Commonwealth Bank has launched a business banking alert service, offering to send customers alerts updating them about their account balances and incoming payments.The service, Real-Time Alerts, makes use of the real-time transaction settlement capability of the bank's core system and is available to any customer with a business transaction account.CBA executive general manager small business, Clive van Horen, said the bank developed the service in response to research which found small business owners spent a lot of time managing their business finances and were looking for a clearer view of their cash flow.The bank surveyed 500 small business owners, who said they spent a significant amount of time chasing payments or invoices, scheduling payments and forecasting business cash flow.They wanted to know when outgoing and incoming payments were due, and the position of their transaction account.CBA will alert them if their transaction account balance reaches a low threshold or a high threshold and also when incoming payments are received. Business owners can elect to take the alerts via email, SMS or notification in their banking app.van Horen said the bank conducted a trial before launching the service. "Customers said it gave them greater control and they liked the fact that it updated them in real time," he said.