Adrian Floate
7 December - 5 min read
Despite innovation in the payment methods offered to consumers, the way businesses pay each other has changed very little over the last 40 years.
Most transactions between businesses are dominated by bank transfers using ABA files, a system designed by the Australian Banking Association.
The problem with this method is that it limits businesses and has been described as the Achilles heel of accounting and payroll systems due to a lack of security and the risk of fraud exposure.
More and more businesses have expressed the desire to pay their suppliers via a credit card as it offers more benefits, but not all suppliers accept credit card payments.
How does a BPSP agreement help businesses?
Under this agreement, Spenda becomes a third-party provider bridging the gap between suppliers and the businesses they trade with. Enabling businesses to pay their suppliers via a credit card transaction even when the supplier doesn’t accept card payments.
With the BPSP agreement we are changing this and giving Customers and Suppliers more ways to trade and pay each other with reduced fees.
Customer Benefits
- Customers can pay their suppliers via credit card even if they don’t accept credit card payments – Business Customers can use their credit cards (including personal cards) to pay their entire accounts receivable using Spenda. Funds are then distributed to the supplier’s bank via the Open Banking network.
- Enabling payment via cards for all suppliers – Small and medium businesses can shape their cash flow and take advantage of the 55 interest-free days available on most cards plus any Credit Card Reward points schemes.
- Faster and simpler reconciliation of batch payments – Customer batch payments are allocated and posted directly to their accounts payable ledger.
- Payment passport – Centralised tokenization means that Customers can manage their supplier payment methods from a single point. If your credit card changes or you wish to add another you have only one place to update for all of your suppliers.
Supplier Benefits
- Removal of merchant statement reconciliation – by itemising fund deposits and annotating the bank statement for all invoice receipts processed via the SpendaCollect payment service, suppliers can quickly reconcile merchants payments via bank feeds or traditional methods.
- Faster Onboarding – using our open banking integration, Spenda can automate and accelerate the AML and KYC onboarding process allowing buyers and suppliers to connect and process payments within 48 hours.
- Automated Payments – leveraging the BPSP will also allow Cirralto to take automatic payments which process as soon as a purchase invoice becomes overdue. Suppliers can also incentivise customers to enable auto payments by offering a customisable percentage discount which is automatically calculated and applied to the trading relationship.
- Intent to Pay Framework – An intent to pay framework allows customers to set a scheduled payment plan with their suppliers to settle debt. Customer arrangements which are sent to the supplier provide certainty around their intentions to pay.
- Workflow Payments – Workflow payments allow a business to get paid for products and services at the point the job is complete, or a delivery made, with verified customer payment details. With this infrastructure, friction is removed from the payment process and certainty is created in debt recovery for the seller.
As with all Spenda solutions, the additional payment features enabled through the BPSP agreements support automatic reconciliation through our integration with Xero, QuickBooks and MYOB accounting software.
Our aim has been to produce cutting-edge technology to streamline the sales transaction process for businesses and customers. Through this agreement, we’re able to deliver financial services on more favourable terms for our customers.
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