Instant Payment Adoption Surges as the Smallest Businesses Race to Meet Payroll

Fast Funds, Steady Cash Flow: How Instant Disbursements Empower SMBs

Micro businesses earning less than $100,000 a year have tripled their use of instant disbursements over 12 months, turning to faster funds to stabilize operations, meet urgent payroll demands and stay competitive in a tight-margin environment. PYMNTS Intelligence’s latest report, “Fast Funds, Steady Cash Flow: How Instant Disbursements Empower SMBs,” a collaboration with Ingo Payments, details how urgency defines which small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) use instant payment methods, reducing their reliance on paper checks and ACH.

Inside the April Data Brief
  • 37%: Share of SMBs with less than $100,000 in annual revenue that used instant payments the most to receive ad hoc payments, up from 12% in January 2024
  • 41%: Share of payments received instantly by digitally-forward SMBs, compared to 30% of businesses that are less digitally forward
  • 22%: Portion of SMBs that need to receive more than 40% of their ad hoc payments urgently

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