top of page
Search
Cash, Credit, and the Bookkeeping Gap: What We're Learning About Small Firms' Financial Lives
About a third of the small firms in our study have three months of expenses in the bank. About one in ten could last only a week. Most have access to credit, and when they ask for more, they usually get it. Yet two-thirds say they'll rely mainly on savings, not credit, to fund their next investment. Why? And why can the same set of bookkeeping records lead one lender to offer a loan and another to turn it down? Earlier this month, the Financial Access Initiative presented pre
Tracy Cole
1 day ago
Understanding the Pros and Cons of Digital Record-Keeping and Automation
In the United States, even the smallest businesses are connected to a digital ecosystem. We’ve found that the firms in the Small Firm Diaries USA study typically prepare records for quarterly or annual tax filings on some type of software, and these records are often linked to other digital financial information including bank and credit card accounts, point-of-sale (POS) and payroll services. This means that for the US arm of the study, the research team can draw on existin
Laura Freschi and Myriam Delmy
Dec 9, 2025
bottom of page