By B2B payments — and specifically the technology underpinning those payments — has some catching up to do in order to help small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) alleviate pain points.
“The AP/AR Quick-Start Guide,” a PYMNTS and Plastiq collaboration, revealed that paper-based and manual tasks still dominate, and automated clearing house (ACH) transfers are relatively slow, in a world where always-on commerce dominates, and where supply chain snarls can bedevil cash flows.
All too often, as the report showed, there exists an asymmetry between the preferred payment methods and accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) integrations of the payor and biller.
All-in-one solutions that provide convenient and automated AP/AR management can help eliminate those asymmetries.
Surveyed were 500 SMBs in the consumer goods manufacturing, eCommerce and eRetail, transportation, logistics or shipping and wholesale trade industries with annual revenues between $500,000 and $50 million.
Of the SMBs that said they had embraced all-in-one payment solutions, 81% said they did so because these payment platforms helped reduce the time it took to receive payments. Forty-four percent of SMBs use an all-in-one payment platform because it simplifies payables tracking in making payments.
Yet there are some common misconceptions about the platforms themselves. A significant percentage of SMBs think those platforms cost too much — whether making or receiving payments.
But there is some evidence that business owners are becoming aware of the high-level benefits platforms might yield, particularly for SMBs. Those benefits also include the ability to make payments instantly, and even to garner rewards tied to those payments. In using those options to make payments, cash flow improvement and better working capital are cited as key benefits.
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