Now more than ever we need to work together to support South Africa’s small business community, which forms the backbone of our economy. 2020 was a tough year but we believe that with the right support and digital tools small businesses can and will recover.

Bank feeds are one of the greatest innovations in accounting, and their impact for small businesses has been incredible in recent years – reducing data entry and giving stronger visibility and control over finances.

That’s why we’re thrilled to announce a new partnership with one of South Africa’s leading banks, Nedbank, to launch South Africa’s first fully digital direct API enabled bank feed over the coming weeks. The new feed will go live soon and give small businesses and their advisors access to daily financial data – helping them to better manage cash flow.

Giving the power of data insights to small businesses

It’s the first bank feed in South Africa to use a fully digital connection process. Once live,  small businesses and their advisors will be able to seamlessly connect their Nedbank account to Xero and import banking transactions automatically and securely from their account each business day.

Businesses and advisors will be able to reconcile statements; create smart, shareable reports and online invoices; and review their cash flow from anywhere. Having these kinds of insights into their financial position is essential for small businesses to make informed decisions during this critical time.

We know that small business owners increasingly see the benefit in digitising processes. Our State of South African Small Business research shows there has been a 50% increase in cloud adoption amongst SMEs over the last three years, and 70% want tech to help remove repetitive, manual tasks. This will only have been accelerated further by the impact of COVID-19 and remote working.

Commenting on the new partnership, Alan Shannon, Nedbank Executive: Professional and Small-business Banking Client Engagement, says: “As we adapt to the new normal, our support for small business is unwavering and our partnership with Xero is another way in which we vote small business by providing them with the tools needed to recover their edge.”

The new bank feed will be available to Nedbank small business customers, with a Xero account, at no additional cost. Small businesses will be able to connect the bank feed from their Xero account. We’ll share more on connecting the bank feed once it’s live, in the meantime find out more about bank feeds here.

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