B2B Payment Automation

The Main Elements of B2B Payment Automation

Most companies rely on a B2B payment automation service or platform to automate these business payment processes and integrate them with their current business systems.

The process includes:

Invoice Processing. According to the Accounts Payable Automation Trends 2022 report, 56% of AP teams spend more than ten hours a week processing invoices. Automated B2B payments help reduce time spent on these tasks by enabling you to generate and process invoices automatically by extracting information such as invoice number, date, and amount due to match it with the corresponding purchase order and upload it to your ERP or business technology.

Payment workflows. The traditional manual process of payment approvals is tedious and prone to error, causing delays and increasing the likelihood of late payments. Invoice payment automation streamlines the process of validation, approval, and final payment to facilitate timely payments, an enhanced customer experience, and build customer trust in your brand.

Payment execution. Your B2B payment automation platform must integrate with a variety of payment options (e.g. ACH, debit or credit cards, electronic wallets) to make it as easy as possible for customers to pay.

Payment reconciliation. B2B payment automation eliminates the time and cost associated with manual payment reconciliation, which has become more challenging today with the rise in different online payment options.

Reporting and analytics. When payments are automated, your A/P team can track payments to identify trends, proactively detect and address payment issues, and identify methods to optimize the payment process for the future.

Benefits of B2B Payment Automation

As autonomous finance transforms the financial industry, companies of all sizes and across all industries are taking advantage of technology to ensure they are prepared for the future. At the same time, they want to ensure they are reaping the benefits of technology such as B2B payment automation.

These benefits include:

Faster payment processing. Since automated payments can work 24-7, it can be done in near real-time, improving cash flow. Automated payment processing also reduces the likelihood that payments are delayed due to errors or bottlenecks in the approval workflow.
Better customer relationships. Faster payments strengthen trust between customers and their clients and encourage clients to offer better terms for payments in the future, along with potential discounts. This in turn helps your business build a loyal customer base.

Ability to scale. Manual processing has a point in which it can be ineffective as businesses start to grow and invoice more clients, causing bottlenecks in your payment process. B2B payment automation payments can help businesses scale effectively while at the same time improve their cash flow.
Improved accuracy. Manual B2B payments are tedious and prone to error. Automated B2B payments eliminate these errors that would otherwise increase as businesses scale.
Easier to meet compliance. B2B payment automation software helps businesses meet various regulations, accounting standards and internal policies. It also helps make the auditing process easier and more efficient since it documents all business transactions.
Reduce cost. Manual payments are far more costly than automated ones. In addition, a B2B payment automation service helps to free up resources that the business can allocate to higher-value tasks.

How Gaviti Facilitates B2B Payment Automation

Gaviti’s invoice-to-cash A/R automation and management platform automates the collections process to streamline the entire A/R lifecycle. At the same time, it also includes a Self-Service Customer Payer Portal to automate your customer’s payments and make it as easy as possible for them to pay their invoices.

Benefits of the Self-Service Customer Payer Portal include:

Multiple payment methods. This includes payment options such as ACH, digital wallets, credit and debit cards, and more to make it as easy as possible for customers to pay and facilitate timely payments.

Automated payment reconciliation. Match incoming payments with corresponding invoices in real-time and reduce time and resources spent on manual reconciliation, which is prone to error.

Enhanced payment experience. Offer customers the ability to pay at any time online, improving customer satisfaction and encouraging timely payments.

Automated payment reminders. Proactively remind customers when payment is due, encouraging the likelihood of timely payments and reducing delays in payments.

Integrated payment gateways. Connect with top payment providers such as Bluesnap and Stripe who are widely recognized as complying with the latest compliance and regulations to ensure secure customer payment.

Reporting and analytics. Get robust reporting and analytics capabilities for payment transactions so that you can identify payment trends, and patterns to gain insights into your payment performance.

Want to learn more about how Gaviti streamlines the A/R process and facilitates B2B payment automation? Get a demo today.