Category Archives: EBPP

Visa and Viewpost to Accelerate Electronic Bill Payments for U.S. Businesses

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Partnership to Simplify B2B Payments with Visa Virtual Credit Cards

SAN FRANCISCO & ORLANDO, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mar. 28, 2017– Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) and Viewpost®, a secure B2B network for electronic invoicing, payments and real-time cash management, today announced an exclusive partnership to bring electronic business payments to Viewpost’s small to medium-sized business clients (SMBs). By using Visa virtual commercial cards through their participating financial institutions, SMBs will increase automation, convenience and security for their B2B transactions.

Viewpost’s SMB customers will be able to benefit from Viewpost electronic payment capabilities and the use of a secure, one-time Visa virtual account number. When a virtual card payment is made through Viewpost, the supplier will receive a one-time virtual account number for posting funds to its merchant account. Viewpost will then deliver data-rich remittance information to both businesses, such as, paid invoices, the amount paid and the due date. If a supplier does not accept virtual commercial card payments, an invitation can be extended through a proprietary automation method, which makes enrollment quick and simple.

“Providing access to simple, secure working capital solutions for SMBs is a critically-important focus for our business,” said Vicky Bindra, global head of products & solutions at Visa Inc. “Our collaboration with Viewpost gives SMBs comprehensive financial management tools in a single portal – right where they bank. We are thrilled to partner with Viewpost and make our customers’ lives easier by significantly reducing time, cost and friction around payment, so they can focus on what is most important – managing and growing their businesses.”

As a trusted, open B2B network available to businesses of all sizes, Viewpost gives financial institutions the tools that enable SMBs to connect and exchange electronic invoices and payments, share transaction data and access working capital on demand with unprecedented ease and visibility. Visa’s partnership with Viewpost will help financial institutions in the U.S. bring to market a fully integrated and optimized SMB finance management solution that seamlessly integrates with their online banking site.

“We’re excited to partner with a renowned brand and payments technology leader like Visa,” said Max Eliscu, CEO at Viewpost. “This partnership accelerates our ability to address costly pain points in the multi-trillion-dollar B2B payments ecosystem1 while also, and perhaps most importantly, bringing flexibility, cost savings and simplicity of payment to the massive and underserved small business marketplace.”

“According to our 2016 Small Business Payments and Banking Survey, over two thirds of respondents indicated they preferred to pay bills through online banking tools, rather than a supplier’s website,” said Ken Paterson, vice president of research operations, Mercator Advisory Group. “The Visa/Viewpost partnership promises to offer a seamless integration for banks who are looking to enable their customers to have one centralized destination for all of their corporate payment needs.”

About Visa Inc.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. We operate one of the world’s most advanced processing networks — VisaNet — that is capable of handling more than 65,000 transaction messages a second, with fraud protection for consumers and assured payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa’s innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices: pay now with debit, pay ahead of time with prepaid or pay later with credit products.

About Viewpost

Viewpost North America is revolutionizing the way businesses transact with each other. Viewpost built the most trusted open business network to empower businesses of all sizes with real-time cash management for anytime operating decisions. On the secure Viewpost network, companies connect and exchange electronic invoices and payments with unprecedented ease and visibility, accessing working capital on demand. Enterprise clients are using Viewpost to cut costs, increase efficiency and improve cash management, including Accenture, Florida Hospital Medical Center, Georgetown University, the Orlando Magic and Whole Foods Market. With enterprise-grade security, including ISO 27001 and SSAE16 audited certifications and the TRUSTe Privacy Seal and Skyhigh CloudTrust Enterprise-Ready Rating, Viewpost is partnering with financial institutions to bring cash management tools to business customers at U.S. Bank, Bank of America and Fifth Third Bank. Viewpost innovation has been awarded Best in Show by Barlow Research, Best CISO/CSO by FireEye Cyber Defense Summit, CSO50 Award (four-time honoree) by IDG’s CSO, and Best B2B Payments Platform by Tradestreaming. Since Viewpost was opened to the public in early 2015, the total invoices presented and payments processed has reached $71.4 billion across the network. Founded in 2011, Viewpost is headquartered in the Orlando area with additional teams in Boston, Minneapolis and San Francisco.

1 Source: Accenture, https://www.accenture.com/us-en/~/media/Accenture/Conversion-Assets/DotCom/Documents/Global/PDF/Industries_5/Accenture-FS-Payment-Services-Corporate-Payments-PoV.pdf

Source: Visa Inc.

EBPP Improves Dealer Marketshare

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Enhancing your customer experience involves many factors, and what happens when it’s time to pay is one of them, whether it’s online, in store or over the phone. The automotive and trucking industries have made significant investments to improve and measure their customer experiences, but failure to change payment technology creates differentiation for consumer choice. Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment, EBPP or EIPP, can create a more pleasant and secure consumer experience and can win dealers more marketshare.

eipp payment request

Body of email containing prefilled payment info, and link to securely pay online.

Let’s explore some examples. A dealer recently installed EMV chip card terminals. When a commercial account calls to order parts here are possible scenarios and repercussions:

  • The card number is key entered on the EMV chip terminal. Since the transaction is RETAIL, and the transaction was not swipe or chip, the dealer has no recourse if it’s fraud. Additionally, it will downgrade to the worst interchange rate, possibly doubling the cost to process the transaction. Some customers don’t like to spend the time going through the phone process, so the last touch with them is less than stellar.
  • The card number is key entered on a separate virtual terminal. If the transaction is MOTO, dependent upon merchant account configuration, the dealer has some fraud protection. Some customers don’t like to spend the time going through the phone process, so the last touch with them is less than stellar.
  • The customer gets a text message, or email, with a click to pay option. This is ideal because the customer is now in control of how and where they want to pay. Additional automated fraud controls like 3-D Secure Verified by Visa (VbyV) can be used. VbyV can mitigate risk, shifting fraud liability to the issuer, and sometimes also reduces the qualified interchange rate, depending on the card type.

If customers have multiple dealers to choose from, which will they go to? Millennial research shows they’ll switch for a better experience, and for them, that includes non-face-to-face interaction. Any dealer that wants to maximize customer satisfaction, and profits, must address the growing millennial demographic; they prefer to minimize personal interaction and use more digital technology as part of their purchasing experience. According to a Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System March 2016 report, purchasing an item on their phone (42%) was one of the top three common mobile payment activities among mobile payments users with smartphones.

Christine Speedy is an authorized reseller of CenPOS, creating efficiencies through payment innovation. The CenPOS EBPP solution is available both integrated to ERP and other software, as well as standalone via a web browser.

Dynamics AX ERP Customer Payment File Import

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To apply payments received from customers to matching invoices is easy with our Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 payment processing module, no customization required. Automating payment processing, including journal entries, is essential to maximizing efficiency and accuracy. Other solutions usually only address part of the payment acceptance cycle; now with one module, revenue from all sales channels are processed and matched to your invoices.

PAYMENT TYPES: Accept cash, credit card, wire, Paypal, ACH, Remote Deposit Capture.

SALES CHANNELS: Ecommerce, Retail (US and Canada EMV), Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP or EIPP), Lockbox and others.

While using a lockbox service is an option, is it necessary? With integrated EBPP, your clients can view and pay multiple invoices electronically with your preferred payment methods. A key to EBPP adoption is reducing friction, and with the capability for recurring customers to pay via text or email in just 2 clicks is powerful enough to drive high adoption and fast payments almost immediately. If you do receive payments in the mail, Remote Deposit Capture and batch upload capability are available.

Collections are automated on your schedule; many solutions are limited in this respect, increasing DSO due to “first of month” statement delivery or other limitations. For those customers that run into credit issues, users can set up an automated collections schedule- any amount, any dates.

Looking for Dynamics AX solutions to improve your accounts receivable and overall treasury management? Contact us today.

 

 

Increasing B2B Loyalty With Improved Customer Experience

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b2b einvoiceThe last mile in any business to business transaction, collecting payment, can be a point of friction or a seamless part of a great buying experience. Too often, its the former due to a multiple roadblocks including paper invoicing, and accounts receivable staff availability for time zone differences.

Established family businesses often have the same customers for generations and they’re fiercely loyal. Or are they? In a Bain & Company survey of 290 executives in B2B industries throughout 11 countries, 68% of respondents said customers are less loyal than they used to be. Technology can be a game changer for increasing loyalty.

Common business to business billing scenarios for distributors without ecommerce capabilities:

  • Distributor A sends invoices via text or email and lets their customer choose their experience and how they want to pay. Pay from the email/text or login to a portal? Store and tokenize ACH or credit card or manually enter each time? Send check in the mail?
  • Distributor B sends invoices via email and requires customer to login to a portal to make payments.
  • Distributor C has an online pay page customers can use to pay any amount.
  • Distributor D send invoices via email, and customers send checks in the mail.
  • Distributor E sends invoice and credit card authorization form via email, then gets a fax back, key enters into a virtual terminal.

Which billing strategy delivers the optimal customer experience? Customers want to interact with you in multiple ways, so if you’re still doing business the same way you have for decades, customers have likely shifted some of their business, or maybe all of it, to another vendor. Price is not the likely culprit. In a retail study about millennials, just 15% always purchase from the lowest price retailer, while 38% cited convenience as a reason to not purchase. 58% said they’d take advantage of self-checkout on their own mobile device.

What does this mean for B2B distribution companies? Think like your customers. Are you making it easy to do business? Are you increasing their efficiency? What’s the opportunity cost of not updating? I once sought a new distributor for a product an existing supplier discontinued. I found one, but didn’t place the first order. Why not? They required calling in with my credit card information citing it would be more secure. We were in different time zones and the phone was busy, or the person at lunch, and it was just plain inconvenient to keep trying.

A distributor recently advised me they don’t store anything – they require a credit card authorization form for every single purchase. Talk about driving customers away! Even a simple hosted pay page can alleviate the need for paper forms, immensely increase customer convenience, and increase cash flow to boot. While increasing a credit line is a possibility, some customers use them as a tool to self-manage credit, increasing purchasing without having to interact with anyone.

Invoicing and payment technology updates are critical to garnering customer loyalty, regardless of the payment type. The more flexible the solution, the more likely each customer can interact with your business via their preferred method. Today’s technology supports a myriad of payment types, including ACH, credit card, wire and others, and multiple ways to interact for making payments from email to text and beyond. Delighted customers are more loyal and more likely to refer new business.

Christine Speedy is an authorized reseller for CenPOS, a cloud-based, end-to-end payments engine that drives enterprise-class solutions for businesses, saving them time and money, while improving their customer engagement. The secure, cloud-based solution optimizes acceptance for all payment types across multiple channels without disrupting the merchant’s banking relationships. 954-942-0483

Faster Processing and Settlement of ACH Credit Transactions begins Today, Reaching all U.S. Bank Accounts

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NACHA Announces Implementation of New Rule for Phase 1 of Same Day ACH

HERNDON, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, NACHA —The Electronic Payments Association®, the trustee and rule maker of the ACH Network, announced the launch of Phase 1 of Same Day ACH. Same Day ACH is a new faster payments option that reaches all bank accounts and will enable businesses and consumers to send and receive payments and payment-related information on the same day through the ACH Network.

The launch of Same Day ACH marks a significant milestone in the journey towards faster payments in the U.S.

Phase 1 of Same Day ACH allows for the sending and receiving of virtually any ACH credit transaction, enabling a variety of transactions such as urgent claim payments from an insurance company to a consumer or same-day payroll payments from an employer to an hourly or contract employee.

“The launch of Same Day ACH marks a significant milestone in the journey towards faster payments in the U.S.,” said Janet O. Estep, president and CEO of NACHA. “While other payments initiatives have been developed to support the demand for faster payments in the U.S., Same Day ACH provides absolute certainty that your payment can get to absolutely anyone else with a bank account on the same day, regardless of which bank or credit union they use, bringing value to all users of the ACH Network.”

Beginning today, all financial institutions will be able to receive same-day transactions. Although sending same-day transactions by financial institutions and their customers is optional, it is expected that many will begin enabling the origination of same-day payments today. According to research conducted by NACHA, 95 percent of the nation’s top financial institutions intend to originate Same Day ACH in 2016. The top reasons cited for how Same Day ACH will be used by financial institutions beginning today include payroll and business-to-business payments.

“Same Day ACH is an innovative and immediate solution to support the demands of those consumers and businesses that want to move their money faster,” said Estep. “Not only does it support the industry’s near-term needs, but it also serves as a building block for the future of faster payments. Upon the Same Day ACH foundation, other products and services can be built to continue to meet the evolving needs of consumers and businesses into the future.”

Phase 2 of Same Day ACH will launch on Sept. 15, 2017. Phase 2 will introduce the faster processing and settlement of debit transactions, in addition to credit transactions. This Phase will support additional use cases such as consumer bill payment for utility, insurance, telecom, mortgage, loan and credit card payments.

For more information about Same Day ACH and how to implement and leverage this opportunity, visit NACHA’s Same Day ACH Resource Center at https://resourcecenter.nacha.org/.

About NACHA—The Electronic Payments Association

Since 1974, NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association has served as trustee of the ACH Network, managing the development, administration and rules for the payment network that universally connects all 12,000 financial institutions in the U.S. by moving money and information directly from one bank account to another. Financial institutions exchange 24 billion ACH payments valued at $41 trillion annually. Through its collaborative, self-governing model, education, and inclusive engagement of ACH Network participants, NACHA facilitates the expansion and diversification of electronic payments, supporting Direct Deposit and Direct Payment via ACH transactions, including ACH credit and debit payments, recurring and one-time payments; government, consumer and business transactions; international payments, and payments plus payment-related information. Through NACHA’s expertise and leadership, the ACH Network is now one of the largest, safest, and most reliable systems in the world, creating value and enabling innovation for all participants. Visit nacha.org for more information.