Persuading vendors to accept electronic payments

You know that increasing electronic payments and decreasing paper checks streamlines your company’s finance operations in a big way.

But what about those vendors your company works with that still don’t accept e-payments? How can you win them over?

Electronic payments: Myths v. facts

A/P software solutions provider Mineral Tree says a good place to start is putting yourself in their shoes to understand the most common reasons why vendors would be reluctant to change.

Then, counter those myths with the facts.

Myth: Switching to a new payment method will be too time consuming because we’ll have to retrain A/R on new technology or processes.

Fact: What if A/R didn’t have to spend as much time as it does following up on payment status or processing checks? With e-payments, the funds arrive in their account faster, and they won’t have to call your A/P staffers and wait on hold. Manually processing a check is replaced by an Internet connection and a few mouse clicks.

Myth: Electronic payments are less secure because cyberthreats come into play.

Fact: Paper checks are still the No. 1 primary target for payment fraud. Payment methods such as ACH or virtual cards have an extra layer of protection.

Myth: The transaction fees aren’t worth it.

Fact: Accepting e-payments does sometimes result in fees on the vendor’s side.

However, remind them that the cost involved with processing check payments – including the time it takes to sign and deposit them – adds up, often to as much as $5 for each check.

Dig Deeper: Learn where electronic payments are headed and how you can take advantage of them by downloading “Three Trends Shaping the Digitization of B2B Payments,” a free eBook from our friends at Priority Payments.