Mobile Banking Offers an Important Tool to the Business Owner

With the smartphone, the small business owner can now have easy and mobile access, at all times, to the company’s and owner’s personal bank accounts.  This mobile access then becomes an important tool that the owner (company decision-maker) has in order to make and implement, more efficiently and effectively, company financial decisions.

Using the smartphone, some of the financial tasks the owner now can timely do are: transfer funds between accounts, to manage cash flows; approve and initiate payroll; approve payments needed to be made to company personnel; snap pictures of checks received to make bank deposits, without visiting the bank; approve vendor bills that need to be paid; and act on account alerts received from the bank.

Now with a smartphone (mobile device), the owner does not need to be at his desk and desk top computer to have access to one of the most important company information sources – the data in the bank account.  And, because of this, performing financial tasks, such as the ones identified above, at optimal times, will add value to the company.  The better the company’s money supply is managed, the better off the company will be.

And, the utility of the mobile device to manage cash through the bank account is likely only to get better as banks develop additional applications.   These applications likely will allow for better cash flow and cash management analysis leading to better financial decisions.

Here are links to two websites with useful information about mobile banking and security.  The first link is to a Federal Reserve Bank of Boston primer on what mobile financial services are.  This document seems to be an excellent overview of mobile banking as of 2010.  Click here to access this overview (PDF file).  The second link is a McAfee report on security concerns with mobile devices.  Click here to access this report (PDF file) and to read about security concerns with mobile devices.

Using mobile devices in a company’s banking processes requires efforts at understanding mobile banking options offered and how to use the options.   The better these options are understood and used, the more valuable the mobile device and its management of the bank account will be for the company.

Also, the use of mobile device banking has consequences for the company’s accounting processes.   Accountants need to be on top of what mobile device banking options are, how the company can best use them to be more successful at cash management and at accounting, and how to integrate the mobile banking options with the accounting system so that correct accounting continues.