Institution
When businesses run their operations through Finli, you gain several advantages:
Deposits Stay With You
Businesses process payments through Finli’s platform, keeping deposits within your institution rather than external processors. Funds flow directly into their accounts instead of sitting in third-party systems.
Real-Time Business Intelligence
You gain visibility into business performance that traditional banking data can’t provide. You see revenue trends, payment patterns, and cash flow in real time. This enables truly consultative conversations about credit needs and growth opportunities.
Relationship Depth
Businesses integrate Finli into their daily operations. They use it multiple times per day for invoicing, payment processing, and customer management. This creates substantial switching costs because moving to another institution means disrupting their entire operational workflow.
How Finli Works for Your Institution
Finli operates entirely under your brand. Your clients experience these capabilities as your institution’s services. With prebuilt integrations for Q2 and Jack Henry, deployment doesn’t require extensive IT resources. Finli’s “Try Before You Integrate” approach lets you launch quickly and measure adoption before deeper technical integration.
The platform includes:
- Professional invoicing with one-click payment options that replace standalone invoicing tools
- Payment processing with 0% ACH fees that eliminate transaction costs
- Integrated CRM that consolidates customer management
- Automated payment reminders that accelerate collections
- Real-time reporting that gives businesses visibility into their performance
When your clients adopt Finli, they eliminate the hundreds of dollars they’re spending monthly on disconnected systems. They save additional money through 0% ACH processing. They save hours every week on manual reconciliation. And you become the institution that solved their biggest operational headaches while strengthening your banking relationship.
Takeaways
Your small business clients are spending hundreds of dollars monthly on disconnected financial tools because they need operational capabilities to run their businesses. They’re paying separately for accounting, payment processing, invoicing, and customer management while losing hours to manual work between systems that don’t communicate.
Finli gives you a better solution to offer. An integrated platform under your brand that saves them money, saves them time, and actually works as a connected system. Everything they’re currently paying for separately, but integrated so data flows automatically and they can focus on their business instead of administrative work.
Finli makes this practical by providing white-labeled tools that address every cost category your clients currently pay for separately. Your clients save money and gain functionality. You keep deposits, gain business intelligence, and create relationship depth. You become the hero who solved expensive fragmentation.
The institutions that deploy Finli will build relationships competitors can’t replicate. When you help businesses eliminate hundreds in monthly spending while providing tools that actually work together, you’re solving real problems in ways that create lasting loyalty.
