(Bloomberg) -- Square Inc.’s operation in Canada is introducing two new features to help small businesses access their cash from sales more quickly as the prolonged pandemic adds turbulence for merchants and service providers.

The new Square Card give sellers free, instant access to funds they processed through Square rather than having to wait until the next business day, as was the case before, the San Francisco-based company said in a statement Tuesday. For firms that maintain external bank accounts, Square is offering real-time fund transfers by linking their debit cards to their Square accounts.

The pandemic forced many merchants to adapt to lockdown restrictions by moving quickly to e-commerce, and supply-chain snarls have made the ability to order materials earlier more crucial. The new features Square is rolling out are meant to help small businesses move faster and shorten the delay between making a sale and using the proceeds, said Christina Riechers, head of product for business banking at Square.

“Cash flow management as a broader problem area is probably one of the top issues that small-business owners face,” Riechers said in an interview. “A lot of them don’t have much of a buffer of funds sitting there that allow them to make that easier.”

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