There is a lot more to online payments and ad hoc purchases than you might think
The B2B payments landscape changed quite a bit over the last couple of years. There was a general push to digitize them and a need to see that it is far more than only a back and forth between the two obvious players: buyers and suppliers.
What if we tell you that you can turn every invoice received within your company into an opportunity? To only mention a few: an opportunity to improve your cash flow, reduce manual work, getting better insights into tail-end spend, etc.
How exactly? By having a good B2B payment solution and, preferably, an automated virtual one in place.
Here are five reasons why you should consider going for the more strategic approach by implementing a B2B payment solution:
- It will improve your cash flow
With an integrated automated virtual solution, your usual payment cycle can be cut by more than half. With AirPlus for example, every transaction you make, will be summarized in a clear statement and billed to you collectively. So, while your suppliers are being paid punctually, you can profit from a longer payment period and thus a free credit line and improved cash flow compared to the standard bank transfer. - Less manual work = less stress = more time to put to better use
Having an automated virtual solution will reduce the manual work from running multiple processes for checks and paperwork to almost none. At the same time, it will decrease your amount of vendors immensely. This alone will save your employees a lot of time. Time that can be put to better use like more strategic and value-added initiatives that ultimately move your business forward. At the same time, since all expenses are settled centrally, error-prone individual settlements are eliminated which will have a positive impact on the stress level of your employees. - Streamlined processes offer greater control
With AirPlus Virtual Cards for example, online card generation is quick and easy. You can lodge your cards with your preferred suppliers. All expenses are settled centrally and summarized in one single statement allowing you to see the bigger picture through detailed back-end reporting. - Better engage with your suppliers and negotiate better rates
Being able to see the bigger picture and patterns in spend will help you to negotiate with suppliers. Having a good strategy is important to the procurement department for example, because maximum value is generated when a mutually beneficial value proposition is reached between the buyer and supplier. As a buyer you will have a decrease in day’s payable outstanding (DPO) which means you will pay earlier and, paying earlier will get you much better supplier rates. - It will make your transactions more secure and reduce fraud
Having security while being busy paying for goods, might trump all the above. The security built into most B2B payment solutions is as good as anything physical. The principle of AirPlus Virtual Cards is simple: In the AirPlus Portal you generate unique Mastercard numbers as needed for your purchases worldwide. For enhanced security, every card number can be restricted to a specific purpose.
