Cash Flow Planning, Multibanking and Data-Based Credit for German SMEs

Fintech · SME Cash Flow & Credit (B2B)

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Laptop with an SME cash flow platform: combined balance across three linked German bank accounts

Year

2024

Client

Stas

Timeframe

2 years

Puls is a web platform for small and mid-sized companies in Germany that combines cash flow planning, multibanking, and short-term business credit. Owners connect their accounts, including those of several legal entities, and see one balance with categorized transactions. They plan upcoming income and expenses on a calendar, see the projected balance for any future day, and borrow against a credit limit calculated from their account data. The product runs in German and English.

The challenge

Many small companies in Germany track liquidity across several online banking portals, spreadsheets, and notes, so a shortfall often shows up only when a payment is due. Bank financing depends on annual statements and past results, which young companies with one or two years of history rarely have, and applications come with heavy paperwork. Lenders face the opposite problem: they need a current, reliable picture of a company’s finances to set a limit without documents. The product had to pull transactions from many banks through an aggregation provider, support several entities per account, verify directors and beneficial owners before any contract, and work in German and English for business owners and the client’s internal team.

Cash flow planner with daily projected balances per account, expenses, and income

Work process

Liquidity & Credit Mapping

We mapped how an owner moves through the product: connecting accounts, sorting transactions, planning payments, and requesting credit. Each step was tied to the data the lending side needs, so planned and actual transactions feed the credit limit instead of living in a separate feature.

Multi-Entity Banking Model

We built the data model in NestJS and PostgreSQL around users, legal entities, bank connections, accounts, and transactions, with categories and labels on top. Entities stay separate but can be reported together, so owners can see profitability by counterparty, category, or company and export filtered transactions as CSV for their accountant.

Calendar-Based Cash Forecast

Owners think in due dates, not monthly reports, so we designed the planner as a calendar. Planned items can be saved as drafts, moved to another day with the forecast recalculated instantly, and turned into payments when due. Recurring transactions found in bank data carry forward automatically, and low projected balances are flagged on the timeline.

Data-Based Credit Flow

Borrowing takes three steps: choose an amount and term, verify directors and beneficial owners and sign, then receive the transfer. While the first limit is calculated from synced data, new users see a clear pending state instead of an empty number. An admin panel gives the client’s team one place to review companies, limits, and loan applications.

Bank Sync Edge Cases

Testing focused on the cases that break financial data in practice: expired bank consents that stop syncing, delayed or duplicated transactions, one account linked under two entities, identity checks abandoned halfway through a loan application, and German versus English number and date formats. Each case got a defined interface state before launch.