Evenly and Equifax partner to help Australian SMBs protect their cashflows from poor payers with impending rise in business failures

Evenly, and global data, analytics and technology company, Equifax, have partnered to launch the latest version of PayPredict, a first-of-its-kind platform to help protect SMBs from the expected uptick in insolvencies and business exits.

The free app focuses on Customer Reliability, a new measure that helps SMBs tackle customer payment issues by using real-time AI-driven insights to identify short and long-term customer risks. PayPredict then acts as a warning radar for future customer problems as they emerge.

Getting started is as simple as connecting an accounting system (currently Xero and Sage’s Data Hub solution, with other systems in development) and in seconds business owners and accountants get an instant Customer Reliability report and ongoing monitoring.

SOLVING THE CUSTOMER PROBLEMS THAT KILL SMBs

Kim Heras, CEO of Evenly said “We know cashflow problems are the number one killer of SMBs with the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) revealing around 90% of small business failures are due to cashflow.”

“Late payments are a core component of those cashflow issues and the traditional process of dealing with poor payment behaviour after the fact just hasn’t worked. It is better to get in front of the problem and by combining the unique data-driven insights of Evenly and Equifax into PayPredict, we’ve created a tool for SMBs and their advisors that does just that.”

PayPredict’s free app is more crucial with the expected rise in insolvencies and business failures expected in 2021/22. ASIC data shows 2020 insolvencies were 51% below the long-term average, with insolvencies in the December Quarter the lowest since 2005. ABS data shows the most recently reported net business changes (opens vs exits), 32% lower than the 3 year average.

The transition away from Government COVID stimulus measures such a JobKeeper and insolvency relief which propped up certain businesses, as well as insolvency reforms introduced earlier this year, mean a return to the long-term average will see growth in new insolvencies and business exits in the next 12-24 months. Now is the time to double down on credit risk fundamentals.

EQUIFAX + EVENLY = CUSTOMER INNOVATION

PayPredict was founded in late 2019 and is already monitoring billions of dollars in transactions and millions of underlying records, daily, for its customers. Through this partnership with Equifax and the new version of PayPredict, Evenly aims to make sure good businesses are no-longer at the mercy of unreliable customers.

“We don’t think it’s fair that many good businesses experience stress and failure through no fault of their own. You can’t avoid every risk in business but with PayPredict, SMBs finally get advance warning of any customer reliability issues and the tools they need to address them,” said Kim Heras.

Equifax Head of Commercial, Michael Criss said: “While there are many positive signs highlighting business resilience across the economy, we also see signs of increasing financial stress. A data driven approach can help SMBs better protect their cash flows. Our partnership with Evenly helps us equip SMBs with data at their fingertips, part of our commitment to bring innovative, accessible, solutions to businesses of all sizes.”

LEARN MORE

PayPredict is available at https://evenly.com.au/paypredict