APIs Build Bridges From ERPs to Faster, More Accurate Payments

Business-to-business (B2B) payments are growing increasingly digital, a relief for accounting teams burdened with the manual processes of invoice creation, check writing and mailing invoices and payments through postal systems. Banks and businesses are turning to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems en masse to address these issues: 67% of organizations with more than 2,500 payables per month said that automated systems are very or extremely important for increasing the number of payables. A recent study also found that 95% of companies that implemented ERPs said they had improved their business processes.

ERPs are not without their challenges, however. Ninety-nine percent of businesses reported that they struggled to gain access to information stored in their ERP systems, and 82% said the ERP system was making decisions based on old and obsolete dates. Another 85% said this bad data led to incorrect business decisions and lost revenue. Effective ERP integration will rely on application programming interfaces (APIs) to make use of timely data and gain access to the entire system functionality. APIs can aid payments and reconciliation processes by accessing a greater share of data, reducing the amount of missing remittance information and avoiding the need for phone calls or emails to follow up on receipts.

The “ERP Solutions In B2B Payments Tracker®” examines the challenges inherent in B2B payments and how ERPs can help mitigate them. It also explores the difficulties businesses have in implementing ERPs and how APIs can make the transition much smoother and result in fewer errors.

Around the ERP Integration Space

B2B payments are the lifeblood of the modern economy, but businesses still face significant challenges in their timely completion that can negatively affect their long-term future. A recent survey found that four in 10 businesses said late B2B payments hinder their organizations’ growth, and these payment delays are quite widespread. Just three in 10 businesses said they were paid within 30 days, and six in 10 were concerned that the risk of late payments will only increase in the current economic climate.

B2B payments have countless obstacles, and companies have just as many potential solutions for simplifying them. A recent PYMNTS survey found that 15% of executives listed the inability to offer supplier portals as the most important problem they face when paying suppliers, and 9% said that reconciling invoices was their top challenge. Solutions that provide these are common among large companies with regular cross-border payments but are rarer among small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs): 65% of financial institutions that serve cross-border payments customers and 51% that cater to major firms provide supplier portals, but just 32% of those serving middle-market firms and 15% of those catering to SMBs can say the same.

For more on these and other stories, visit the Tracker’s News and Trends section.

EVO Payments on Overcoming ERP Integration Obstacles

When an ERP integration does not meet expectations, it can drag down the whole company. Some of the many challenges related to ERPs that companies do not properly integrate include disconnection from payment systems and payment card industry (PCI) compliance woes, which can lead to difficulties such as payment processing bottlenecks.

In this month’s Feature Story, PYMNTS talked to Fauwaz Hussain, senior director of B2B software at EVO Payments, about why companies must adopt truly automated systems and check for functionality rather than just assuming that all advertised capabilities are in place.

Benefits and Challenges of Leveraging ERP Integration to Smooth B2B Payments

The B2B payments market is expected to hit $1.91 trillion by 2028, and for such a massive facet of the modern economy, this everyday process is rife with obstacles and challenges. ERPs are a valuable tool that FIs and businesses are leveraging in increasing numbers to meet these obstacles, but this integration is filled with roadblocks.

This month’s PYMNTS Intelligence examines the benefits ERPs can provide for B2B payments procedures and the obstacles keeping them from being ubiquitous among banks and businesses.

About the Tracker

The “ERP Solutions In B2B Payments Tracker®,” a PYMNTS and American Express collaboration, examines the challenges inherent in B2B payments and how ERPs can help mitigate them. It also explores the roadblocks in implementing ERPs and how APIs can make the transition much smoother and result in fewer errors.