Faster payments are on the way and that’s good news for businesses and consumers alike. While the benefits of faster payments will be numerous, here are six top things small businesses can look forward to with the improvement of the settlement process:
- Faster payments will shorten the time frame for recognizing receivables, speeding up the flow of commerce.
- New systems will increase the flow of information accompanying payment transactions, improving opportunities for straight-through processing with customers and suppliers – providing a better view into cash flow and enabling more informed operational decision-making.
- Improved access to payment data will help reduce overhead costs in the back-office through efficiencies in exception management along with posting and reconciliation of invoice related information associated with the payment.
- As ISO 20022 standards – a universal financial industry message scheme -- are widely adopted, businesses will be better able to integrate payment data with their ERP systems for further treasury efficiency.
- Automation around digital transactions will eliminate paper checks and associated environmental impact, cut down on inefficient manual processes, reduce fraud, and free up critical resources for more strategic objectives.
- Faster settlement across all payment types will result in opportunities to improve working capital management.
The views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of Fifth Third Bank and are solely the opinions of the author. This article is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute the rendering of legal, accounting, or other professional services by Fifth Third Bank or any of their subsidiaries or affiliates, and are provided without any warranty whatsoever. Deposit and credit products provided by Fifth Third Bank.