U.S. Bank launches spend management app for small businesses

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

U.S. Bank launched two new products for small businesses Monday: its Spend Management platform and U.S. Bank Business Essentials all-in-one checking account.

More than 1.4 million small businesses bank with U.S. Bank, according to the company, and with the new functions, it looks to offer more in-house tools for business owners.

U.S. Bank conducted a national survey in August of over 1,000 small-business owners and the findings informed the new product development, the bank said. Eighty percent of respondents said they preferred financial service providers who offer bundled digital banking tools like payments, banking and operations software.

The new Spend Management platform, integrated within U.S. Bank's existing small-business online banking offering, is designed to provide business owners with a comprehensive overview of business card spending. Business owners can monitor employee spending on business issued credit cards on the platform and modify card access. They can also control and adjust spending limits for cards and set spending controls for card use. A business owner could, for example, adjust the card settings such that it can be used only to buy fuel at a gas station.

Shruti Patel, chief product officer for business banking at U.S. Bank, called the product a "game changer" for managing business expenses.

"Within a single user-friendly interface, business owners can take control of their card spend and access continuous tracking with real-time visibility into spending habits and patterns, enabling them to monitor their cash flow and adjust their budgets accordingly," Patel said. "Spend Management helps business owners work smarter, not harder, with many time-saving functions, leaving them with more time to focus on their business." Business owners can upload receipts to the platform to automatically match with transactions.

Ian Benton, senior analyst of digital banking at Javelin Strategy, agreed that the new app sounds useful to small businesses.

"Consolidating all of this under one roof is a pretty significant step in the small business banking market," Benton said. "Small businesses typically stitch these functions together from multiple providers — be they banks or fintechs — out of necessity. You might collect credit card payments using Square, invoice your customers via email and collect payments via paper check, have a corporate card with Chase but turn to Expensify for receipts and expense tracking, and do reporting in QuickBooks — all while holding your checking account at your "primary" bank, and essentially treating it as a place to park money, a utility. It's easier than ever to spread these functions out across multiple providers, but in an ideal world, as a small business owner, I would access all of my incoming and outgoing payments, and my business analysis features such as cash flow analysis, within one log-in and one space."

The new platform is in part a result of U.S. Bank's acquisition of the small-business payments software fintech Bento Technologies in 2021 and is available to customers who have a U.S. Bank business credit card.

"This innovative spend management solution is built directly into our existing credit card experience to give our cardholders an effortless way to manage their business expenses without additional applications or setup," said Courtney Kelso, head of U.S. Bank Payments: Consumer and Small Business.

"It's an additive capability on our credit cards that provides our cardholders with the convenience of monitoring, controlling and tracking business spending – while continuing to enjoy the great rewards and benefits already associated with their business credit cards," Kelso said. "With Spend Management, those same cards are an even more enriching tool for operating a business."

The new Business Essentials all-in-one checking account is built for card payment acceptance and offers zero-cost same-day funding with no monthly maintenance fee. Businesses are able to process unlimited digital transactions and can see their account overview on the platform's digital dashboard.

U.S. Bank is offering a free mobile card reader to companies that open the checking account. Patel said the aim is to simplify finances for small-business owners.

"We are bringing multiple capabilities together – a best-in-class checking account with payments and differentiated easy-to-use software – in a single integrated interface," Patel said. "By enabling small-business owners to manage their cash flow in one place – with no monthly maintenance fee – we are helping our clients save time and money, lessening their operational burden, and giving them access to improved business insights."

U.S. Bank's parent company U.S. Bancorp has more than 70,000 employees and holds $678 billion in assets.