Modern consumerism is driving a new era in Business-to-Business (B2B) transactions. Today’s commercial buyers want to pay just like they shop. That means multiple payment options, more card payments, autopay features, and self-service tools with online access to detailed billing and payment information. However, meeting consumer-grade expectations with a B2B payments strategy is anything but simple for suppliers.
Purchasing trends translate into new pressures to accept credit cards and virtual cards, but accommodating cards can create a ripple effect on accounts receivable operations, introducing complexity for those on the supplier side. The key is to turn these modern mandates into momentum for your business by grounding your B2B payments strategy in efficiency, flexibility, and AI intelligence. Herein, you’ll learn just how to do that.
Digital Payments: Now the Norm
Digital transactions and card payments are now the baseline for service excellence. Commercial buyers want the convenience and control they enjoy as consumers: card payments, visibility into their bills, and security for all their online transactions.
Building Efficiency, Flexibility, and AI Intelligence into Your B2B Payments Strategy
What payment type is considered essential by more than half of CFOs? If you guessed virtual cards, you’re right on the money. It’s one of the fastest growing payment modalities, with usage increasing over 320% in 2025 alone.
320% Growth in Virtual Cards
Why is virtual card growth on fire? Fraud prevention fuels the rise of virtual cards. Roughly 63% of companies say their fraud activity is mainly through checks. Meanwhile, virtual cards are single-use and tightly controlled – a much safer choice than checks and ACH. Plus, economic pressures and financial stress are catalysts for more card payments.
To preserve their cash flow and their budget, more CFOs are turning to credit payments. As a working capital tool, cards give buyers a way to float their business without delaying order-to-cash cycles for suppliers. Buyers can hold on to their cash through the billing cycle (plus the grace period) before the payment is due.
But while buyers gain clear advantages, suppliers face a few caveats.
Cards can unlock cash flow for suppliers, but only if their AR systems and operations are prepared for them.
Virtual cards can be a cash flow accelerator for suppliers, but only if the supplier’s AR processes, payment policies, and systems are designed to handle them efficiently. Without advanced AI automation, virtual card payments can challenge financial operations:
- Reconciliation complexity: Linking emailed card payments to the correct invoices can be tricky, and manual cash application procedures often slow AR teams.
- Rising costs and prices: As card interchange fees rise, CFOs are forced to consider price hikes to offset the impact – particularly with virtual cards, as these can’t be surcharged.
- Compliance risks: Falling short of PCI DSS requirements can trigger penalties anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000 per month depending on the scope and duration of non-compliance.
This explains why preparation is essential. By anticipating these challenges, suppliers can capture instant settlement while still preserving operational speed and agility. Here are tangible tips to build your payment strategy for efficacy — with flexible payment options in B2B, AI intelligence, and digital transformation leading the way.
Offer Flexible B2B Payment Options without Increasing Complexity
Virtual cards, EFT, ACH, international methods… When there’s never been more ways to pay, suppliers must enable a wide variety of payment modalities yet find ways to keep it all manageable.
- Use AI payment automation to apply card payments. Matching emailed card payments to the right invoices isn’t always straightforward. In fact, manual reconciliations can create more than 24 hours a week in lost productivity. AR automation platforms fix this. The right AI payment automation includes ML-powered cash application automation software. This way, remittances auto-match with their respective invoices – regardless of which payment type or communication channel was used. When these tools are integrated and paired with a Digital Lockbox, they can achieve straight-through processing and post data back into your ERP system(s). AI turns payments into fast, secure, automated reconciliations. Best of all, one platform tracks all AR activities across the order-to-cash cycle, paving the way for centralized management. Learn how Billtrust streamlines virtual card payments.
- Leave the analytical work to AI. True AI payment automation does more than apply cash. It can be used to mine deep insight into payment history, preferences, and buyer behavior, which means it can offer intelligent suggestions on how to optimize your payment policies.
- Predictive analytics can forecast when invoices are likely to be paid and identify accounts that carry a higher risk of delayed payment or default.
- Cash flow predictions can be achieved with a high degree of accuracy through the analysis of extensive transaction data.
- Machine learning algorithms can learn a buyer’s payment tendencies, enabling more effective collections reminders when necessary.
Payment Acceptance Optimization: Meet Buyer Preferences without Making Financial Sacrifices
To provide truly flexible payment options in B2B, don’t default to the cheapest payment method for your AR team if it creates a financial risk or a friction point for your customers. Instead, use buyer behavior data for payment acceptance optimization, shaping smarter policies that strike the right balance between cost and service excellence.
Tie your B2B payments strategy to your customer segmentation.
When buyers and their purchasing habits are constantly evolving, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Instead, finance leaders should monitor buyer behaviors and customize payment policies and terms for different customers and groups on an ongoing basis. This approach is essential for continually finding that sweet spot between your business objectives and buyer expectations. It helps companies simultaneously protect their profit margins and the customer experience – and do so automatically.
AR automation platforms offer a clear view into payment acceptance costs and can help segment buyers into different groups. This insight enables a more strategic approach to payment strategy, helping finance leaders gain transparency into the ROI of their payment policies – for example, exposing when high acceptance costs may not be justified. Software features should allow you to set different payment policies and rules for buyers based on attributes like buyer size, relationship, and profitability.
Save money by reducing your interchange fees.
With B2B profit margins around 10%, typical card processing fees can erode profit margins by 15-35%. A key part of payment acceptance optimization is lowering card costs by qualifying for Level 2 and Level 3 interchange rates. These lower rates kick in when additional transaction data (like tax amounts, invoice numbers, or line-item details) is passed along with the payment. If you accept cards but lack the ability to pass through Level 2/3 data, you’re almost certainly paying unnecessary fees. AR automation tools can automatically share the right information, so you can consistently qualify for lower rates without extra work.
30% Savings. 80% Productivity Gains.
Digital payment strategies should be a path to productivity gains, real dollar savings, and business growth. For instance, Billtrust helps clients improve efficiency by 80% and cut their payment processing costs by up to 30% on average.
Deliver on Buyer Demands while Keeping AR Operations at Full Speed
As B2B payments options expand, suppliers must meet compliance requirements but also the demands of enterprise buyers. By leveraging technology, AR teams can streamline operations, reduce risk, and stay ahead of evolving standards including PCI DSS regulations and uploading invoices into buyers’ AP portals.
Make PCI DSS a non-issue.
While virtual cards offer strong fraud protection for buyers, suppliers face challenges in handling cardholder data securely. The key is to adhere to cardholder data regulations without overwhelming your AR team. Automation platforms can simplify PCI DSS compliance by handling sensitive data outside of your AR team’s environment.
As the Director of Treasury at Cintas puts it:
“We push $60M a month through Billtrust, and none of that PCI compliance touches my system — and that is a great day.”
Avoid upstream issues.
Remittance delays often stem from upstream invoicing problems. For example, buyer AP portals have become a standard requirement for suppliers submitting invoices to large companies. While these portals streamline buyer-side processes, they often generate manual work for suppliers that lead to delays, disputes, and even bad debt. These challenges can be sidestepped easily to facilitate faster payments. AR automation solutions offer broad AP portal integration, enabling automated invoice formatting, submission, and real-time visibility into payment status.
Let Card Benefits Reframe Your Perspective
As finance leaders rethink their payment strategies to meet the rising demand for card payments, operational efficiency, and AI-driven insights, it’s also time to consider a mindset shift. Rather than concentrating on the challenges posed by new buyer mandates, the focus should be on the business opportunities that come with card acceptance. Virtual cards both facilitate sales and superior financial management. Suppliers that operationalize cards properly can also gain more financial liquidity, reduce security risk, and empower accurate financial forecasting – all while delivering superior customer experiences.
3 Primary Benefits of Accepting Virtual Cards
1.
Fewer lost sales
For some buyers, it’s not a matter of preference. If card acceptance is required and suppliers can’t meet the moment, they’re out of the running. Buyers want to pay the way they want to — not hear the word “no.”
2.
More pricing power
Many card programs sweeten the deal with rebates or cash-back incentives. Buyers now factor these perks directly into their purchasing price – without rewards the cost is viewed as more expensive. That value feeds the supplier’s pricing power.
3.
Predictable cash flow
Virtual cards payments settle immediately and increase transparency, which is why 60% of suppliers say they help sharpen cash flow forecasting. By accelerating order-to-cash cycles, they can heighten confidence in managing cash reserves.
Partner with the Leader in B2B Payments Transformation
The future of B2B payments is digital and more intelligent. Your organization should be leading it. That means partnering with the proven industry leader in payments transformation.
With more than $1 trillion in payments processed annually, Billtrust understands what it takes to handle and accelerate remittances. Give your customers more ways to pay while ensuring every dollar is applied quickly and flawlessly. We have more than two decades of experience innovating order-to-cash management – streamlining operations, cutting costs, and accelerating cash flow at scale. Our AI-powered AR platform provides true AI payment automation, accelerating invoicing, payments, cash application, and collections with a focus on unified management. This way you can simplify AR activities and set smart, flexible payment policies that balance profitability with buyer expectations.
Ready to start capitalizing on virtual cards? Let’s make it happen.
