Main Street Monday: Small Business Cash Reserves Average 18 Days, Says JPMorganChase

June 22, 2026

By Bob Coleman
Founder & Publisher

Main Street Monday: Small Business Cash Reserves Average 18 Days, Says JPMorganChase

An interesting study by the bank tracked cash in the bank accounts of its 2.1 million small business customers.

Cash buffer days measure how long a small business could maintain its average outflows in the event of a complete disruption to inflows. 

The study analyzed 25 metro areas and found San Francisco ranked at the top of the list at 24 days.

California is home to more than 4.3 million small businesses, and over 12 percent of these are in the metropolitan San Francisco area. Small businesses accounted for 46.7 percent of employment in the San Francisco area, with the largest number of employees in the professional, scientific, and technical services industry.

We analyzed 2.1 million small businesses with Chase Business Banking accounts operating during 2025, including more than 43,000 in the San Francisco metro area, to provide a snapshot of their financial health. The typical small business in San Francisco exhibits financial health measures—over 24 cash buffer days and $163,300 in annual revenues—that are more robust than those of a typical small business in the U.S. Median. 

San Francisco revenues were higher than the overall sample in every industry, with professional services—the largest small business sector in San Francisco—having 39 percent higher revenues. 

While higher revenues may reflect the higher cost of living in San Francisco, cash buffer days scale balances by average outflows. This suggests that small businesses in San Francisco hold relatively larger cash reserves even after accounting for their higher outflows.

Source: JPMorganChase

Figure 1 shows the median cash buffer days for small businesses across 25 metro areas. The typical firm in our nationwide sample held 17.6 cash buffer days in 2025, indicating that its cash reserves could sustain its average outflows for over 17 days.