8 Clues to Escaping the Bank Payables Puzzle

For many companies, bankers are trusted advisors—they actively help organizations navigate financial complexities and provide insights on a myriad of topics, including foreign exchange hedging strategies, liquidity management, and working capital optimization.

But, as your company grows, organizational challenges become more complex. While banks provide a wealth of knowledge in many areas, helping you navigate the nuances of the payables workflow is NOT their expertise. Back-office finance operations like accounts payable are oftentimes unscalable due to their manual effort, and you might be unknowingly stagnating your operations by using your bank.

In order to escape this particular payables puzzle, grab your deerstalker hat and uncover the 8 CLUES that will help solve the greatest finance mystery of all…has your company outgrown your bank for global payables?

CLUE #1: You have a high percentage of payment errors.

Many companies don’t have a scalable way to vet payee banking details, leading to failure during the payments process.

CLUE #2: You’re unable to send cross-border payments through one account.

If you’re using multiple banks or accounts to pay into countries, you’re probably wasting valuable time contending with various portals to execute payments.

CLUE #3: Managing multiple currency accounts worldwide creates operational friction.

For entities that are not revenue drivers (cost-plus entities), micromanaging foreign exchange just to make payments adds even more unnecessary time and effort.

CLUE #4: You spend a lot of time responding to suppliers about payments.

AP teams with no visibility into payment issues spend even more time investigating the transactions with the bank, reissuing payments, and communicating with suppliers.

CLUE #5: Reconciliation takes more than two days every month, quarter, and at year-end.

Reconciling payments to ensure everything is on track can be very time-consuming and often involves stitching disparate data together.

CLUE #6: You’re manually onboarding new suppliers.

Since banks don’t help onboard suppliers, the responsibility falls to the finance team to collect contact details, payment methods, and tax identification via unsecure channels like phone, email, or even fax.

CLUE #7: You want to implement a supply chain finance program.

Banks only offer SCF programs to their top-tier clients. And even then, the process is completely manual to execute and adds a lot of unnecessary complexity.

CLUE #8: You’re wasting a lot of time (and money) processing invoices.

Your invoice and payment volume is only going to increase—and your bank won’t help you tackle any of these operational inefficiencies.

So, have these clues helped you uncover the payables puzzle? If you answered “yes,” it might be time to upgrade your entire global payables process by implementing new technology.