Finli puts service business payment management in your palm – TechCrunch
Summary
If your service-based business is still collecting paper checks and only knows clients by their first name, Finli has an app for you.After building mobile technology for fintechs and payment companies for the past 20 years, Lori Shao, CEO of Finli, started the mobile-first payment management company nearly 3 years ago when she noticed that she was around technology all day but still using a checkbook to manage household services, like landscaping and after-school programs.The San Marino, Californiabased company is focused on microbusinesses, which according to the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, 9.9% of U.S. businesses are small businesses.These are businesses that are often using five or more services, like QuickBooks, to manage their client billing and payments. Shao believes many business owners end up abandoning those services because they are complicated, expensive and heavily reliant on owners knowing a lot of information about their clients, over and above a first name and mobile phone number.You dont have to fit yourself into a QuickBooks box or a Square box; you can continue to operate your own way, on your own terms and we meet you where you are, Shao told TechCrunch. Users are able to set up an account and send their first invoice via email, SMS text or other messaging app within minutes. There is also a customer relationship manager feature so they can digitize their client base if they want.Shao said some competitors take a cut from the payments coming in, so it was important to her that there were zero merchant transaction fees for business bank-to-bank transfers. Earlier this year, Zuper, a provider of productivity tools for field service management and customer engagement, raised $13 million.