American Express, MineralTree Are Bringing More Efficiency To Accounts Payable

American Express, the credit card company, and MineralTree, an accounts payable (AP) and payment automation solution provider, announced news on Tuesday (August 1) the launch of an integrated solution that brings efficiency to everyday accounts payable (AP) processes.

In a press release covered by Finextra, the companies said the partnership provides organizations with an easy-to-use platform that incorporates their American Express Corporate Card into their normal AP workflows. By doing this, it enables organizations to streamline the supplier payment process while receiving the benefits of paying by card, including earning statement credits or Membership Rewards points, increasing working capital and optimizing cash flow.

“At American Express, we are focused on helping businesses to plan, execute and efficiently manage their business-to-business [B2B] payments processes,” said Gint Balodis, VP of B2B Products and Solutions, American Express Global Commercial Payments, in the press release. “MineralTree offers a powerful solution for our clients to manage their supplier payments, and this integration will further improve the supplier payments workflow from beginning to end.”

According to the two, many growing companies still follow manual processes in accounts payable and frequently pay their suppliers with paper checks. These processes can lead to inefficiency, lack of effective financial controls and exposure to various forms of payment fraud, including expensive check fraud.

In an effort to minimize the use of paper checks and fight payments fraud, the collaboration between AMEX and MineralTree will present an out-of-the-box solution with embedded American Express virtual card payments. The integrated offering, available on the MineralTree platform, will provide the security of AMEX’s virtual card technology, which generates a single-use card number for each transaction. It also provides two-way synchronization with common accounting systems.

“Growing middle market companies are always looking for ways to improve cash flow and bring greater efficiency to their financial operations; one of the easiest ways to do so is by streamlining AP and converting more check spend to commercial cards,” said MineralTree Founder and CEO BC Krishna in the same press release.