Myranda Mondry for QuickBooks
Table of Contents
Small business owners pay to have access to their own money. Congress could find a solution.
A bipartisan bill targeting America’s payments infrastructure is gaining momentum, and new data on small business cash flow gaps shows exactly why it’s important.
For many small business owners, getting paid is only half the battle. The other half is waiting for the money.
According to the QuickBooks 2026 Late Payments Report, nearly three in five small business owners (59%) paid an additional fee for instant transfers or quick deposits last year. For 15% it is routine. They pay repeatedly just to get the money they’ve already earned.
That frustration has found its way to Washington. In April 2026, Reps. Sam Liccardo (D-CA) and Young Kim (R-CA) introduced the Payments Access and Consumer Efficiency Act (PACE Act), a bipartisan bill aimed at speeding up the U.S. payments system and reducing the cost of moving money by modernizing the way payment companies access federal payment rails.
How payment processing delays impact small business cash flow
If a customer pays by ACH or card, it may take one to three business days for funds to be credited, even if the transaction is technically complete. For small businesses with low margins and no liquidity buffer, this gap quickly becomes visible.
Nearly half of owners (49%) say standard payment processing times result in critical or moderate cash flow gaps. Waiting forces real compromises: In the last 12 months, delays in processing caused 26% of owners to miss paying their own salary, 19% caused them to take on additional debt or use a credit card they otherwise wouldn’t have used, and 18% caused them to pay an invoice late and incur a fee or penalty.
What the PACE Act would do
The current U.S. payment system relies on networks called payment rails that route transactions and determine when the money actually arrives. The Federal Reserve operates three of these networks: FedACH, Fedwire and FedNow.
Currently, only banks and credit unions can connect directly to these Federal Reserve networks. When a non-bank payment app processes a transaction, it must first be routed through a bank, which involves an extra step and often additional time and fees.
The PACE Act would create a supervised path for qualified nonbank providers to connect directly to these Federal Reserve networks. To qualify, a provider must be under the supervision of the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency), the same federal regulator that oversees national banks.
Currently, non-bank payment companies operate under a patchwork of government licenses that vary in their requirements. Federal oversight would mean uniform consumer protection regardless of where a company operates. Providers that meet these standards would be able to access the Federal Reserve’s networks directly, eliminating the need for an intermediary bank and potentially reducing delays and fees.
As Rep. Young Kim put it, “Hardworking Americans shouldn’t have to wait days to access their own money or pay extra just to move it.”
The Financial Technology Association welcomed the bill’s introduction, noting that “American consumers and small businesses won’t have to wait days for a direct deposit to clear or for a supplier’s check to arrive in the mail.”
What’s driving the push for payments reform?
The PACE Act is being passed in Congress as the broader policy environment shifts toward payment modernization. In May 2026, a White House executive order directed the Federal Reserve to examine what it would take to allow nonbank entities direct access to their payment systems – the same issue addressed in law in the PACE Act.
For small business owners, the costs of the current system are measurable. The QuickBooks data shows this in instant transfer fees paid to access money already earned, credit card balances used to bridge a gap that shouldn’t exist, and delayed payments that trickle down to vendors and contractors.
Of businesses with overdue invoices, nearly one in four (24%) say late revenue has caused them to delay payments to contractors, suppliers or vendors. A slow payment can start a chain.
What faster payments could mean for small business owners
The impact of faster payments is practical and immediate: the contractor who waits two days for a card payment to clear after completing a job, the freelancer who paid $15 to receive a same-day payment because rent was due, and the small retailer who took on short-term debt because payroll occurred before funds were cleared.
The bill is still at the beginning of the legislative process; Whether it succeeds will become clearer over time. What is already clear from the data: For a significant proportion of small business owners, a slow payment infrastructure creates recurring monthly costs, whether they have to or not.
The data in this article comes from the QuickBooks Late Payments Report 2026.
This story was produced by QuickBooks and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
https://www.qcherald.com/premium/stacker/stories/small-business-owners-are-paying-to-access-their-own-money-congress-may-have-a-fix,181963?
