Mobile Application for Managing Service Payments in SMEs

Abstract

This study identifies the problems faced by small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) sector, which represent 95.6% of micro enterprises, 3.8% of small- sized, and 0.1% of medium-sized companies in Peru. In addition, SMEs account for 45.9% of the economically active population (EAP) in 2022. The heads of SMEs face challenges in managing their payments for services such as electricity and water. We reviewed studies focused on SMEs in Peru. However, we found only one relevant study, which was conducted in 2023 on drug management in the health sector. Therefore, we developed a mobile application that helps in managing service payments. The app was developed using the Flutter framework and Azure DevOps cloud deployment for SMEs. This study aims to reduce the burden of manual management, avoid human errors, and automate service payment processes for users. The app aims to avoid overpayments, optimize finances, reduce costs, and reduce employee time per day. In addition, the app was validated by conducting a case study with importing companies. The results revealed that the average time to register services in person was 22.75 min, which decreased to 13 min after using the mobile application. In addition, the app facilitated successful transactions and reduced monthly costs by 2.59% monthly by alerting the users of late payments. In conclusion, the application facilitates an efficient payment of services in SMEs, reducing waiting times and excessive costs.