In an exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Omar Visram, Co-Founder and CEO of Enkel, shares a practical look at how small and mid-sized organizations can move beyond outdated financial processes and build systems that support real growth.
Interview By Kripa Anand
As the co-founder and CEO at Enkel (www.enkel.ca), Omar Visram is committed to making back-office services simpler and more accessible for small and medium-sized businesses. At Enkel, he focuses on blending practical financial expertise with innovative technology to help clients work more efficiently and to redirect their efforts towards the activities that drive their organizations forward, rather than being bogged down in routine accounting tasks.
You’ve seen inside the back office of hundreds of SMEs and NPOs through Enkel. Why have financial tools gone from “nice to have” to essential infrastructure for smaller organizations, and what problems do you see most often when they rely on manual or disconnected processes?
Financial tools have become essential because the cost of not using them is simply too high. When I started Enkel, it wasn’t uncommon to see clients driving cheques across town for signatures or tracking cash flow through spreadsheets that were already outdated by the time anyone looked at them. That world still exists for too many organizations.
The problems I see most consistently are missed approvals, poor cash flow visibility, and reconciliation that takes hours every week. In the NPO space especially, the stakes are higher. A not-for-profit might appear flush with cash but actually be in operational trouble because restricted funds are being misread as available capital. Manual, disconnected processes don’t give you the real-time clarity to catch those situations before they become a crisis.
The organizations that treat their financial tools as infrastructure — not overhead — operate with confidence. The rest are resigned to reacting.
When a business is still relatively small, it can be tempting to add tools ad hoc based on immediate needs or price. Beyond cost, what should SME leaders prioritize when choosing financial technology, and why does an overly complex or fragmented tech stack create headaches for both teams and accountants?
My most important advice is to resist solving every problem with a new tool, but fragmented stacks create inconsistency. The more platforms you adopt, the more complexity you introduce for your team and your accountant or bookkeeper.
Before we standardized at Enkel, clients were on different platforms with different approval processes. Our team context-switched constantly, quality suffered, and onboarding new staff took far longer than it should have. The moment we went all-in on a single, best-in-breed payment platform, everything simplified — for us and our clients.
Beyond cost, prioritize integrations first. If your payment platform doesn’t connect to your accounting software in a meaningful, two-way way, you’ve just created a new source of manual reconciliation.
After that, consider support — who’s behind the tool when something goes wrong? That responsiveness has been a genuine differentiator for us.
Enkel chose to standardize on a single payment automation platform for accounts payable. What specific challenges led to that decision, and how does payment automation change things like approvals, controls, and day-to-day workflows for finance teams?
The decision came from compounding pain points we couldn’t work around anymore. Our clients used a mix of cheques, Interac transfers, and credit cards — all inefficient, most expensive. But approvals were the real breaking point. Many NPO clients have multi-level governance requirements: an expenditure approval, then board-level sign-off. Managing that manually — sometimes literally driving cheques around town — wasn’t scalable or professional.
There was also a liability concern. To provide end-to-end AP service, we would have needed direct access to client bank accounts, which would introduce real legal and reputational risk for Enkel.
Plooto resolved both. We configure the full approval chain, automate payment scheduling, and give clients complete visibility — without ever touching their bank account. With Plooto, we can set everything up to the point where the client just needs to press the final button. The result was roughly 100 hours saved per month across our team and a far cleaner, more auditable process for every client we serve.
You’ve mentioned clients who’ve cut internal accounting workloads by more than half and improved audit outcomes after rethinking their tech stack. Beyond time savings, what long-term benefits have you seen for SMEs that invest in the right combination of tools—especially around cash flow visibility, risk, and decision-making?
Time savings have a huge impact, but the more durable benefits are about confidence and clarity. One client that stands out is a small NPO in Toronto called Point A. They saw $13,000 in annual savings and a 64% reduction in their internal accounting workload. But what I’m most proud of is that they completed their year-end audit with zero adjusting journal entries. That’s not just a time-saving story; that’s a quality story.
When the right tools are in place, leaders stop guessing. They have monthly financial statements on an accruals basis, so they can see how they’re tracking against budget and where operational strain is building before it becomes a problem.
From a risk perspective, proper approval controls mean cash can’t move without the right sign-off, eliminating a whole category of fraud and compliance exposure. Over time, these foundations allow an organization to grow with confidence rather than manage with anxiety.
Looking ahead, with developments like Plooto’s upcoming working capital solutions and expanded AR features, what does a “smart” financial stack look like for a growing SME—and what first step would you recommend to leaders who feel stuck in spreadsheets but aren’t sure where to begin modernizing their back office?
A smart financial stack doesn’t need to be complicated; it needs to be deliberate. You should start with an accounting platform you trust, a payment automation tool that handles both AP and AR with strong controls and deep integration, and as little else as possible. Every tool should earn its place by eliminating friction, not adding it.
What excites me about where Plooto is heading is that it’s closing gaps that previously required workarounds. Expanded AR means businesses can manage the full payment cycle from one place. Their working capital offering will address something I hear constantly: Access to capital is challenging, but it can be the difference between seizing an opportunity and watching it pass.
For leaders stuck in spreadsheets, my advice is simple: start with AP. It’s where the most manual work lives, the most liability hides, and where automation delivers the fastest, most visible return. Get that right, build consistent processes around it, and grow from there. Don’t try to modernize everything at once. Just start, and be intentional.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this interview are those of the interviewee and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of CanadianSME Small Business Magazine. Our platform is dedicated to fostering dialogue and sharing insights that inspire and empower small and medium-sized businesses across Canada.
