B2B Payments Optimization: How to Get Paid Faster and Unlock Working Capital

Growing sales, slowing vendor payments, strengthening the balance sheet through cash reserves and debt restructuring… there are lots of ways to free up working capital, so your business has more money on deck. But these strategies aren’t always reliable and sustainable, which is why CFOs are looking closer at accounts receivable (AR) and the role internal operations play in B2B payment optimization and speeding up cash flow. Over 90% now treat cash flow optimization as a strategic priority, and those with the right approach to AR see payments come in up to 50% faster.

It’s okay if you’re still struggling with slow B2B payments – 90% of companies are. The only difference between those who struggle and those who don’t is this: top-performing cash flow managers know exactly where friction lives in the AR operational process and how to remove it. They use tools and success metrics that make it pretty much impossible not to get paid faster. The best of the bunch go where others aren’t, using advanced AI to predict and proactively prevent cash flow problems.

Let’s plainly spell out where friction lives in the end-to-end AR process that keeps payments from landing, what it takes to cut them at the root, and the kind of innovations that put payments on cruise control.

Friction Point #1: The Actual Process of B2B Payments

Payments slow because lots of small difficulties add up to big delays, and friction points for buyers are often friction points for AR teams too. The key to success is to dissolve the frustration for customers while simultaneously handling any tradeoffs impacting internal operations. Here are some things to think about.

Let Buyers Pay How They Want – but Do It without Increasing Costs

Buyers are rapidly moving to digital payment channels like credit and virtual cards for all the benefits they provide. Virtual cards are actually now considered essential by more than half of CFOs. But the irony is that CFOs on the receiving end of those funds are worried about processing fees and the cost of card acceptance.

If this is you, ask yourself whether the cost of a subpar buyer experience is worth an increase in unpaid invoices. (Hint: It’s typically not.) Billtrust’s AR automation experts consistently find that doing a blackout on specific payment methods can have a negative effect on customer loyalty and working capital.

The best thing you can do is turn to the data for answers.

• Look at customer payment behavior, customer value, and acceptance cost data to sharpen your payment policies and control who can use cards as you roll out a wider array of payment methods.
• Focus on card interchange fees and the opportunities to automate payment data quality as a means to lower your costs. There are lots of ways to expand payment options while also stacking the chips in your favor. Here’s a guide for controlling costs with card payments.
• Consider how AI can help you optimize payment policies and costs. Agentic AI is showing real potential in using data-driven strategies and behavioral science to advise both suppliers and buyers on how to keep their payment costs low.

Deliver Invoices to AP Portals in a Way that Doesn’t Overburden AR

We’re seeing a sharp rise in the use of accounts payable (AP) portals, especially as governments across the globe increasingly implement mandates for eInvoicing. AP portals are known to speed up B2B payments, but fatigue is very real for AR teams. There are simply too many logins to manage and too many manual submissions to make this level of personalized service sustainable. That’s why more AR managers are evaluating purpose-built AR automation software, which offers AP portal integration for automated invoice delivery. So, it doesn’t matter how many buyer portals enter the mix – efficiency is protected.

There are also a lot of reasons to love AP portals on the supplier side. They save time and money on physical mail and paper invoicing, keep payments in step with protocol (no unauthorized purchases), and help cut a lot of unnecessary back-and-forth that slow cash flow. Invoice status, budget variances, approval stage, PO matching…the buyer’s AP portal lays it all out. We say, if buyers want to pay faster and take more work off your plate, let them!

Make B2B Payments Easy with One-Click Links and Online Access

Another thing to note is self-service and touchless payments.

According to Gartner, 75% of B2B buyers prefer a touchless sales experience. Most AR teams want a touchless payment experience, too. It’s part of the “Amazon online shopping effect.” Let’s face it; one-click payments and real-time tracking are easier and faster for folks on both sides of the equation. Buyers can instantly see their invoices, click a link to pay, submit payments electronically, and auto-pay future bills. In the end, suppliers spend less time handling remittances and applying cash. In our opinion, every buyer should have access to a payment portal. It’s arguably the fastest way to get paid.

Show Your Buyers How to Save Money – Without Lifting a Finger

Advanced payment portals can actually advocate for the buyer, giving them money-saving advice.

Imagine this: A buyer logs into an AR payments portal and immediately sees which invoices are worth paying early and which payments to prioritize first according to due date. Previously, high-quality advice like that was available only from AR team members, but today it’s an automated online service. AI-generated payment recommendations are the latest development in portal features. They help buyers navigate their payment decisions and suppliers pave the way for faster remittances. You can see Billtrust’s payment recommendations technology in action here.

Friction Point #2: Working Capital is Shrouded in Mystery

There are so many financial systems involved in the order-to-cash cycle. How can you know what to do to move cash faster if you can’t see how cash is moving across those systems? Getting a full view of money movement is critical for unlocking working capital, and it’s something 70% of financial leaders struggle with.

Let’s look at what’s going on.

Are ERPs Hiding Your Cash Position? How to Fix It

Billtrust’s CPO, Lee An Schommer, states in this article, “ERPs are essential, but we need to be very clear about what they’re good at, what they don’t do, and how their gaps in AR limit cash flow.”

Over 80% of CFOs say their ERP is holding them back from faster cash flow.

Once siloed data is bridged across ERPs and other financial systems, the fog lifts and cash flow bottlenecks appear. Companies that augment their ERP with purpose-built AR software report an average 25% reduction in Days to Pay (DTP) and 23% reduction in Days Sales Outstanding (DSO). ERPs aren’t always built for the level of visibility, automation, and predictive intelligence AR managers need today, and that’s okay. It just means you’ll have to augment your ERP’s strengths with purpose-built AR software. There’s a lot to cover on that, and we break it down in this report.

Be Cash Flow Intelligent: Behavioral Science Unveils New Levels of Insight

Automation helps unclog the payment pipes, but it doesn’t always help you understand the relationship between cash flow and buyer payment behavior. That’s only possible with advanced AI – and it’s how front runners are taking things up a notch to get payments moving 50% faster.

Here’s a quick overview.

Behavioral Intelligence for AR

You can keep wishing customers would pay faster, or you can find out exactly how to get them to do it. Behavioral science is possibly the coolest thing to happen in the world of B2B payments. It leverages ML, predictive analytics, and deep buyer behavior data to understand payment trends, predict what’s coming, and take the next best actions to prevent problems with payments.

Purpose-built AR software has this built into its core – no programming, data crunching, or head-scratching required. Here’s a walkthrough of Billtrust’s behavioral intelligence for collections.

GenAI and Agentic AI for Cash Flow Optimization

Want to optimize cash flow? Just say the word. GenAI makes it super easy to understand your financial data. Simple prompts can tell you more about which customers are paying on time and larger trends in delinquency.

Agentic AI goes further to act on those insights under human supervision. A big way we’re seeing companies benefit is through agentic email. AI agents monitor inboxes for collectors and draft informed responses on their behalf, even attaching relevant documents and matching their voice and tone.

GenAI and agentic AI are the undeniable future of AR. Here are 10 best practices for implementing AI in AR from Harvard AI expert Glenn Hopper.

Friction Point #3: The Workflows that Move Cash Flow Forward

Most finance teams still perform up to half of payment operations manually. Slow cash flow is a natural consequence of slow, manual AR processes. When every step of the O2C process takes longer, payments take longer to arrive. Order-to-cash automation addresses this directly, compressing each manual step from invoice delivery through cash application and collections, so payments aren’t waiting on people to push them through.

Start at the Beginning: Accurate Invoices Get Paid Faster

Payments can’t move faster if invoices are dragging. A recent study performed by Vanson Bourne found that companies with AR automation are almost 20% more likely to get invoicing right the first time, every time. There’s nothing to reassess or dispute – just a clear runway for payments to take off. This tip for accelerating cash flow is often the most acted upon, because this is where cash flow problems begin. When AR teams fix problems at the starting line, downstream processes run smoother, which means more velocity for cash deposits.

Eliminate Labor-Intensive Work: Payment-to-Invoice Matching

Cash isn’t usable until it’s applied. AI makes that happen so much faster (and more cost effective) than any team of people. The real benefit comes when remittances are complicated or confusing – missing information, partial information, unstructured data. Cash application software uses machine learning (ML) to decipher, match with varying degrees of confidence, and keep cash moving. The system will only ping people when absolutely needed, which gives AR managers more time to focus on other cash-acceleration strategies. When cash application workflows are automated and everything is connected in one unified platform, matched payments flow straight through instead of waiting for manual posting.

Take Aim at Collections Processes: Strategies to Lower Bad Debt

Collections… It’s the clearest way to unlock working capital: making money owed, money you can use. You don’t want to just automate routine payment reminder outreach, as that can quickly deteriorate customer relationships. You want to know which delinquent accounts – based on historical payment behavior – are most likely to pay and what will trigger the fastest payment. The details matter: When you reach out, how you reach out (phone vs. email vs. text), and the tone your communication uses will all make difference in debtor responsiveness. Here’s a guide to using behavioral data to drive more effective collections strategies. It’s one of our most popular resources for accelerating cash flow.

2 Essentials Move B2B Payments Faster

Without these features and capabilities, you won’t get very far.

1. Payments automation and integrations
   
   Every system needs to connect and align: your ERP(s), CRMs, payment issuers, and every customer AP portal. This is the first and arguably most important step because it lays the groundwork for cash flow visibility, automation, and everything that helps payments pick up the pace.
   
   Any AR software platform used must be ERP-agnostic. You shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to get plugged in (there should be ready-made direct connectors), and there should be the option for custom integrations if needed. On the portal side, you’ll want a platform that can support as many AP portals as possible. Don’t look for integration with only the portals you need to support today.
   
   Additionally, data should funnel into one place where it’s cleaned up and organized for AI to automate key payment processes (like remittance capture across various formats) and orchestrated workflows across the end-to-end AR lifecycle.
2. Analytics and reporting for real-time visibility into buyer behavior, payment trends, and cash flow
   
   Finance leaders who effectively manage their cash flow understand how their customers pay, not just when they pay. Their analytics and reporting make it easy to understand payment timing patterns, preferred payment methods, dispute frequency or deduction patterns, and more. They get a 30,000-foot view of buyers and all AR activity.
   
   Leaders also focus on the best KPIs for accounts receivable. They don’t just see these as numbers, but as strategic levers optimize every step of the O2C process. They know which metrics work together, what targets teams should aim for, and who should be measuring what. They basically have a scientific method to unlock working capital. If you don’t have a framework or aren’t sure what that even looks like, here’s a simple approach for measuring the impact of AR.

You’ve Got This!

You have more options (and more control) than you may realize. Stop chasing payments and start controlling how fast cash moves. If you want to learn more about how our AI-powered AR platform removes friction, accelerates payments, and unlocks working capital, we’re here when you’re ready.