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The Advantages of B2B Payment Automation

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The GoCardless content team comprises a group of subject-matter experts in multiple fields from across GoCardless. The authors and reviewers work in the sales, marketing, legal, and finance departments. All have in-depth knowledge and experience in various aspects of payment scheme technology and the operating rules applicable to each. The team holds expertise in the well-established payment schemes such as UK Direct Debit, the European SEPA scheme, and the US ACH scheme, as well as in schemes operating in Scandinavia, Australia, and New Zealand. See full bio

Last editedJan 20223 min read

In a fast-paced business environment, it’s important to make sure your processes and systems are as efficient and advantageous as can be – and making B2B payments is one of the many processes that can be streamlined through automation. Manually making regular payments to other businesses will take up a lot of time and resources in the long run, and can create major obstacles as your business grows.

Why switch to B2B payment automation?

Among the many advantages of automated B2B payments, you’ll benefit from improved cash flow, increased business revenue, access to more markets, less processing time, a more efficient workplace, and much more.

Traditional payment methods like wire transfers and cheques can take days, sometimes weeks to process, and can come with hefty fees that these days are completely unnecessary. Automated B2B payments don’t just speed up the process and save you money, they also make it easier to track and record your transactions without error.

While a manual payment process can absolutely work well, with the flexibility and efficiency that automation provides, there’s little reason not to make the switch. There might be some challenges to overcome as you adopt a new automated system, but with the right process, you’ll quickly become familiar with how it works and notice the benefits. As processing fees for traditional cheque and credit card payments continue to rise, the sooner your business turns to automation, the more it will save.

Not to mention, doing away with paper bills and traditional payments is simply more sustainable. Your bills and invoices will be delivered electronically, with no need for any physical paperwork or cash to move around.

Advantages of B2B payment automation

Let’s break down some of the key benefits of B2B payment automation:

Greater Control

By handling automated B2B payments through one digital system, it will be easier than ever to manage and record your company’s financial data. An automated system means you’re far less likely to face problems that stem from human error. Everything will be processed and recorded automatically on one reliable, intuitive platform, which can help ensure your business accounting is always accurate and up to date. Many B2B payment automation solutions can be integrated with your existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools to further streamline your processes, and use AI to strengthen their capability and efficiency.

You’ll have greater flexibility when switching to an automated system. The best automated B2B payment solutions will allow you to manage both new and traditional payment methods, from paper cheques to credit cards to cryptocurrencies and beyond. You can still work with customers who favour a traditional method, while managing things far more efficiently through a digital system.

B2B payment automation also makes it easier for businesses working remotely. You can manage payments from just about anywhere, to just about anywhere, without needing any physical office space or having to visit the bank, post office or otherwise. Everything happens on one secure online platform that you can control access to.

Saving Money

With B2B payment automation, you’ll have better control over your cash flow. Your business can collect B2B payments automatically, the moment they’re due, reducing your debtor days in the process. You reduce costs by avoiding increasing credit card payment fees and other charges that come with traditional banking. Many payment automation services offer fixed monthly rates as opposed to ‘per transaction’ fees, which will be hugely beneficial as your business scales.

Saving Time

Payments can be approved a lot quicker, from just about anywhere, rather than having to send a physical bill to an approver and manually move documents from department to department before any money can change hands.

Your funds will simply be withdrawn automatically whenever payment is due, and transferred digitally to the vendor. This does away with all the extra time it’d take for mailing, signing, and depositing cheques, as well as all the time required for bank processing. Vendors and customers can simply log into your automated payment system from any device to make or request a payment in just a few clicks.

When it comes to reconciliation, automation helps ensure you’re always paid on time. Automated recurring payments using GoCardless, for example, will reduce the time taken to receive payouts by 47%. GoCardless also reduces the overall cost of taking payments by 56%, and offers huge opportunities for international expansion by providing access to 44% more markets globally.

Facilitating Growth

Automation facilitates growth for small businesses, establishing a scalable system that can grow with your company, without having to spend more money, time and resources on growing your team. As your business expands, so too might your B2B expenditure. Large companies have a lot of payments to make pretty much every day, and if you’re using traditional methods, this might mean needing to expand your team and resources the more business you take on. B2B payment automation, on the other hand, is fully scalable, so adding new costs is simply a matter of pressing a few buttons, without the need for increasing overheads.

Less Admin

By automating cash collection and reconciliation, you’ll reduce admin a whole lot. Automated payments via GoCardless can be integrated with your existing invoicing software, or you can make the most out of our intuitive dashboard to manage everything on one unified platform.

The process is very straightforward. Your customer will simply fill out a form with their payment details, authorising you to collect payments via Becs Direct Debit. You can send a secure link to this form directly to your customers, or add a customisable payment page on your website. Then, you can schedule one-off or recurring payments on the GoCardless dashboard. If you’d prefer to keep using your existing invoicing software, you can enable GoCardless to pull payments automatically on invoice due dates.

All the arduous tasks associated with making regular B2B payments can be easily avoided by favouring online automation, with a platform that serves the needs, nature and growth of your business.

We can help

GoCardless helps you automate payment collection, cutting down on the amount of admin your team needs to deal with when chasing invoices. Find out how GoCardless can help you with ad hoc payments or recurring payments.