Swiss SMEs are still stitching everything together

Swiss SMEs typically manage their finances with a collection of tools that have grown gradually over time. 

A founder might open a business account with UBS, PostFinance, or their cantonal bank among other banking institutions. They add invoicing software as the business grows. Accounting tools once VAT becomes more complex. Later, payroll, expense management, forecasting, or a fiduciary accounting firm is added to handle filings and the annual close. 

Each decision makes sense on its own. Most of them are simply practical responses to address the natural challenges of a growing business. 

The problem is that these systems were never designed to work together. In our experience, many Swiss SMEs rely on multiple separate tools for banking, invoicing, accounting, payroll, and expense management. The visible cost is software subscriptions. The invisible cost is the extra admin required to keep everything running smoothly. 

A small Swiss SME will typically spend CHF 90–210 per month on software tools, plus another CHF 300–600 on fiduciary and accounting support. That quickly becomes CHF 6,000–10,000 per year before a single hour of internal admin is accounted for.

And that's where the real cost often begins.

The larger expense is usually hidden inside the business itself: duplicated workflows, manual reconciliation, spreadsheet workarounds, chasing approvals, and the constant switching between disconnected systems that gradually becomes part of daily operations. 

As businesses grow, managing finances becomes more complicated. More invoices. More approvals. More compliance. More stakeholders. More room for mistakes. 

Processes begin to exist simply because the systems around them do not fully connect. Over time, this stops being a minor inconvenience and begins to consume attention that should be focused on the business itself. 

That additional workload is larger than many founders realise. According to KfW Research, SMEs can lose an average of 32 hours every month on administrative processes and accounting-related tasks alone.

SMEs can lose an average of 32 hours every month on administrative processes and accounting-related tasks alone.
KfW Research

The problem is not solved by integrations

Many SMEs have already invested significant time and effort connecting their financial systems.

The problem is that connecting systems is not the same as simplifying work. Even when integrations exist, they move data but rarely remove the manual admin work from the process. Transactions still need checking. Reconciliation still needs reviewing. 

The result is fragmented financial visibility, forcing founders to make important decisions with incomplete or delayed information. 

How much cash is available today? Which invoices still need approval? What obligations are coming next month? Can the business afford to hire? Which customers are creating payment pressure? The information exists somewhere, but often across multiple systems, exports, and versions of the truth. 

The modern SME stack solved digitisation.
It did not simplify the work around it

When financial visibility is fragmented, businesses often become reactive instead of proactive. Payments need chasing, cash shortfalls are discovered too late, important decisions get delayed, and founders end up managing uncertainty instead of planning ahead. 

What running your finances should feel like

Most founders don’t want more financial tools. They want fewer moving parts.  

Payments should reconcile against the accounting platform entries with a minimum (if not any) manual intervention. Invoices should connect directly into accounting. Cashflow should be visible in real time. Approvals, expenses, payroll, and reporting should work together quietly in the background instead of constantly competing for redundant attention.  

What SMEs increasingly need is not more software, but a simpler way to run the financial side of the business.
Julien Barbotin-Larrieu Co-founder & CEO

The real shift happening globally is not simply digital banking.

It is the move toward connected financial systems designed around how SMEs actually run their businesses. And the real value is not only in automation, but clarity and cleverness. When payments, accounting, invoicing, and reporting work from the same real-time foundation, founders gain something more valuable than convenience: a clear understanding of where the business stands and what decisions it can realistically support.

The bottleneck is not access, it’s complexity

Financial complexity often scales faster than the business itself.

The setup that feels manageable at five employees often becomes difficult to manage at twenty. Each new hire, client, payment flow, or compliance requirement adds more admin, more manual work, and more opportunities for mistakes.

What starts as “a few tools” gradually becomes a financial setup that requires constant attention just to keep running smoothly.

For most Swiss SMEs, the challenge is no longer access to financial tools. It is building a simpler way to manage business finances.

In the coming years, the advantage will not belong to the businesses using the most financial software. It will belong to the ones operating from a single, reliable financial reality allowing easy scalability.