Fiserv partnership helps institutions consolidate disparate solutions

Fragmented tools for invoicing, payments and accounting cost small business owners valuable time. 

Washington Federal Bank (WaFd) saw those effects firsthand and chose to do something about it.

“Our SMB strategy really came down to, ‘How do we take care of the dad who’s standing next to me on a soccer field or the neighbor that’s coming over for dinner and frustrated that they’re spending so much time managing their finances and paying the business’s bills versus growing the business and investing in the community,” said Jill Boyle, the Seattle-based bank’s senior vice president, head of the Commercial Product and Treasury Solutions Group. “So it really came down to community for us.”

The challenge was figuring out how to undo a disconnected system. Small business clients regularly faced manual work, multiple logins, and scattered accounts payable and receivable workflows. 

The bank’s leaders knew if they modernized cash-flow management, they could return that stolen time to small businesses and give bankers a unified view of activity so they could provide the insight those clients expect. 

A Streamlined Digital Experience

WaFd began its search for a single, integrated hub knowing that if it found the right solution, the bank would strengthen relationships and boost engagement.

“If we take care of people, the rest will happen,” Boyle said. “So that's what we were looking for through a solution. How do we really champion local businesses?”

Fiserv provided a clear path forward with CashFlow Central℠. The solution gave the bank the opportunity to replace the patchwork of invoicing tools, payment apps, and manual accounts payable and receivable workflows with an integrated experience. 

“We are primarily a Fiserv bank,” Boyle said. “Most of our solutions are. So we were really looking at how to plug in to our current solutions. The other thing that really drove it for us is we love that we could have feedback.”

Fiserv conducted a phased solution rollout with concierge support to ensure smooth adoption and personalized guidance. It then ran a structured pilot to gather feedback and make targeted improvements before the broader rollout, which included instructional videos to help business clients quickly understand the key capabilities.

CashFlow Central, embedded directly into WaFd’s Commercial Center℠ solution from Fiserv, giving small business clients accounts payable and receivable automation as well as invoicing, payments and cash‑flow tools in their existing digital banking experience. By digitizing bills and invoices, syncing with accounting software and delivering real-time cash-flow insights, the solution gave small business clients the clarity and efficiency they needed to focus on their customers rather than administrative work.

“We're really focused on making sure that the small business can clearly see, at a glance, how much money they have coming in and going out and then also see a projection of what their cash flow looks like for the next 30 days,” Boyle said. “And it's really important because a leading cause of small business failures is the inability to predict when they're going to go cash-flow negative.”

Tangible Results, Strengthened Relationships

The automation through CashFlow Central gave business owners a platform with real-time visibility into their complete financial picture, and the unified data helped bankers spot business needs sooner and offer proactive support. That, in turn, shifted bankers and small business clients toward more strategic, relationship-focused conversations.

That integrated experience quickly translated into measurable results for the bank and its small business clients. 

• Stronger payment growth post implementation – WaFd achieved 8.9% higher growth in average payments per user after implementing CashFlow Central 
• Accelerated new user adoption – New user growth at WaFd was 6.3% higher post implementation 
• Higher value per payment – The average amount per payment increased by 9.1% for CashFlow Central users
• Faster time to activation – WaFd reduced time to activation by 41.9% 
• Increased payment frequency among new users – CashFlow Central new users averaged 4.32 payments per month, demonstrating early and sustained engagement
• Higher payment amounts from new users – CashFlow Central new users averaged $3,241 per payment, compared to $1,858 before implementation
• Meaningful small business to small business use – 47.2% of CashFlow Central payments occurred between small businesses, reinforcing the platform’s role in their daily operations

“Fiserv can be a game changer for us,” Boyle said. “We don’t have the tech resources or budgets that the big banks do. And Fiserv really allows us by having a tech stack that is customizable for each bank to define their strategy in that solution to deliver how they want to deliver to clients. We couldn’t do it on our own.”

The partnership highlighted what’s possible when a financial institution delivers a truly integrated, intuitive small business cash‑flow experience: Business owners gain back their time, and the bank becomes the daily financial hub for clients.