How accepting virtual cards can help you enhance business relationships

By Colleen Taylor, president, merchant services – US, at American Express, and Dean M. Leavitt, founder and CEO of Boost Payment Solutions

The business-to-business (B2B) payments world is moving fast. Suppliers today transact with hundreds if not thousands of buyers every day – and cash or check payments are no longer cutting it.

Instead, this fast-paced environment has led to a surge in digital B2B payment methods, including virtual cards: A dynamic payment option that replaces a physical card number with a tokenized, one-time-use digital version.

Not only do virtual cards protect sensitive payment and card details, they also help businesses streamline processes formerly handled manually, like paying suppliers or tracking budgets for specific teams or projects.

And more and more businesses are opting to use them: Recent data shows that 52% of US commercial card spend is estimated to be on virtual cards by 2025.¹

Manual payment processing can be costly

Despite the increase in virtual card transactions, some suppliers are still processing these B2B payments manually. For example, opening each email and copying the tokenized card number in their point-of-sale terminal – a tedious, inefficient process, at best. Simply stated: Manual processing of virtual cards leaves room for human error and costs these businesses time, money, and resources.

That’s why American Express and Boost Payment Solutions are bringing optimized virtual card payments to suppliers.

Suppliers who embrace end-to-end automation are reaping its benefits

American Express recently announced a new offering by Boost Payment Solutions, a global leader in payments, to provide commercial virtual Card processing services to US merchants who accept Amex, granting them access to Boost Intercept^® at no additional cost.

Boost Intercept is Boost’s patented straight-through-processing solution, which helps streamline businesses’ payments of American Express virtual Cards by automating the process.

The collaboration represents the latest in American Express’ ongoing investment in its B2B network and commitment to enhancing its buyer and supplier capabilities. Now, suppliers can enjoy similar benefits to buyers when it comes to virtual cards: faster, more efficient payments.

The pay-off of automating payments processing is significant. Importantly, automation can shorten the time between when a payment is authorized and when funds settle; this can improve cash flow management, helping businesses receive funds more quickly. From a staffing perspective, automation can simplify reconciliation efforts, meaning businesses can more easily track and match payments to invoices, too.

With automation of each step of a B2B transaction — receiving, parsing, and processing – suppliers can run their back office more efficiently and with added security, with less room for human error. This can translate to real, measurable benefits: According to the Amex Trendex: B2B Edition, of the US businesses who said that payments automation is saving their finance team’s time (36%), the average reportedly saved was 9.9 hours per week, or more than 500 hours per year.²

That can add up to significant savings.

Payment automation and acceptance can strengthen buyer-supplier relationships

The resources saved through automation can be put to good use. When businesses embrace automating their back office, they minimize friction within their payment processes, freeing time to focus on new and existing relationships with customers.

Beyond the gift of time, accepting digital payments like virtual cards can benefit the relationship between buyers and suppliers by simply making the process of paying or getting paid easier and more pleasant.

For example, when a buyer issues virtual cards to its employees, they can make and track transactions more easily through their payment platform. On the other end, when the buyer then uses that card to pay a supplier, the supplier gets paid faster compared to more manual payment methods, like a check.

The payoff comes at the end of the transaction — when both the buyer and the supplier have experienced a more streamlined payments journey. The result? A mutual desire to continue the partnership and potentially find even more ways to do business together.

It’s a win-win scenario that American Express is uniquely positioned to help its customers achieve. As the top credit issuer to small- and medium-sized enterprises in the US, American Express provides valuable service, added security, and working capital for customers on both sides of the B2B transaction. And due to its integrated payments model in which American Express is the Card issuer, merchant acquirer, and the payment network, American Express can also help suppliers and buyers of all sizes on their journey to automation.

To bring automated accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) solutions to its network, American Express offers a variety of virtual Card solutions to meet its customers’ needs, including its proprietary solution: American Express One AP^®3. American Express One AP is American Express’ proprietary accounts payable solution, which allows businesses to pay their suppliers via multiple different payment rails, including virtual Cards, which can bring enhanced security to payments processes. And, last but not least, American Express’ direct relationships help connect merchant suppliers to commercial buyers, and vice versa, allowing for more opportunities for potential business growth.

There’s no doubt that now is the time for suppliers to embrace automation — and solutions like Boost Intercept for American Express suppliers are making that possible.

Discover how Boost Intercept can help your business today.

This post was created by American Express with Insider Studios. 

¹ Mercator Advisory Group, February 2023

² Amex Trendex: B2B Edition, 2023

³American Express One AP® may not be available to all customers. To access the service, all customers will be required to enroll their eligible U.S.-issued American Express® Business, Corporate, or Corporate Purchasing Card. There is no fee to use the service for customers electing to process only Card payments. Use of additional payment methods requires activation and a monthly platform access fee of $200 which will automatically renew each month, unless the service is canceled or all additional payments methods are deactivated, as applicable. With the monthly platform access fee, to the extent used, the first 400 check transactions and first 400 automated ACH transactions each month are complimentary, after which point a fee of $1.00 per check and $0.35 per automated ACH transaction will apply. Fees are subject to change. Sales tax on fees may apply. All fees associated with American Express One AP® will be auto billed on a quarterly basis to the first Card enrolled for the service. Customers may cancel the

New York: The American Express One AP® service is a money transmission service provided by American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express). This service is not available to consumers. American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. is licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. California: The American Express One AP® service is a money transmission service provided by American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express). This service is not available to consumers. Georgia: The American Express One AP® service is a money transmission service provided by American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express). This service is not available to consumers. American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. is licensed by the Georgia Department of Banking and Finance.

For a list of our money service business licenses and information about addressing complaints and other disclosures, visit www.americanexpress.com/us/state-licensing.html. NMLS ID # 913828