Ten Ways B2B Companies Benefit by Automating Their Accounts Payable and Receivable with Their Payments Process

Did you know that more than 50 percent of B2B payments are still paid with paper checks? Even many companies that have embraced automation for purchase orders and invoices are still utilizing legacy manual processes for their Accounts Payable (AP) and Accounts Receivable (AR) functions. According to recent research by Mastercard, reducing checks by just 10 percent could save the industry $1.2 billion per year. Imagine how much it could save your business to automate your AP and AR with your payments process.

Thanks to technological innovations in payments, companies can now digitally integrate all of the processing points in the cash cycle. In fact, the global B2B payments market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.1 percent through to 2030, making the market worth $2.1 trillion. According to Gartner’s Future of Sales 2025 Report, 80 percent of transactions between suppliers and buyers will be digital by 2025. Even the U.S. Federal Reserve has announced its plans to go digital with its B2B payments.

In addition to improving efficiency as well as reducing costs and fraud risks, integrating payments with AP and AR functions also delivers the competitive advantage of access to more broadly available enterprise intelligence through easier data access and analytics.

Here are 10 valuable ways that automating your AP and AR can benefit your business:

1. Faster, More Reliable Cash Flow. By replacing paper checks and postage with digital processes, the costs associated with manual processing and materials are greatly reduced — not to mention the environmental impact — resulting in a faster and more reliable cash flow.
2. Reduced AR Costs. The average paper invoice costs more than $10 — and requires at least 8 days to process — while the average automated invoice is processed for just $2.18 and is typically paid in fewer than three days. Per invoice, that’s a savings of almost $8 and reduced payment delays by more than five days, resulting in a significant cost reduction for companies handling thousands of invoices per month.
3. More Strategic Financial Planning. Saving time by automating AP/AR and payments processes frees up your finance department to focus on what really matters, such as budgeting, analyzing metrics and finding new ways to reduce costs.
4. Scalability for Growth. Automating AP delivers a more effective and efficient payment process, which makes your entire system scalable for future growth.
5. Reduced Errors. Manually driven AP departments are often plagued by errors, such as incorrect data inputs, verification errors or overpaying or making duplicate payments. In addition, the cost of invoice exceptions — discrepancies between the data on the invoice and the data associated with the order — add up when invoices go missing or are entered incorrectly, such as the wrong number in a supplier code, zip code or purchase order.
6. Improved Check-and-Balance. With automation, discrepancies are more likely to be caught early on rather than going unnoticed due to a lack of checkpoints.
7. Improved Supplier Relationships. By automating B2B payments, businesses improve payment processing and transparency with their vendors. Vendors receive their payments faster and can log in at any time to view their accounts. This also reduces help-desk calls and reduces uncertainty around payment status.
8. Rich Business Insights with Real-Time Analytics. The best automated AP solutions provide insights that may have taken your finance department weeks or months to generate manually. With real-time analytics, actionable insights are now available with a click of a button, enabling you to visualize new ways to cut costs and drive efficiencies.
9. A More Flexible and Better-Connected Workforce. Automating AP means your team gets access to the information they need to do their jobs effectively, whenever and wherever they need it, helping to ensure business continuity even when employees ’aren’t in the physical office. It also makes it easier for others to step in when needed to manage your AP workflow.
10. Reduced Fraud Risk. In addition to fewer errors, automating your AP and AR with your payments processes results in less risk of fraud by alerting you of exceptions.

Want to get started automating your AP and AR with your payments process today?

PayNation can help! Whether you currently have a payments processor or are new to B2B payments, connect with PayNation today.

Extend Your Reach and Revenue with PayNation

• Streamline your payments.
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• Automate B2B payments processing.
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