A surprising amount of finance ops is working around how vendors want to get paid

Vendor payments are more annoying than they should be One wants ACH, one wants a wire, another wants a check. Like jesus I cant do all of them. Then there are times where I want something on a card, either for the extra float or because it makes more sense on my end and of course that vendor doesn’t take cards. None of it is a huge problem by itself but it gets chaotic when every vendor has their own setup. Quite a weird amount of finance ops is adapting to how everyone else wants to get paid

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u/maliciousphrasing03 1 13 hours ago

it’s like herding cats, except every cat has its own bank and invoice portal
u/Pure_Monitor1506 1 13 hours ago

This is kinda a routing issue. Vendor takes ACH/check/wire but the company may want card float, rewards or a better timing. AP needs a way to pay on the rail the vendor wants without being boxed into how the vendor accepts payment
u/Euphoric-Floor-7958 1 12 hours ago

I was about to say the same. It’s less about forcing every vendor onto one payment method and more about keeping flexibility on your side while still paying vendors the way they want. This comes up with contractors, suppliers, landlords and professional services vendors. All the timeee. Some are ACH only, some still want checks and a few are weirdly strict about wire. I hate when the business wants to use a card for timing, float or rewards but vendor acceptance shuts that down There are tools that sit in the middle for that. People mention Plastiq and it's one I’ve seen used for these sorts of cases. Card gets charged on your side while the vendor gets paid through whatever method they accept. These third party payment platforms come in handy most when timing or card rewards justify it. It does solve that mismatch well
u/Euphoric-Floor-7958 1 12 hours ago

I was about to say the same. It’s less about forcing every vendor onto one payment method and more about keeping flexibility on your side while still paying vendors the way they want. This comes up with contractors, suppliers, landlords and professional services vendors. All the timeee. Some are ACH only, some still want checks and a few are weirdly strict about wire. I hate when the business wants to use a card for timing, float or rewards but vendor acceptance shuts that down There are tools that sit in the middle for that. People mention Plastiq and it's one I’ve seen used for these sorts of cases. Card gets charged on your side while the vendor gets paid through whatever method they accept. These third party payment platforms come in handy most when timing or card rewards justify it. It does solve that mismatch well
u/Pure_Monitor1506 1 12 hours ago

Do you handle all those payments manually or have you found a way to keep everything in one place?
u/mr_spiritualtoday07 1 12 hours ago

Do you handle all those payments manually or have you found a way to keep everything in one place?
u/Broad_Target8198 OP 1 12 hours ago

At this point managing vendor payments is just collecting payment methods like Pokémon cards