Why do middle market companies, on average, still pay two-thirds of their suppliers by check?
It’s true that very lean teams – working under legacy technology – need a partner to take the heavy-lifting of integration and supplier enrollment off their backs.
The good news is that you can be the game changer with a partner that keeps middle market companies at the heart of their integrated payments (IP) solution. A truly integrated payment platform enables corporate accounting teams to make seamless, automated payments to their suppliers – while gaining rich invoice and purchase order data.
To accelerate integrated payments adoption, let’s knock down the four most common roadblocks that bankers and corporate finance teams encounter when seeking change.
- Aren’t B2B payments too complicated to automate? A truly integrated payment solution reduces complexity. We recognize that commercial buyers and suppliers need greater flexibility in payment types and terms, seamless integration and rich data. With the CPX IP solution, the rich data shared between buyer and supplier – invoice number, payment amount, purchase orders details, and more – can be easily imported into both ERP systems instead of manually entering data. Buyers can upload one simple payment instruction file and have all payment options executed through that one file. And, they can do it without changing their ERP or bank.
- How can IP make life better for buyers and suppliers? There is a strong business case for delivering value to both buyers and suppliers. Typically, an AP solution consists of issuing virtual cards. However, most solutions don’t factor in any other payable methods that drive additional value, like buyer-initiated payments (BIP), ACH+ and dynamic discounting, along with simple ACH and check. These payment types offer opportunities to not only streamline — but monetize — a buyer’s AP through a revenue share among the fintech, bank and end-user customers. Life is better when the IP solution makes it very simple to monetize accounts payable with little to no investment of time, money or technology resources on the buyer’s part.
- Are suppliers really willing to get paid like this? Suppliers are strapped for cash and need to be paid as quickly as possible. Many suppliers today are willing to receive payment quicker from their strategic clients for a small fee. The right payment strategy allows the supplier to be paid sooner with good funds, while the buyer receives a rebate. For those who want to stay with check and simple ACH, an IP platform can still improve the level of security and data delivered for both buyer and supplier using these methods.
- How can B2B payments bridge the divide and eliminate checks? We are partnering with banks to deepen the value proposition to tech-savvy CFOs. Many have seen AP automation solutions streamlining invoice workflow within ERP systems. But, with typical AP automation, the payments piece is missing. These solutions fail to go the “last mile” to deliver payments and rich transaction data.
The game-changer in the Priority CPX solution is that it works with any ERP and accepts a single payment instruction file to allow numerous forms of payment to flow seamlessly to suppliers. Our platform also includes best-in-class supplier enablement and activation, so the CPX solution moves the needle to lower cost and generate new revenue in the form of rebates.
Want to see how easy it can be? Check out our short video about Priority CPX (Commercial Payments Exchange), recognized by CFO Tech Outlook as a Top 10 AP Solution.
Contact us to discuss working together to make B2B buyer and supplier experience better and everyone’s life simpler.