Assessing the creditworthiness of small businesses like restaurants, retailers, and cafes has long been a challenge for food and beverage distributors, producers, and service providers. Traditional methods often require extensive information collection, which can slow down the onboarding process, or rely on commercial credit bureaus that offer limited data on these smaller enterprises.
Why does this matter?
- Over 82% of B2B buyers consider access to invoice terms important when choosing a new supplier. If you don’t offer terms or make the process difficult, you may never win the customer in the first place.
- More than 50% of buyers say that slow payment-term approval is a reason to choose another vendor. If your competitors approve them faster, you lose the sale.
To address these issues, Wholesail is introducing the Automated Bank Reference feature within our New Customer Form. This enhancement enables vendors to instantly verify a customer’s financial health without calling banks or chasing trade references. This is enabled by Wholesail’s integration with Plaid, which enables buyers to connect a bank account to automatically generate a summary of financial information including average daily balance and net cash flow over the past 90 days.
For buyers, the process is straightforward and secure. When a vendor requests a bank reference, the buyer receives a prompt to connect their bank account through a secure interface powered by Plaid. Upon consent, Plaid retrieves the necessary financial data—such as average daily balance and net cash flow—from the buyer’s bank account. This eliminates the need for manual document uploads, streamlining the process and saving time. Importantly, buyers maintain control over their data and get an example of what data is shared before they connect their bank account.
Benefits for Vendors and Buyers:
- For Vendors: Access to real-time financial data facilitates informed credit decisions, reducing reliance on incomplete information and expediting the onboarding process.
- For Buyers: The streamlined process simplifies the provision of financial information, enhancing transparency and potentially leading to more favorable credit terms.
Incorporating bank-based underwriting, a method favored by sophisticated lenders and credit card issuers for its effectiveness in assessing risk, this feature offers a more accurate evaluation of a buyer’s financial health. By integrating the Automated Bank Reference into the New Customer Form, Wholesail empowers both vendors and buyers to establish trust and make data-driven decisions efficiently.
To activate this feature, vendors can log in to their Wholesail account and adjust their New Customer Form settings accordingly.
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