“In addition to providing a smooth onboarding and integration process, TreviPay’s advanced API technology captures transaction line-item details in real time,” the B2B payments/invoicing network said in a news release Wednesday (Sept. 25). “The enhancements will ensure a seamless payments experience for fleet drivers and dealers and eliminate manual, inefficient processes.”

According to the release, TreviPay’s solution for dealer management systems, which already offers things like consolidated billing and payments, will now also include turnkey onboarding for net terms or trade credit.

The company argued that flexible payments are crucial for business buyers, as its in-house research shows that most business buyers value invoicing and flexible net terms. Seamless onboarding, TreviPay said, makes these critical payments preferences available faster.

“From our long history working with commercial equipment manufacturers, dealerships and fleets, we recognized reduced friction and increased efficiency are essential in today’s dynamic and fast-paced business landscape,” said Dan Zimmerman, TreviPay’s chief product and technology officer.

“TreviPay’s proprietary B2B technology platform builds deep-rooted business relationships, leveraging payment automation to eliminate manual entry and reduce administrative costs, from a dealer’s first interaction with a new client,” Zimmerman added.

PYMNTS examined challenges facing the fleet management ecosystem earlier this year in a conversation with Daniel Simon, CEO of Coast.

As that report noted, traditional payment methods like fuel cards remain the industry’s most common payment scenarios, meaning that setting the sector up for success means addressing challenges like cumbersome manual processes and security loopholes.

“Traditional systems, developed before the ubiquity of mobile devices, rely on antiquated methods for collecting transaction data, leading to poor data quality and security vulnerabilities,” Simon told PYMNTS in April. “These are old school industries: construction, HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, et cetera.”

Simon argued that the ongoing transition toward digitization in fleet management and fleet payments can outfit businesses with more reliable data and a better picture of the total cost of ownership of the vehicles in their fleet, along with a more granular picture of their employee spending behavior.

“This allows firms to make better decisions about their business in both the short and long term, while at the same time addressing the unique needs for field-related purchases such as vehicle maintenance and gas,” the report continued.

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Across marketing, customer success, compliance, payments and beyond, AI innovations are reshaping traditional workflows.

Amid Google’s new upgrades on Tuesday (Sept. 24) to attract more businesses to its Gemini platform, enterprise organizations and smaller businesses are finding ways to create more precise, context-driven inputs for AI tools that will drive business growth.

Against that backdrop, the rise of AI prompt engineering for B2B operations is becoming crucial to unlocking the capabilities of AI in automating tasks, deriving insights and transforming how B2B companies interact with their data.

AI prompt engineering refers to the practice of crafting specific, context-driven inputs — or “prompts” — to elicit desired outputs from AI models. Unlike traditional programming, where exact instructions are needed to achieve results, prompt engineering focuses on how to frame questions or commands in ways that guide AI systems toward more meaningful and actionable outputs.

This is particularly important for large language models (LLMs), like OpenAI’s GPT, which have vast capabilities but need structured, precise guidance to deliver optimal outcomes. As AI systems from firms like Microsoft, Salesforce, Workday, Oracle and ServiceNow reportedly look to transition their AI copilots to AI agents, being capable of getting to the desired outcome is crucial for B2B success and driving competitive differentiation.

Read more: AI in Commerce: 5 Essential Use Cases for B2B Operations

AI Prompt Engineering: Revolutionizing B2B Interactions With Data

By learning how to communicate effectively with AI, businesses can enhance their data analysis and optimize workflows, turning AI from a complex, often opaque system into a practical business enabler.

In B2B environments, data is the lifeblood of decision-making, whether it’s forecasting demand, managing supply chains or crafting customer engagement strategies. AI prompt engineering enhances how companies interact with their data by allowing them to extract deeper insights more efficiently.

“AI has the potential to really move the needle for so much of the industry in terms of their ability to better understand what’s going on within their payments environments and the ability to be more proactive with their buyers or suppliers,” Nick Izquierdo, executive vice president of payments at Billtrust, told PYMNTS.  “And alongside that, the productivity AI brings is really driving more success satisfaction out of both sides of the equation.”

B2B firms often struggle with data overload, facing terabytes of structured and unstructured data from various sources. Without precise query mechanisms, even the most advanced AI models can produce outputs that are too broad or vague. By mastering the art of crafting prompts, businesses can ask the right questions and guide AI to provide answers that are laser-focused on the specific business problem, significantly reducing time spent on data sorting and irrelevant outputs.

“The moment you slice the world through the lens of historical transactional behavior, you can then leverage a predictive GenAI framework and say something about the likelihood of those future transactions,” Pecan CEO and Co-Founder Zohar Bronfman told PYMNTS. “It’s evolutionary in terms of how businesses can operate.”

For instance, a B2B logistics company can use prompt engineering to query its AI system about inventory bottlenecks during specific time periods, focusing on high-priority geographies. By framing the prompt to focus on time, location and SKU level, the company can get actionable insights quickly, helping them adjust operations in real-time.

Read more: AI for KYB Onboarding Helps B2B Partnerships Scale Securely

Driving Efficiency Through AI-Powered Automation

Efficiency is the backbone of B2B operations, where long, complex processes often stretch across multiple stakeholders, systems and even geographies. AI prompt engineering plays a pivotal role in streamlining these workflows by automating decision-making processes and enhancing the speed at which information is processed and acted upon.

“What I’m most excited about is the future of payments, how quickly it’s moving,” Eric Frankovic, general manager of corporate payments at WEX, told PYMNTS. “Understanding your supplier relationships, what’s best for you as a company, and what best supports your size and growth goals is crucial.”

For instance, procurement teams can automate vendor risk assessments by creating prompts that direct AI to analyze supplier performance data, compare it against historical benchmarks and assess geopolitical risks. This cuts down the manual effort required to process vast amounts of information, delivering actionable results in real-time.

Separately, in B2B marketing, businesses can design prompts that instruct the AI to not just analyze customer interaction data but to do so in the context of industry trends, competitive positioning and the company’s unique value proposition. This makes the insights richer and more aligned with the company’s broader business goals.

As the findings detailed in “CMOs Leaning on GenAI For Market Research, Even As ROI Dips,” the fifth edition of PYMNTS Intelligence’s 2024 CAIO Project, more than nine in 10 CMOs said they used GenAI for actions in the category of market research and insights.

Ultimately, prompt engineering offers businesses something invaluable: speed. In competitive B2B markets, the ability to move quickly is critical. Whether it’s responding to shifts in customer demand, adjusting supply chain strategies or rolling out new products, speed can make or break success. Prompt engineering ensures that businesses can get to outcomes faster, bypassing the trial-and-error phase that often accompanies new technology adoption.

And as PYMNTS covered last month, AI is no longer just the domain of large corporations with deep pockets and extensive tech teams. Small businesses are getting in on the action as well. Recent PYMNTS Intelligence data in the June report “SMBs Race to Critical Mass on AI Usage” found that 96% of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that have tried AI tools see it as an effective method to streamline tasks.

That said, the ways that Main Street SMBs can unlock growth through strategic applications of AI looks a little different from the approaches being taken by their larger enterprise counterparts.

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After all, there’s an old saying about business-to-business payments: as long as it works, people don’t want to see any changes, and as a result, B2B payments have long been plagued by inefficiencies, especially when compared to the growing embrace of digital payments elsewhere.

Traditional B2B methods, such as wire transfers, checks and manual invoicing, dominate the landscape but are cumbersome, slow and prone to human error. But as online B2B platforms grow more sophisticated and globalized, the necessity for modern payment systems that prioritize speed, security, flexibility and even integration with both buyer and supplier back-end infrastructure is clearer than ever.

In an interview posted here Monday (Sept. 23), Donald Polansky, senior manager of corporate systems development at GlassCraft Door Company, told PYMNTS that the company’s own B2B marketplace has plans to utilize custom APIs and integrate with third-party enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, automating the quote-to-order process.

With B2B platforms continuing to mature and gain share relative to legacy procurement channels, their ability to enable faster, more secure and customizable payment options has become a differentiator.

Read more: Cross-Border eCommerce Is Reshaping B2B Procurement

B2B Marketplaces Aren’t Just Selling Products

PYMNTS has previously covered how, when it comes to B2B payments, accepting (and offering) more options can potentially lead to more business.

As B2B marketplaces look to reduce friction across key purchase stages, they are increasingly starting by integrating smarter, more agile payment systems that align with the demands of global trade.

For example, last Monday (Sept. 16) Mondu announced a new Stripe integration that allows B2B merchants and marketplaces to offer Mondu’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) options through their existing Stripe setup.

BNPL for B2B payments provides many of the same benefits as it does for individual consumers, but on a larger scale, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence and Splitit collaboration, “Is BNPL the Next Driver for B2B Growth?”

A week earlier (Sept. 10), small business-focused B2B payments platform Melio integrated with Amazon Business, combining with the Amazon Business Reconciliation API and allowing companies to synchronize Amazon Business invoices in a single payment processing system, helping business owners save time.

Many small businesses wrestle with late payments. According to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “End the Wait: SMBs and the Protracted Challenge of Delayed Payments,” more than a quarter of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United Kingdom face up to 20,000 pounds (about $26,000) in overdue invoices, with 36% of payments arriving late each month.

And earlier this year, FashionGo launched a net terms solution for buyers on its online B2B wholesale marketplace for the fashion industry. The new Dynamic Net Terms solution is tailored to meet the needs of wholesale buyers — a segment that is traditionally underserved — and offers dynamic net terms and payment options that adjust to each buyer’s profile and needs.

Read more: Click, Pay, Done: How Embedded Payments Could Transform B2B

The emergence of embedded finance has supercharged the digital transformation of B2B payments and commerce, PYMNTS reported earlier. Embedded finance can speed the processes involved in B2B transactions — including invoicing, purchases orders and reconciliations — by integrating payment solutions directly into B2B platforms.

Solutions like BNPL and embedded finance give businesses greater flexibility in managing cash flow, allowing them to purchase goods or services without immediate upfront payments. This flexibility is especially beneficial for SMBs, which often struggle with tight liquidity constraints.

At the same time, innovative payment solutions that support multi-currency transactions, cross-border payments, and real-time settlements enable businesses to enter new markets with confidence. By reducing the complexity of international payments, B2B marketplaces can attract a broader user base and foster global trade.

Ultimately, by adopting modern, flexible and secure payment solutions, these platforms can offer businesses faster, more efficient, and more transparent ways to transact, helping to unlock growth and drive global trade.

“What I’m most excited about is the future of B2B payments, how quickly it’s moving,”  Eric Frankovic, general manager of corporate payments at WEX, told PYMNTS. He believes AI (artificial intelligence) will play a key role in advancing digital payments, helping businesses automate processes, enhance fraud detection and optimize payment strategies, all key capabilities when it comes to the importance of tailoring the payment mix to the specific needs of businesses.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

The post B2B Marketplaces Cash in on Fast, Flexible and Future-Forward Payments appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Particularly in the world of business payments, finding the optimal mix of payment methods has become a critical challenge for companies seeking to maximize operational efficiency, reduce costs and improve cash flow management.

After all, no two businesses are the same — and no two payments, no matter their monetary value, are ever alike either.

“Understanding your supplier relationships, what’s best for you as a company, and what best supports your size and growth goals is crucial,” Eric Frankovic, general manager of corporate payments at WEX, told PYMNTS.

The rise of options like virtual cards, ACH payments and real-time payments gives businesses unprecedented flexibility. However, each method presents its own set of advantages and challenges, leading to a complex landscape that requires strategic decision-making.

Frankovic pointed out that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and businesses must carefully consider their payment goals, supplier relationships and operational requirements when selecting payment methods.

Still, if there is one mechanism he sees as a cut above the rest, it’s virtual cards. And their benefits are only set to grow as other complementary innovations like artificial intelligence (AI) mature and scale across the financial landscape.

Read more: Three Hidden Assets That Define Modern Business Payments

The Role and Rise of Virtual Cards in B2B Payments

Optimizing a company’s payment mix is a complex task that requires careful consideration of multiple factors, from supplier relationships to cash flow needs and compliance requirements. Against this backdrop, virtual cards have gained significant traction in the U.S. as a secure, efficient and often rewarding payment method.

Frankovic emphasized their value in the payments ecosystem, especially for businesses seeking a balance between control and return on investment. “In the U.S. specifically, if implemented correctly, virtual cards give you the best mix of security, control and return on that investment,” he said.

The ability to generate rebates or returns from virtual card usage has been a key driver of adoption, particularly for companies with strong leverage over their suppliers. However, Frankovic noted that while virtual cards offer substantial benefits, their optimal usage depends on the specific needs and structure of the business.

Understanding supplier relationships and which suppliers are open to virtual card acceptance is crucial in determining how this payment method can be effectively integrated into a company’s payment strategy. For businesses with large supplier networks, such as multinational corporations, optimizing the use of virtual cards becomes more nuanced.

“It’s much more about vetting that entire supplier list, trying to understand the different tranches of suppliers, those that are considered highly strategic, and you don’t want to upset because they’re critical to your supply chain.” Frankovic said.

Tailoring the Payment Mix to Business Needs

But virtual cards aren’t the only recent advance in B2B payments. Real-time payments are another payment method that offers distinct advantages when compared to legacy mechanisms and methods, particularly in terms of speed and efficiency. As Frankovic noted, real-time payments allow for the instantaneous transfer of funds, 24/7, including on holidays and weekends. This can be particularly beneficial for improving cash flow management and meeting immediate financial needs.

“I think as this next generation or two grows up and starts to enter the workforce, that’s when real-time payments will have a bigger and bigger role to play. Right now, I wouldn’t say they are widely adopted at this point,” Frankovic said.

And as digital payments continue to evolve even further, he highlighted AI as a technology with the potential to transform the payments landscape. While still in the early stages of development, AI could drive significant improvements in areas like supplier enablement and payment timing optimization, leading to greater efficiency and adoption of virtual cards.

“What I’m most excited about is the future of payments, how quickly it’s moving,” Frankovic said. He believes AI will play a key role in advancing digital payments, helping businesses automate processes, enhance fraud detection and optimize payment strategies, all key capabilities when it comes to the importance of tailoring the payment mix to the specific needs of businesses.

As Frankovic pointed out, the payments landscape is evolving quickly, and businesses need to be proactive in selecting the right payment methods and partners to stay competitive.

“And all of this is underpinned by people. People are the key. And understanding how your provider is going to approach your business will become more important than ever. You’re going to need a sherpa on this trip,” he said.

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Amid Wednesday’s (Sept. 18) news that Brex has launched an embedded B2B payments solution that complements the company’s corporate card and spend management platform for startups and enterprises, digital payments are transforming the ways in which companies do business and interact with their stakeholders, from suppliers and customers to financial institutions and regulators.

With more and more companies looking to streamline their operations and enhance the customer experience, embedded payments powered by credentials and tokens are emerging as a key innovation in creating frictionless transactions between B2B trading partners.

By embedding payments into the core of their digital infrastructure, businesses can create a seamless, end-to-end experience that supports not just payments, but all aspects of the B2B relationship — improving efficiency, security and collaboration across the board.

Read more: Nine Things Payments Execs Need to Know for Their 2025 Business Plans

The Shift From Cards to Credentials

As businesses seek more efficient ways to manage payments and working capital, embedded finance is emerging as a transformative force in B2B commerce. That’s according to Alan Koenigsberg, senior vice president and global head of large, middle market, industry verticals and working capital solutions at Visa, who told PYMNTS this summer that while embedded finance has been a staple in consumer eCommerce for years, its application in the B2B space is gaining momentum.

The shift from physical cards to digital credentials in the B2B space signals a broader transformation, with embedded payments becoming the digital hub for conducting business in an increasingly complex, interconnected global economy.

This evolution is reshaping how businesses approach payments, making them less about the mere act of transferring money and more about fostering digital connections that simplify and enhance the entire B2B transaction ecosystem.

The implications of credentials and tokenization are even more profound for B2B transactions, where complex financial supply chains, multi-tiered relationships and the need for security and efficiency drive payment innovation.

Credentials and tokens refer to digital representations of payment methods, eliminating the need for businesses to share sensitive payment data like credit card numbers with their partners. Instead, businesses use unique identifiers (credentials) and cryptographically secured placeholders (tokens) to facilitate payments. These tools can be seamlessly integrated into existing B2B processes, such as procurement, invoicing and supplier management systems.

In the B2B context, this transition enables businesses to move beyond the traditional limitations of many payment mechanisms, which were never fully optimized for B2B transactions, and which tend to involve higher values, longer time horizons and more complex payment terms — often involving multiple stakeholders within and between organizations.

Read more: How Embedded Payments Help Businesses Own Key ‘Micro Moments’

How Embedded Payments are Transforming B2B Commerce

The real power of credentials and tokens in the B2B ecosystem lies in their ability to fuel embedded payments — a seamless integration of payment functionality into business platforms and workflows. Embedded payments enable businesses to automate and streamline payments as part of broader digital processes, creating frictionless commerce opportunities that go far beyond the traditional scope of financial transactions.

For many businesses, payments have historically been treated as a separate, often cumbersome process that occurs after the real value exchange has already taken place, like the delivery of goods or services.

Embedded payments, however, flip this paradigm on its head by embedding the payment function directly into business software and platforms, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, procurement portals and supply chain management tools.

In this new model, payments are not just a standalone transaction; they become an integrated part of the digital hub for doing business. By embedding payment credentials into their existing systems, businesses can automate their financial workflows, reduce friction in the payment process and create real-time visibility into payment status, approvals and cash flow. This, in turn, can accelerate decision-making, improve supplier relationships and unlock new growth opportunities.

As embedded payments and the use of credentials and tokens continue to gain traction in the B2B world, the future of business payments will increasingly be shaped by a digital hub model. In this model, payments are no longer viewed as a discrete, manual process that happens after the fact. Instead, payments become a dynamic, real-time and automated component of broader business operations.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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And for too long, these systems — which enable organizations to integrate and manage core business processes across departments such as finance, supply chain, human resources and customer relationship management (CRM) — have had any updates and modernizations put on the back burner.

For the first two decades of the 21st century, ERP was among the categories of enterprise software stuck in the past, remaining on-premises and maintained by in-house IT teams, while more compelling front-office applications got future-fit face lifts and cloud migrations. In part, this was due to senior decision-makers’ aversion to risk.

But, driven by the need for cost-efficiency, real-time data access and advanced features, businesses are increasingly moving away from on-premises solutions in favor of cloud-based platforms. As cloud computing continues to evolve, ERP systems are becoming even more intelligent, interconnected and indispensable to modern businesses that decide to migrate their back-office operations to the cloud.

While the migration process presents challenges, the long-term benefits of cloud ERP — from scalability and flexibility to enhanced security and innovation — are hard to ignore.

Read more: How APIs Bridge Modern and Legacy B2B Payment Architectures

The Cloud Advantage: Why ERP Is Moving Off-Premises

PYMNTS intelligence finds CFOs will invest in workflows and tools to reduce uncertainty, giving them visibility in data and payments flows. For organizations looking to stay competitive in a rapidly changing business environment, the shift to cloud ERP is not just an option; it’s becoming a necessity.

One of the primary reasons to consider shifting ERP systems to the cloud is the significant reduction in both upfront and long-term costs. Traditional onsite ERP systems require substantial capital expenditure, as businesses need to purchase expensive hardware, license software and employ IT staff to maintain and upgrade the system.

Cloud models shifts ERP from a capital expense (CapEx) to an operational expense (OpEx), offering greater flexibility, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) that may lack the financial resources to invest heavily in on-premises infrastructure.

Additionally, cloud ERP allows businesses to scale their system usage up or down depending on their needs. As companies grow, they can easily add new users, modules or functionalities without requiring significant infrastructure investments. This scalability is a key advantage over traditional ERP systems, which are often rigid and costly to expand.

At the same time, many digital payment mechanisms are designed to integrate seamlessly with modern ERP systems, enabling automated reconciliation and providing real-time visibility into financial transactions. PYMNTS Intelligence has found that automation, virtual cards and digital payments are becoming cornerstones of B2B payments, with businesses increasingly recognizing their role in strengthening buyer-supplier relationships.

The modern business environment demands real-time access to data for informed decision-making. With cloud ERP, employees can access critical business information from anywhere in the world, at any time. For instance, finance teams can instantly access sales and inventory data, enabling more accurate cash flow forecasts and financial planning. This accessibility is particularly vital for companies with global operations or remote workforces, where teams need to collaborate across time zones and geographies.

“Our clients care about driving business results and analytics around understanding the value and transparency of every transaction. They want more automation, as much as possible,” Ernest Rolfson, founder and CEO of Finexio, told PYMNTS.

See also: 3 Tips for Choosing the Right B2B Payment Method From Industry Execs

Unlocking the Future of Enterprise Resource Planning

As with any major IT transformation, migrating to cloud ERP requires significant change management efforts. Employees must be trained on the new system, and the organization’s workflows may need to be adjusted to accommodate the new platform. Companies must invest in employee training and support to ensure a smooth transition and avoid disruptions to daily operations.

Meg Garand, head of CashPro Payments and CashPro API at Bank of America, told PYMNTS that growing partnerships between banks and FinTechs is allowing ERP and treasury management system (TMS) providers to optimize their own software solutions.

“Companies can remain focused on running and growing their business without spending a ton of time on technical bank integration,” she said, noting that the ease of integration provided by bank and FinTech collaborations also results in the reduction of manual work, allowing staff to focus on strategic efforts. Garand cited, as an example, one entertainment company that was previously spending 10 days on monthly reconciliations and can now complete the process in 2½ days because of the integration of CashPro API with its ERP system.

One of the most exciting developments in cloud ERP is the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. These technologies enable ERP systems to analyze vast amounts of data and provide actionable insights that help businesses optimize their operations. For example, AI-driven ERP systems can predict inventory needs, identify cost-saving opportunities or automate routine tasks such as financial reconciliations.

And by connecting ERP systems with external applications and services, businesses can gain real-time visibility into their financial data, enabling informed decision-making and faster response to market dynamics. Whether it’s identifying cost-saving opportunities, mitigating risks or capitalizing on emerging trends, ERP modernizations empower businesses to stay agile and competitive.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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In today’s rapidly evolving landscape, B2B businesses across the transaction frequently find themselves navigating uncertainty. Whether it’s the hidden costs of transactions, the intricacies of payment terms, or the evolving regulatory and technological environments, these knowledge gaps have real-world consequences.

As ongoing innovation helps reshape the marketplace, the complex, opaque and often fragmented nature of B2B is changing. A large part of the change is due to a growing commitment to adopting evolving technologies as well as educating stakeholders that remain stuck on paper-based and traditional processes.

The future is being built on more flexible and dynamic B2B solutions that automate with agility and ensure the optionality and security of B2B payments.

This technical and behavioral shift is reflected in the top themes shaping the B2B landscape this week, which were around embracing the next-generation advances making B2B payments better, the opportunities that embedded payments can unlock, and the importance of smarter supply chain management.

Embracing Digital B2B Payments Means Embracing the Future

“Almost half of B2B payments are still made via check, which blows my mind in terms of the technology that exists now,” Rebecca Schultz, chief marketing officer at Boost B2B Payment Solutions, told PYMNTS in an interview published Wednesday (Sept. 18) for the “What’s Next in Payments: How Do You Do Digital?” series.

“You can digitize the payment, but if the receiver is turning it into cash and manually entering the data, then the value of that exchange has ended,” Schultz explained, noting that true success comes from digitizing every step of the payment process, ensuring a seamless flow of information from end to end.

After years of being bogged down by manual work and fragmented workflows, technologies like robotic process automation are helping modernize accounts payable and receivable departments. Their implementation requires minimal labor and results in a productivity lift.

With the advent of new B2B technologies, payment methods, and the complexity of global supply chains, PYMNTS analyzed Wednesday how chief product officers across the payments industry face unprecedented challenges and opportunities in ensuring their product strategies keep up with the pace of change and propel growth and innovation.

How Embedded Payments Are Transforming B2B

As B2B payments go more digital, they are also becoming increasingly embedded.

Brex launched an embedded B2B payments solution Wednesday that complements the company’s corporate card and spend management platform for startups and enterprises. The day before, Capchase and Stripe partnered to offer a B2B buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment method in the United States.

In other Stripe B2B BNLP news, Mondu said Sept. 11 that its new Stripe integration allows B2B merchants and marketplaces to offer Mondu’s BNPL options through their existing Stripe setup. This “Mondu via Stripe” offering is now available to businesses in the Netherlands, Germany and France, and it will expand to more markets soon.

Wells Fargo introduced specialized APIs Tuesday (Sept. 17) tailored for its commercial banking clients. They provide clients real-time, on-demand information so they can efficiently and seamlessly manage inventory, supply chain and payments.

Also on Tuesday, TurboTax maker Intuit debuted a new product suite for mid-market businesses. Intuit Enterprise Suite is designed to serve an $89 billion total addressable market of larger, mid-market businesses whose needs become more complex as they scale.

As B2B payments evolve, so too are the roles of the executives tasked with making and managing them. In an era of rapid technological and data advancement, corporate treasurers find themselves at the forefront of change in their own roles and responsibilities.

As two J.P. Morgan executives, Maria Chavez, head of payments for core middle market and specialized industries, and Janette Hutton, head of international payments for U.S. corporations, told PYMNTS in an interview published Thursday (Sept. 19), the cornerstone of this transformation is the increasing availability and use of data, which includes generative artificial intelligence. The fundamental step of identifying available data and its potential applications is crucial for treasurers looking to use analytics for strategic decision-making.

As Global B2B Accelerates, Supply Chains Need to Adapt

July PYMNTS Intelligence revealed that concerns over supply chain integrity and macroeconomic conditions highlight how larger external factors also remain on chief financial officers’ radars.

And in the months since, supply chain realities have only surged in prominence.

PYMNTS unpacked Wednesday how NASA’s reliance on highly specialized suppliers is emblematic of a broader risk in B2B supply chains — the lack of redundancy. As industries globally contend with increasingly complex and interconnected supply chains, NASA’s experience with a vendor undergoing challenging times offers a cautionary tale about the hidden risks and opportunities for B2B enterprises in managing such networks.

Meanwhile, as international trade becomes more complex, the need for real-time intelligence and innovative financial solutions grows. Businesses can no longer rely on traditional methods of monitoring their supply chains, as the dynamic and unpredictable nature of modern trade demands faster, more accurate data to mitigate risks.

The marketplace is responding in turn. Amazon added a fully managed option to the lineup of supply chain services it offers to sellers Wednesday. The new fully managed Supply Chain by Amazon solution will be available to all U.S. sellers for domestic pickups in October and will be expanded to global pickups by the end of the year.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

The post This Week in B2B: Realizing Operational Certainty Through Payments Innovation appeared first on PYMNTS.com.

Governments want tax revenue.

The advantages of cutting down on paper — and, specifically, paper invoices — can improve supply chain dynamics across any number of B2B verticals.

Automating invoicing, with the rise of digital options in doing so, has taken root in Europe through a series of mandates, while in the United States the shift has been largely market driven. The approaches may differ, but overall, cutting down on manual data entry and cutting down on the time it takes to process invoices holds universal appeal … with the positive ripple effect of better cash flow. In addition, there’s the ability to reduce fraud.

In Europe, where Italy, Greece, France, Germany and Spain have mandated eInvoicing, and as noted in a report from the European Union, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning have helped streamline the collection of invoice-related information. Those technologies are proving adept at detecting anomalies. Elsewhere, the EU added that the electronic creation and use of those invoices can “automatically compile and submit VAT returns and customs declarations.”

Better Tax Collection

“Authorities can use e-Invoicing as the base layer for predicative tax calculations. Efficiency can be gained if predicative models are powered by Artificial Intelligence, whilst ensuring that the calculation is verified through human intervention,” noted the EU. In other studies, European regulators noted that the shift to digital exchanges of information, including eInvoicing, have helped close the VAT collection “gap” by tens of billions of euros.

In the PYMNTS Intelligence report “AP Automation Significantly Reduces Friction in the Source-to-Pay Cycle,” we found that 25% of companies said that invoice errors and discrepancies as the top areas of disruption they recently faced in paying and getting paid. And 83% of CFOs said that digital technologies supporting AP workflow automations have reduced frictions by better integration of buyer and supplier payments.

Cumulatively there are around 80 countries in some stage of mandating eInvoicing, and non-EU countries such as Australia and Japan have made strides toward eInvoicing as well. The process has been a staggered one, and in some cases the adoption is taking time. France stands out here, as the shift was slated to start this past summer, but larger firms have until September of 2026 to fully embrace eInvoicing.

The Initiatives in the States and Elsewhere

In the United States, we may see a bit more “top down” approach to eInvoicing, as the Federal Reserve has been piloting, with the Business Payments Coalition along, a standardized eInvoicing model and exchange network.

Individual company initiatives and platforms have been launching new solutions to further the embrace of eInvoicing. As reported here, Deloitte and Basware have partnered to facilitate accounts payable (AP) automation, touchless invoicing and compliance with eInvoicing regulations for global customers.

And in another example, Sovos, a global tax software provider, has joined forces with PwC in Belgium to streamline the adoption of e-Invoicing among businesses. The partnership between Sovos and PwC in Belgium is set against the backdrop of increasing global regulatory mandates that require businesses to adopt eInvoicing for tax compliance purposes, the companies said earlier this year.

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Wednesday (Sept. 18) alone, news broke that Brex launched an embedded B2B payments solution that complements the company’s corporate card and spend management platform for startups and enterprises; while Capchase and Stripe partnered to offer a B2B buy now, pay later (BNPL) payment method in the United States.

And with the advent of new B2B technologies, payment methods, and the complexity of global supply chains, chief product officers (CPOs) across the payments industry face unprecedented challenges and opportunities in ensuring their product strategies keep up with the pace of change and propel growth and innovation.

Globally, B2B payments are more fragmented and complex than ever. Different regions, industries and even individual suppliers may require or prefer different payment methods. Traditional methods like checks and ACH transfers remain prevalent in some sectors, while newer solutions such as digital wallets and real-time payments are gaining traction.

For product leaders and the other internal teams they engage with — from finance to marketing — bringing to market, or scaling internally, solutions capable of managing this complexity requires a deep understanding of both the payment technologies and the requirements of suppliers across different markets.

Read more: Nine Things Payments Execs Need to Know for Their 2025 Business Plans

CPOs Can Drive Growth, Innovation

CPOs stand at the intersection of technology, finance and operations. There are also the rising capabilities and potential applications of artificial intelligence (AI) to consider.

Regarding the shape that future innovations could take, the 18 payments industry insiders interviewed by PYMNTS for the “What’s Next In Payments: Halftime Report” series all agreed that future payments innovation will be centered around four trends: embedded finance, digitization, compliance and technological upgrades.

And within B2B specifically, the relationship between payments and procurement is becoming symbiotic, with both functions playing a role in the financial health of businesses. Procurement teams are responsible for securing the best possible terms from suppliers, while payment processes ensure that these suppliers are compensated accurately and on time. The integration of these functions, particularly with the rise of digital solutions, is reshaping how companies interact with suppliers, manage cash flow, and approach supply chain management — all crucial considerations for CPOs.

That’s why, for CPOs, the challenge lies in managing this convergence effectively. Processes are often siloed, with a clear separation between functions. These silos are breaking down as procurement relies on real-time data and digital payments, enabling cash flow predictability, and driving greater innovation.

CPOs must spearhead digital transformations, particularly around accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) automation, ensuring that the right technologies are implemented to improve speed, transparency, and compliance in payments.

In a sign of the strength of the B2B automation market, the PYMNTS Intelligence report “CFOs Eye Accounts Receivable as New Direction for AI Investments” found that 55% of chief financial officers representing middle-market businesses would be willing to pay 3% of the invoice amount to accept payments using a solution that automates invoice approval and payment.

Read more: 5 AI Tips CFOs and Treasurers Need to Know

Embracing Digital Transformation

Still, “almost half of B2B payments are still made via check, which blows my mind in terms of the technology that exists now,” Rebecca Schultz, chief marketing officer at Boost B2B Payment Solutions, told PYMNTS. “A quarter of AR teams are still relying on spreadsheets to manage their receivables,” she added, noting the backwardness of certain manual processes in the age of big data and automation.

Digital transformation not only streamlines processes but also enhances agility, allowing businesses to respond quickly to market changes and new opportunities. This includes leveraging AI, machine learning and other emerging technologies.

And one initiative frequently leads to another as efficiencies are realized. For example, by collaborating with suppliers, businesses can co-create new products or services that meet market demands and differentiate them from competitors.

However, adopting digital solutions comes with challenges. Integrating these tools into legacy systems can be difficult, and there is a risk of overwhelming procurement teams with too much data. CPOs must strike a balance, ensuring that their teams are equipped with the right tools without adding unnecessary complexity.

As businesses continue to operate in a global and digital environment, the ability of CPOs to adapt and innovate will be critical to their success.

For all PYMNTS B2B coverage, subscribe to the daily B2B Newsletter.

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The new Brex Embedded payments solution complements the company’s corporate card and spend management platform for startups and enterprises, Brex said in a Wednesday (Sept. 18) press release.

“Brex’s vertically integrated corporate cards, payment processing and global money movement infrastructure has been used by tens of thousands of companies to help them save and control spend for the past seven years,” Brex CEO Pedro Franceschi said in the release. “We’re excited to democratize access to Brex’s best-in-class payments technology with Brex Embedded payments and unlock global payments everywhere.”

As an application programming interface (API)-driven solution, Brex Embedded enables businesses to embed payments into their products without having to build financial products in-house, according to the release.

The solution leverage APIs and issuing integrations — including Mastercard’s virtual card platform — to enable software vendors to integrate Brex’s global corporate card and payments capabilities directly into their platform, the release said.

Businesses that have done so can then enable their own customers to make fast, secure global payments in virtually any currency, per the release. Vendors using this solution also benefit by automating their existing financial workflows and payment reconciliation.

The emergence of embedded finance has supercharged the digital transformation of B2B payments and commerce, PYMNTS reported in August. Embedded finance can speed the processes involved in B2B transactions — including invoicing, purchases orders and reconciliations — by integrating payment solutions directly into B2B platforms.

In another recent development in this space, Jaggaer and Bottomline said Sept. 5 that they partnered to provide companies with more payment options for B2B transactions.

This collaboration will see the integration of Bottomline’s Paymode business payment network and its Premium ACH offering, virtual card and other payment modalities into Jaggaer’s B2B payment solution, Jaggaer Pay.

In August, Numeral and HSBC Innovation Banking UK teamed up to enable embedded payments for innovative companies like FinTechs, InsurTechs and marketplaces. With this collaboration, companies that are clients of both partners can embed HSBC Innovation Banking UK’s payment and account services via Numeral’s APIs.

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