Global Payment Methods Comparison Guide

Why You Need Multiple Global Payment Methods

Paper checks are ubiquitous to supplier payments, but they’re far from adequate. Thankfully, from pre-paid debit cards to international ACH and wire transfers, there is a world of options for remitting to suppliers across the globe. Each has benefits and drawbacks that can impact the satisfaction of your suppliers and partners as well as impact the workload your finance and accounts payable teams face. The most optimal payment method depends individually on where the supplier is and their expectations.

But managing each payment method so it’s secure, available, and reliable can be challenging. Tipalti estimates that there are over 26,000 global payment rules for paying suppliers in outside countries. Knowing the proper global method to use in a given situation is no small task.

Each method requires a different path for collecting payment details, understanding payment rules, adding or editing data, and the actual funding and remittance operations. In some cases, individual portals are required to interface with the various payment processors. The difficulties of managing multiple methods increase dramatically when making mass payments to suppliers and partners. Add this to the general ledger payment reconciliation complexity after payments are made and it’s no wonder that networks may limit payment methods.