AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ZenBusiness®, the intuitive business management platform trusted by a half million small businesses, has launched a Beneficial Ownership Filing service for its customers. The new offering is a direct response to the federal government’s Corporate Transparency Act. New regulations mandate the reporting of beneficial ownership information for approximately 30 million existing businesses and 5 million new companies formed annually over the next decade. ZenBusiness’s Beneficial Ownership Filing service aims to simplify the complicated process of gathering and submitting the necessary beneficial ownership information by their designated deadlines. The Corporate Transparency Act effective as of January 1, 2024, requires most LLCs and corporations with fewer than 20 employees to submit official documentation on beneficial business ownership in an effort to prevent fraud and illegal activities. Beneficial owners are individuals who ultimately own or control a company, either directly or indirectly

US-based management platform ZenBusiness has integrated with payments processor Stripe to help SMEs better manage their financial operations.  . The announced integration combines Stripe’s secure and user-friendly payment processing with ZenBusiness Money Pro, a service built for small business owners that tracks all mileage, expenses, income streams, and tax deductions in real time. ZenBusiness Money Pro helps the average customer save money each year on their tax bill by calculating valuable tax deductions and automating their financial records.Streamlining small business finances

What can Uber, the trailblazing ride-hailing platform that achieved GAAP operating profit for the first time in its history last week, tell us about the road ahead for Grab?GAAP profit is more difficult to achieve than positive EBITDA because the latter does not account for expenses such as depreciation and amortization, which are real costs to running a company.Comparing the two tech players can give us an idea of how much longer it will take for Grab to achieve profitability. Uber announced that it hit the milestone in its second quarter results for 2023.While it’s difficult to draw firm conclusions because of differences in both businesses, which include the geographies where they operate and how they report their financials, Uber’s path to profitability sheds light on what Grab’s might look like.Grab – which purchased Uber’s Southeast Asia business in 2018 – is expected to report its numbers for Q2 2o23 in August.Not apples to applesDrawing contrasts between Uber and Grab on the basis of their reported numbers is not straightforward. Both companies determine everything from gross merchandise value (GMV) – or what Uber terms “gross bookings” – to revenue and EBITDA differently.The differences in how incentives are calculated – whether they reduce revenues or are recorded as part of sales and marketing expenses – mean that of these three metrics, revenue is probably the most challenging to compare.Also, while both Grab and Uber offer ride-hailing and food delivery services, they operate other business lines and do so in different geographies. For example, Grab offers financial services, including a digital bank, while Uber operates a freight business. The latter also has a global presence, in contrast with the former’s Southeast Asia focus.That said, ride-hailing and food delivery dominate the top lines of both businesses, although the balance between the two differs.Follow the leaderNotwithstanding the caveats above, tracing the development of the two firms’ earnings over the years suggests that Grab could achieve operating profit in around two years from now.On an adjusted EBITDA basis, Uber achieved overall EBITDA breakeven in Q3 2021. It took seven quarters after that for it to generate an operating profit.Meanwhile, Grab’s most recent guidance to the market is that it expects to achieve adjusted EBITDA breakeven in Q4 of this year.Assuming it’ll take Grab a similar timeline of seven quarters to get from EBITDA breakeven to operating profit, that would bring us to Q3 2025.Of course, such a comparison is fairly simplistic.Another signpost is to look at what Uber’s adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of gross bookings was in its most recent quarter and use that as a milestone that Grab would need to hit to achieve operating profit.Grab’s adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2023 is -1.3% of total GMV