Bluevine Survey Shows 38% of SMBs Have Less Than a Month's Cash on Hand

More than two-thirds of small business owners are interested in implementing AI for day-to-day finance work

JERSEY CITY, N.J., Oct. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey published today by Bluevine–the largest digital banking platform for small business in the U.S.*–found that nearly four in ten U.S. small business owners (38.7%) don't have enough cash on hand to cover a month's worth of operating expenses in case of emergency. What's more, more than half (51.3%) of the 774 small business owners surveyed said that, if they had a payroll squeeze, they would tap into emergency funds within 48 hours to cover payroll.

When asked what is preventing them from accessing capital to help buttress their emergency funds, more than a quarter of respondents (25.6%) said it was difficult to access capital while 15.6% said they avoided accessing capital simply because the total cost–inclusive of loans, APR, and penalties–is unclear. To that end–more than two-thirds (67.9%) of small business owners cited a desire to work with AI finance tools for things like cash flow forecasting, invoicing, and faster collections.

"The results of our latest survey largely speak to the reason I started Bluevine," said Bluevine CEO and Co-Founder Eyal Lifshitz. "We've long known that small business owners typically operate leaner than their enterprise counterparts and that they're looking for better visibility into their cashflow and simpler access to capital. These are key elements of the banking platform we're building here at Bluevine."

The most-cited (39.4%) reason small business owners said they avoided accessing a loan is that interest rates are still too high, while nearly one-third (31.4%) cited debt aversion in general as their cause for avoiding a loan. If interest rates were to fall, the most popular action small business owners say they would take–according to 21.3% of the 774 owners surveyed–is building emergency cash reserves.

Other key findings from the poll include:

Liquidity is king for small businesses:

• 42.8% of surveyed businesses said they preferred to keep their money liquid in easily accessible accounts versus maximizing its return with higher-yield options

AI desires vary across industries:

• While, broadly, only 13% of respondents were opposed to using AI in their day-to-day financial management, the hunger for AI systems varied greatly
• In retail/ecommerce, 54.2% of respondents said they were "very interested" in AI finance tools, in technology/SaaS the answer was 44.8%, and in transportation/logistics it was only 17.6% of respondents.

Emergency preparedness skews with revenue:

• Only 38% of businesses that make $250,000 or less in annual revenue have access to a business line of credit in case of emergencies, whereas 63.4% of companies that make more than $250,000 a year have a line of credit
• If a $100,000 shortfall was to occur, only 7.7% of businesses making $250,000 or less in revenue could cover the shortfall in comparison to 61.3% of businesses that make $1,000,000 or more in revenue

When times are tight, owner pay is first to go:

• The most likely expense business owners say they will cut in moments of tight cash flow is owner pay, with 41% of respondents listing it as their top choice. Marketing and ads (23%) and overtime work/contracted help (17%) rounding out the top three of most popular expenses that would get cut in an emergency
• The three expense areas owners are least likely to cut during cash shortfalls were customer support (1%), their business rent or lease (3%), and business research and development (7%).

For the full study, read about it on Bluevine's blog, here.

Methodology
Centiment Audience  conducted this survey of 774 U.S. business owners with $50K–$5M in annual revenue for Bluevine between September 25 and September 30, 2025. Data is unweighted, and the margin of error is approximately +/-3% for the overall sample with a 95% confidence level.

*As compared to publicly available data on the number of lifetime customer accounts held by other U.S. banking platforms dedicated to small business, as of March 2025.

About Bluevine
Bluevine  is the largest small business banking platform in the U.S., serving as the financial operating system for startups and small businesses. Through a single account, companies can earn more, save more, borrow, and manage their money whenever and wherever they do business - without ever stepping into a branch. Accessible through one dashboard, its product suite integrates high-yield business checking, accounts payable, debit and credit cards, loans, and lines of credit. Since 2013, Bluevine has served over 750,000 customers, delivered over $17 billion in loans, and is currently trusted with over $1.5 billion in managed customer deposits.

Bluevine is backed by leading private and institutional investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, 83North, Citi Ventures, ION Crossover Partners, SVB Capital, Nationwide Insurance, and M12 (Microsoft's Venture Arm). Bluevine is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking Services provided by Coastal Community Bank, Member FDIC. Lines of credit are issued by Celtic Bank. For more information, please visit bluevine.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and X.

SOURCE Bluevine