The Advantages of Electronic B2B Payments: An FAQ

A: In contrast to manual, paper-based payment methods like checks, electronic payments are created, processed, and delivered entirely through electronic means. That means once an invoice is ingested and approved by an accounts payable team, the actual payment is made electronically. 

If a payment is made via cash or on paper and arrives via mail, it’s a manual payment method. If it is sent to you via email, a technology platform, or an online payments network, it’s digital.  

A: Digital methods include (but are not limited to) Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments processed through bank rails and virtual card payments that vendors handle through their point-of-sale systems.  

ACH payments debuted in 1972 and are extremely familiar to businesses and consumers alike as a direct bank-to-bank payment type. These payments are generally disbursed within 1-2 business days of approval from a payer and enter a vendor’s bank account with no intervention necessary. These payments can, at times, also come with enhanced remittance information and other perks. ACH has been slowly but surely overtaking check as the top business payment method for over 50 years now.  

Virtual cards are executed the same way as a standard, physical card payment—with card and payment information entered into a point of sales system—but do not require an actual card. The card number and any associated codes are also one-time use, for improved security, and details are generally delivered via email.  

A: While virtual cards are gaining share in organizations’ payment mixes, ACH is by far the most popular method. Payment data from 2023 suggests 63% of organizations use ACH payments, compared to 40% or less for virtual cards. 80% of businesses still used some sort of check payments in 2023, but Ardent Partners research from 2025 showed that electronic payment usage had finally surpassed checks overall.   

A: At a high level, both payment methods are much faster and more reliable than check. But each method also has its own advantages.  

ACH payments offer the best balance of any payment type in terms of efficiency, security, and vendor adoption. Premium ACH payments, like those offered through the Paymode network, also offer cash back rebate potential. ACH’s weaknesses—spotty remittance, slightly slower delivery speed than virtual cards, and a lack of comprehensive controls—can be offset by B2B payment networks or other providers who offer further enhancements. 

Virtual card payments are lightning fast, have strong built-in security because of their one-time use payment details, offer rebate potential, and can be processed through a vendor’s existing point of sale system. These payments are not as widely adopted—at least yet—in part because the merchant settlement fees associated with them are often higher than payment methods like Premium ACH. 

In both cases, there can be significant efficiency, security, and revenue benefits to adopting these digital payment types.  

A: When vendors accept electronic payments, they enjoy greater speed and security. Both ACH and virtual card payments are considerably faster and more secure than checks. For businesses who want to ensure they get paid quickly and with less risk , those are attractive propositions. 

From there, solutions and payers alike can choose to add significant value in a variety of ways. They can offer more detailed remittance, making it easier to reconcile payments and invoices and thus make cash application faster, or automate that reconciliation entirely. They can offer value-added tools like invoice delivery, dunning, pay-by-link, payment tracking, and scheduled reporting. And they can use secure B2B payments networks to deliver those payments, further reducing the risk of fraud.  

For a long time, vendors have accepted payments chiefly because of payer preference or familiarity. In recent years, value has become a central criterion for vendors who no longer must simply put up or shut up with checks.

A: The answer varies. For standard ACH programs, your accounts payable team may be responsible for collecting and holding vendor bank account data, usually through a combination of having a vendor fill out an authorization form and then sending a small test payment to ensure the account is legitimate. Third party validation services can ease the burden on your team and provide a higher level of rigor. 

For virtual card, the process would be similar, but you won’t be collecting bank account data and will instead need to verify the email address payment details will be sent to.  

For both ACH and card, paying vendors through a secure business payments network can take the burden of validation and holding critical data off your team’s plate. An added advantage of using a network like Paymode is that vendors aren’t just validated once; any account changes or suspicious behavior require authentication. This means these networks are generally more secure than point solutions or in-house vetting.

A: It’s been a long, slow road, but in recent years businesses have switched to ACH and virtual card because the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of check payments have become impossible to ignore. This is significant because vendors are particularly resistant to accepting new payment methods when checks are so familiar, and their processes have been built around receiving them for decades. 

The problems with checks have been magnified by trends over the past decade. The rising sophistication of fraud has made mailing checks a fraught proposition, with bad actors getting particularly good at swiping checks and setting up fraudulent LLCs to cash them. NASDAQ/Verafin found that as of 2025, the volume of check payments dropped by 7%, but fraud incidents involving checks rose by 11%.  

In addition to fraud risk, businesses are seeing mail slowdown that makes getting paid in prompt fashion more difficult. First class deliveries by the U.S. Postal Service now take place via truck and can extend up to five days, with delays and errors rising. 

In short, it is no longer a safe bet to assume that check payments will arrive on time, or at all. That leads to unpredictable cash cycles and Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) for vendors and strained business relationships for payers, among other issues. As businesses become increasingly aware of these hazards, unfortunately often through direct experience, check payments become a less attractive choice.  

A: Yes! Digital payments made through secure networks are inherently more resistant to fraud than ACH and card payments made through other means. 

In addition, networks are incentivized to offer value for both payers and vendors using them—otherwise why not just go through a bank or send a check? — and thus often offer considerable perks for making and receiving payments.  

As an example, payers using Paymode can receive rebates for Premium ACH and virtual card payments, while vendors benefit from faster delivery, richer remittance data, and reduced fraud risk through network-level controls. 

A: To answer the first question, we have to say yes to the second. Every organization's timeline for adoption will be different, given that supplier populations have different needs and businesses have budgetary and process restraints that might slow that adoption down. But yes, every business should be considering 100% electronic payments the ideal finish line, whether that’s one, five, or even ten years out. 

Once that is adopted as a goal, there are many best practices for organizations to make the most of their payment strategy and payments mix, including: 

• Work on a value-first vendor enrollment strategy that avoids threatening or cajoling the suppliers you depend on and instead focuses on giving them the tools to ease reconciliation and speed payment. A vendor is a lot more likely to accept ACH or virtual card payments if the pitch is “you’ll get these payments 3-5 days faster and we’ll be able to include all the remittance data you need” than if the pitch is “switch to ACH or we’ll end our business relationship.” 

• Don’t lock in on a single payment type. This is easy because vendor preference alone means you’ll never get to, say, 100% ACH adoption. It’s still important to have the flexibility to accommodate vendor preference and realize the unique benefits of each payment type.  

• Invest in a trusted B2B payments network to route those payments through. The best ones will do your vendor enrollment for you, offer superior security when compared to standard ACH and card payments, and may offer more perks like rebates and enhanced remittance. As we outlined earlier, true two-sided payments networks make adopting electronic payments more attractive by offering value for both the payer and the vendor.  

A: Each business and each solution they select will have different methods, so a definitive guide is difficult to come by. Though, businesses need to: 

• Select a solution. Very few digital payment programs are entirely in-house. You’ll run these programs through a bank, card issuer, or technology partner. Selecting one should involve understanding the tangible benefits to your business and your vendor community, reading about customers who have used the solution effectively or talking directly to those customers, and mapping out what a successful project looks like. 

• Getting internal buy-in. This is often overlooked, but can determine the success of electronic payments adoption. You want executive-level approval, key stakeholders like procurement and IT on board, and actual users to be familiar with the solution and comfortable using it. Only through that level of alignment will it be possible to successfully implement and benefit from electronic payments. 

• Map out your vendor campaign. No program can be successful if your vendors won’t adopt it. Understand who is reaching out to vendors, be it your accounts payable team or a solution partner, and map out the key messages and timelines for your campaigns. If you are a vendor or your accounts receivable team is interested in adopting digital payments, look to understand the value of enrolling with the solution. 

• Ensure a smooth implementation. With all stakeholders on board and a plan in place, the actual implementation should not take more than three months, with allowances made for particularly tricky ERP or accounting system integrations. This can only be possible by laying the groundwork first.  

If you have more questions about B2B payments, be sure to check out the rest of our learning center articles!