UPDATED 10:25 EDT / OCTOBER 30 2026
Beyond the books: Real-time data is driving a small-business lending surge
by Ryan Stevens
Small businesses have long treated cash flow management as an afterthought, tallying expenses after the money is gone. Now, financial platforms are folding payments, payroll, credit and lending into one system that can see money moving both ways — and predict where it is headed.
That shift puts software providers in direct competition with banks for small-business credit. Intuit Inc. says its view of both sides of the ledger, paired with AI pushing finance toward automation, gives it an edge traditional lenders cannot match, according to Todd Denbo (pictured), senior vice president of lending and commercial leader of Money at Intuit.
“We can see the expenses you’ve got queued up,” Denbo said. “For us, we can effectively predict that you’re going to have a cash flow shortage. That’s why we’ve got our lending businesses as well, so we can proactively offer lines of credit or a term loan to bridge that gap.”
Denbo spoke with theCUBE’s Alison Kosik and Christophe Bertrand at Intuit Connect, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how Intuit uses real-time financial data and AI to help small businesses manage cash flow and automate financial tasks. (* Disclosure below.)
Cash flow management meets real-time lending data
Intuit lent about $400 million a year four years ago and almost $7 billion in its most recent fiscal year, according to Denbo. That growth reflects data averaging 625,000 data points per small business across the 10 million companies already on the platform. Because those businesses manage their finances on Intuit’s platform, the company can see money coming in and going out as it happens.
“Most lenders in this space rely on outdated trends that are from the commercial credit bureaus or the personal credit bureaus, or they’re trying to infer data that is just very challenging to infer,” Denbo said. “All of that is real-time.”
Intuit has also added spending data through its QuickBooks-integrated business credit card, which lets owners control employee spending before money leaves. The company has extended QuickBooks into Claude and ChatGPT as well, though automation still stops short of moving money on its own, Denbo explained. AI can handle the financial groundwork while business owners retain the final say over actions involving their money.
“We are gathering the data, we’re analyzing the data, we are packaging a response or a draft,” Denbo said. “But when it comes to anything that is moving money or sending a draft out, that’s where we’re waiting for, effectively, a human intervention.”
Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of Intuit Connect:
(* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for the Intuit Connect 2026 event. Neither Intuit, the sponsor of theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)
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