Mitigating risks and cutting costs is one of the topmost priorities for most CFOs out there –especially during the ongoing era of business uncertainty. One domain that is capable of impacting the bottom line of your B2B business while decreasing the overall risks –when managed properly, is the payables. However, the utilization of inefficient processes, absence of transaction visibility, incompetent reporting, and the increasing risks of frauds can result into missed payments along with decreased cash flow.

Companies across the world are working diligently for digitizing the B2B (Business to Business) payment processes right before the advent of the pandemic. The ability of supporting B2B payments has shifted from the “should-have” to “must-have” for modern businesses. This has accelerated the overall need to shift away from manual payment processes in a swift fashion.

Effects of the Pandemic on the Payment System

The overall effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the B2B payment systems might have permanent shifts on the way in which businesses receive or make payments or carry out typical business operations. This holds especially true as an increasing number of business professionals are expecting digital optimization for all transactions made by them. Most of the B2B sellers and buyers have already become adept at ensuring seamless B2C (Business to Consumer) transactions. They are now expecting processes related to B2B purchasing to reflect the same speed and efficiency.

Reasons Why B2B Payment Systems are Changing

A number of varying factors can help in explaining why the overall B2B payment landscape is undergoing change amidst the profound shift.

Some reasons tend to be long-term including the digitization of workplaces in the current era and a major increase in cloud computing and mobile experiences in the past decade. Some of the other reasons are still unfolding. These include the ongoing effects of the global pandemic. At the same time, it is also becoming apparent that major opportunities tend to exist in the modern B2B payment market. MasterCard offers the estimation that the ongoing business payment market across the globe might go over $100 trillion consisting of all forms of payment.

Some of the reasons why you should consider automation or utilization of virtual cards for the current B2B payment systems are:

#Saving Time & Resources

Whenever the accounts payable professional might receive the invoice, the first step of payment will be entering the details into the accounting system of the company. When the process is executed manually, the vital operation becomes highly vulnerable to several errors including data entry or misplacing invoices for paying duplicates.

It can be said that data entry turns out to be a repetitive task. This is because ample time as well as resources of the accounts payable professionals get consumed that could be otherwise utilized in other core API functions for yielding more value. Data that is error-prone during the beginning of the invoicing process can further cause major mistakes like paying incorrect amounts, paying the same amount more than a single time, invoice duplications, and so more.

As such, the utilization of an automation software solution involves the utilization of character recognition solutions for storing B2B payment information out of invoices in an automated fashion into the respective accounting systems. Due to this, the elimination of errors related to data entry and misplaced invoices take place.

#Ease of Ensuring Check Payments

Amidst the pandemic, it is no surprise that the use of checks is reduced significantly due to the conversion of paper-based checks into automated check clearing systems. As per a study report, it has been estimated that the overall ACH payments have reduced to around 24 percent from the time of 2019 & 2020. Check conversion volumes have increased with point sales going down 45 percent.

One aspect that most consumers have discovered is that payment with checks is quite burdensome especially due to the concept of social distancing. Even after this, most businesses out there tend to prefer the utilization of paper-based checks. In this case, what can accounts payable do? The best option for the given group of businesses is to check payment solutions that are both touchless and effortless. For instance, solutions like Stampli aim at automatically printing and mailing physical checks from the respective bank accounts while using electronic signature for making its way onto the check.

#Payment Automation Offering Control During Disturbed Times

We are all going through tough times due to the ongoing pandemic. In a recent study survey, it was revealed that 66 percent of finance managers & executives revealed having higher stress levels. At the same time, 60 percent of them reported that they worked for longer hours, had sleep interrupted due to work, suffered insomnia due to stress, and so more.

Stress is mostly known to derive from lack of overall control or not knowing what will be coming in the future. While B2B payment automation cannot allow you to navigate the global pandemic or reduce the overall stress, the technology of B2B payment automation can help in streamlining processes for controlling how & when payments can offer business continuity.

Conclusion 

By getting rid of the existing challenges from manual-based payment processes, automation of B2B payments in the modern era delivers comprehensive control as well as visibility of payment processes. This allows businesses to control when payments are getting made. Moreover, with the elimination of paper-based services, payment processes get streamlined while offering businesses the chance to leverage the benefits of early discounts related to payments.