As consumers, we’re increasingly moving toward simpler, more secure and nearly seamless digital payment options—but the same can’t always be said for businesses. Whether it’s concern over the cost of implementation, resistance to change or a lack of industry standardization, there can be understandable hurdles to prioritizing an end-to-end digital solution. In the face of these challenges, the savviest businesses have realized the importance of upgrading their systems to help reclaim lost time and capture elusive ROI.
To help business leaders decide if it’s time to make a change within an organization, learn the top five reasons businesses are going all-in on digital B2B payments solutions.
- Save money throughout the payment life cycle. Manually sending and processing physical checks can cost up to twice as much as it would to process the same payment electronically. Companies that have digitized their workflow are able to track and know in real time when invoices are approved and paid—saving them time and allowing them to focus on more important tasks.
- Cut down on errors. Check processing requires separate reconciliation and 60 percent of these payments necessitate manual posting—leading to significant time spent spotting and addressing errors. Companies are combatting this by incorporating payment processing into their end-to-end digital solution, resulting in information being automatically synced or flagged as it flows through the process.
- Make customers—and vendors—happier. Manual processing can mean high costs and inefficiencies for buyers and suppliers, making it more difficult and expensive to do business with your company. As a result, businesses are realizing competitive advantages by offering a seamless user experience, both internally and externally.
- Gain better insights into cash flow and cash management. ACH payments are two to three times faster than traditional paper-based processes. The added speed in collection, along with a digitized process’s real-time visibility into cash flow, helps improve certainty as senior management decides when and how to deploy cash. When weighing the costs and benefits of digitizing, savvy companies consider the potential savings that could result from having clearer insight into spending trends and better management of working capital.
- Mitigate fraud risk. Criminals look for blind spots in payment systems, which can present vulnerabilities where the transaction is interrupted for approvals or manual processing. By implementing a seamless digital solution, companies remove those spots in order to help prevent fraudulent payments from sneaking through. This improves the security of payment information for both the company and its clients and vendors. Having a real-time, digital audit trail also reduces opportunities for internal fraud.
About the Author
Stephen Markwell is head of treasury services product strategy for JPMorgan Chase Commercial Banking.
