New bank for SMBs integrates banking & accounting

Bizner, which started in February as an online bank for entrepreneurs, just announced a new service. Bizner is the first bank in Europe to offer complete integration of banking and accounting, which it calls BizBalance. The aim of this financial hybrid is to save customers the time and hassle of booking transactions twice. Bizner developed BizBalance with Reeleezee, which creates of online accounting applications. By integrating Reeleezee’s bookkeeping software with Bizner’s online banking, entrepreneurs (or their accountants) no longer need to book outgoing invoices and incoming payments separately. Invoices are created in Reeleezee, and are automatically marked as paid as soon as money’s in the bank. Same goes for incoming invoices and outgoing payments: users book an invoice to be paid, and a bank transfer is simultaneously set up and parked in a payment queue. While various forms of integration between banks and accounting systems already exist, most either require significant IT investments or, on a smaller scale, involve manual importing and exporting of data. By offering a integrated, online solution, Bizner claims customers will have a far better real-time insight into their finances. To access BizBalance, entrepreneurs need to sign up with both Bizner and Reeleezee. Bizner charges modest banking fees, and Reeleezee has a monthly fee of EUR 24.95–49.90, depending on a customer’s transaction volume. Bizner is an independent unit of Dutch Rabobank Group. BizBalance isn’t the fledgling bank’s only innovation: it works without branch offices or account managers, and enables customers to do most of their banking business without human intervention. Opening new accounts, acquiring bank guarantees or taking out loans: entrepreneurs use Bizner’s self-service approach to get what they need from their bank, whenever they need it. One to look into if you sell financial products to SMBs in other countries!