How bill payments software can support your business

Well, this really is Laila's lucky day, as she's started exploring the bill payments feature now too. Laila is pleased that she can now say goodbye to separately managing bill payments via online banking and simply pay outstanding invoices in just a few clicks.

One of Laila's tasks as a finance manager is to reimburse her team, such as Tim, but she also needs to pay invoices and bills to vendors and suppliers via bank transfers.

Thanks to online banking and e-invoicing, business payments via bank wire are easier, faster, and more streamlined than ever. But, how many online banking sites are integrated with your company's invoicing system or ERP? Probably somewhere between none and very few.

Before bill payments software

Let's go back to Laila. Before using Payhawk, to make her bill payments, Laila will need to a) get the invoice information from the ERP or database, b) open her online banking website, c) introduce the credentials or token, and d) manually enter the bank account number, bank name, supplier name, and amount into the online banking portal. Then, once the payment is on its way, she has to d) reconcile the transaction in the company's books. It sounds like a tedious process, right?

In addition, many companies enforce security measures that only give restricted access to corporate online banking portals to their employees. This access problem further complicates the above process by adding another person.

We've asked our customers how paying for a single invoice with a wire looked before Payhawk. They told us it could take up to 15 min and involve more than one person. So, once you've added all those wires up, you might be wasting more than an hour a day just because your systems aren't integrated.

How Payhawk automates bill payments

Tim, who's your company's top salesman, is busy making deals right and left and uploads an outstanding invoice to Payhawk's platform from one of his events. Meanwhile, the vendor has just called Tim angrily, requesting payment immediately.

After talking to Tim, Leila mentions that he doesn't need to worry as the payment will be in the vendor's account in a few minutes.

Leila logs into Payhawk, filters her invoices by outstanding and sees Tim's vendor invoice. She reviews the invoice, and Payhawk's OCR extracts all the invoice information, including the payment details. As the payment is to a new supplier, Leila needs to verify the payment information, click save, and then pay.

Then, she'll receive a confirmation request in the Payhawk mobile app for security reasons. This short process allows Leila to avoid errors, save time, and streamline bill payments.

Faster Payments and SEPA Instant

Leila is sure that the money will be in the vendor's account in a few minutes because at Payhawk, we support Faster Payments for GBP and SEPA Instant for EUR. Both programmes allow us to move payments fast and securely between UK and EU bank accounts, 24 hours a day.

The cash flow benefits of expense management automation and bill payments mean you can:

1. Eliminate bank reconciliation and receipts/invoice chasing
2. Improve spend management with approval workflows adapted to your company's needs
3. Control business expenses and improve transparency overall with spend policies integrated with company cards
4. Eliminate expense reports and empower your employees
5. Get cashback in all transactions paid with a Payhawk card in POS (limited to your subscription amount)

Cash flow management is crucial for all companies, big or small. A US study mentioned that 82% of companies fail not because of lack of profit but because of cash flow mismanagement. Improving your business process and installing the right integrated tools will allow you to be an expert in cash flow management. And expense management automation is one of those processes you can work on straight away.

At Payhawk, we don't only make your life easier with business process automation; we also have one of the best customer support teams out there. If you have any issues while making a payment, uploading an invoice, or figuring out an integration, our customer success specialist can assist you.

Book a demo to find out how we can help you manage your business finances with easy-to-use software and first-class customer support.