More modernized payment processes: Who’s ready, who isn’t

Your peers have big plans to modernize their payment processes … if their vendors can keep up!

When asked what their payment modernization programs included, companies’ top answers were:

• real-time payments (45%)
• Same Day ACH (36%)
• fintech integrations (34%)
• an Application Programming Interface (API) (27%), and
• FedNow instant payments (23%).

That’s according to the 2021 Treasury & Fraud Controls Survey Report from Strategic Treasurer and Bottomline Technologies.

Where do you stand?

It’s clear from this research that real-time and same-day payments are becoming increasingly popular. Businesses want to send and receive funds quickly.

So it’s critical to assess where your A/P department stands and ensure you’re taking advantage of more instant payment capabilities.

Then, of course, you have to find out if your vendors can handle more modernized payment processes.

Vendors not as modernized as they think

And warning: Some vendors may think they’re in a better place with digitization than they actually are.

A new report found 86% of A/R teams view themselves as somewhat or very modernized. They use words like “innovative” and “efficient” when discussing their processes.

But the same report also revealed:

• More than 40% of vendors don’t provide self-service capabilities.
• More than 50% don’t have integration with their ERP systems, or your A/P or Procure-to-Pay platforms.
• More than 60% say most of their invoices or payments aren’t digital.

Given this research, you and your A/P team may not want to always take vendors’ word at face value. Dig deeper to find out just how digitized (or not) they are.