Small businesses do not have the luxury of an all-in-one solution. When they deal with suppliers, customers, contractors and other businesses, they need to run the tools and systems those people favor. This leads to a patchwork of finances and banking accounts, which makes it hard, if not impossible, for a small business to know exactly where their money is and what it’s doing.

To learn more about this problem, John Walls (@JohnWalls21) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE*, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, visited the QuickBooks Connect conference in San Jose, CA. There, they spoke with Yumi Clark, VP of new product development at Capital One Financial Corp.

Challenges and passion

The discussion opened with a look at why Capital One was interested in the QuickBooks Connect event. Clark explained his company was on the scene because it wanted to meet its customers where those customers are today. The financial company wants to build products and solutions based on what pain points its customers are feeling.

Clark mentioned the company has been running some informal polls to uncover pain points, but also she has been listening to people talk about the passion they have for their businesses. Another thing she’s seen is that many small businesses have more than two bank accounts. Most are running 10 or 12 applications they’re stitching together to manage their finances.

A transforming economy of options

One of the things Capital One is watching is how the digital transformation is affecting small business. Clark spoke about how most small businesses are using some kind of mobile device, so Capital One is learning in on providing mobile solutions. One of their goals is to help small businesses transition to the digital world from where they are today.

The big question is how one manages cashflow and business accounting. Clark mentioned that as they test new programs, it’s important to be sure those offerings improve a customer’s cashflow and financial health. Capital One is also looking to help business owners make their choices for the long term.

“There are a lot of choices out there,” Clark said.

Stay tuned for the the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of QuickBooks Connect.

*Disclosure: Intuit and other companies sponsor some Quickbooks Connect segments on SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE. Neither Intuit nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.

Photo by SiliconANGLE