There is an adage that says “Time is money”. This has never been more relevant than today. The business world of today moves at an ever-increasing speed with modern technology driving it. Various processes that used to take days or weeks in some cases are nowadays completed with a press of a button. This doesn’t mean that all your business plans and processes will go off without a hitch. Several things can go wrong especially with the B2B payment processes. Here are some common problems and their solutions.
1. Delay in payment
The foremost are delays in payment made and received. Your client may be late while making a payment for the services you have rendered. You will be required to contact this client, notify them about this delinquency, charge late fees, and try to settle a possible dispute. All this means a loss to your business. To make sure there is alignment about how much this client owes and what they have received from you there is this option available to adopt an e-invoicing process. E-invoicing allows you to automate the delivery of invoices from and to your clientele. It ensures that the right party has received correct documentation. All parties involved in this transaction are on the same page with e-invoicing. If you need to share this documentation, you can search online on how to transfer files in safe and easy ways.
2. Use of payment methods
These methods used to make payments that are made and received will also cause several issues throughout the B2B payment process. Some payment alternatives just take a longer time to process than compared to others. Sometimes the payment methods used by your company do not align with the preferred payment method used by your client. Maybe you accept MasterCard and Visa and not Discover and your client uses Discover for their B2B purchases. There are several such scenarios where you and your clients are not in alignment about these payments and you are both likely to lose out as a result. Many B2B companies are shifting to the use of mobile payments such as Apple Pay. Many credit cards offer the capability to pay by using a company app.
3. Isolation in the payment process
There is a possibility of isolation occurring in one of the two ways. First is, when this B2B purchase involves more than a single person from either party. There is a possibility of multiple people from several departments having a hand in the payment process at different stages. Lack of communication from either party can lead to a disaster in this case. The second is that the payment process has several steps in it. Again a lack of communication or misalignment between parties can result in the deal falling through at the last moment. You can use PEO services for this. If your business runs internationally there are international payroll services offered by some of these PEOs such as NHGlobal Partners to help you with the payments.
4. Cost of payments
There is a range of options available for making B2B payments. All methods have their advantages, cons, and a cost. Some of the typical kinds of payments are:
- Checks
- ACH
- Debit
- Credit
- Wire
As disclosed by various surveys the use of a paper check is still prevalent for the payment makers with more than half the people opting for them. For a majority of B2B payment transactions especially those involving a large sum of money, ACH payments make the most sense. They charge a minimal fee for every purchase and also have a smaller transaction fee. Unfortunately, ACH is difficult to execute for international payments. So, the companies will have to decide about the way of payment depending on transaction size and geographic origin. The companies, in order to maintain a high anonymity level and low block rate, use Geonode Proxies that help with their online experience.
Conclusion
It is a fact that if your business's payment processes are not streamlined, you are running the risk of not only losing out a lot of time and cash upfront but, due to the issues that recurred while dealing with the payment process your clientele may decide not doing business with you in future. If there are major problems in processing payments you are also running the risk of losing out on a lot of future revenue also. Above, we have seen some of the common hang-ups faced during B2B payments and some ways of circumventing these problems moving forward.
Guest post courtesy of Lena Linetti