However, most middle-market enterprises in the B2B space don’t tend to use their smartphones to pay their suppliers. That’s where Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments come into play. With this form of payment, money is electronically transferred from one verified, trusted bank account to another verified, trusted bank account. (At the moment, there is an ACH transfer limit of $25,000 for same-day transactions.) Furthermore, to send money using the ACH network, you may have to pay a small ACH transfer fee of a fraction of a dollar. All transactions are governed and managed by a non-profit association funded by US financial institutions: namely, the National Automated Clearing House Association (NACHA). This ensures that all transactions are kept safe and secure. ACH payments are one of the most trusted ways to transfer money electronically in the country, and over 3 billion ACH transactions occurred in 2017 alone.
It is very likely that your suppliers will accept ACH payments and many will prefer them. That’s why you need high-quality ACH payment processing software. As an accounts payable team, your goal is to get your suppliers paid as quickly and as efficiently as possible. However, it’s possible that paper has been holding you back. Unfortunately, many middle-market organizations still rely on old-fashioned checks and paper invoices, which have been repeatedly proven to be vulnerable to fraud as well as a limit on your company’s ability to scale.
That’s why the time has come to embrace the age of automation and save your accounts payable team from having to slog through massive stacks of paperwork. That way, you can direct your team to more high-value tasks, and you can get your suppliers paid faster. One great software you can use to send ACH payments is AvidPay from AvidXchange. Our solution allows you to pay 100 percent of your bills electronically. Our solution features a huge supplier network of hundreds of thousands of suppliers that is constantly being updated with new members. This network makes it even easier to pay your suppliers because they are most likely already in the system. AvidPay allows you to create custom workflows with 24/7 visibility into bill payment status and approvals. With AvidPay, you never need to be left in the dark again about what is going on with your accounts payable team. AvidXchange might be just the solution for you.
ACH Payment Processing
ACH payment processing allows you to be more flexible with your suppliers. Instead of offering them just one option, you can use ACH payment processing software to give your suppliers the options they really want. With the AvidPay Network from AvidXchange, it’s easy to know what the preferred payment methods are for your suppliers, including who will accept ACH payments online and who would prefer them. The average ACH payment processing time is usually just one or two days. This makes it fast, easy, and secure to pay your suppliers electronically. Switching over to electronic payment methods such as ACH makes sense for several reasons.
First, as a middle-market business, your company is most likely subject to periods of spurt growth, where you are suddenly expanding faster than you have been. This is a great thing because it means further profits and greater revenue. However, you want to be ready for when those times come so that you can take maximum advantage of them. What you don’t want is to have a spurt come and then find you are being held back by your accounts payable team. The truth is, that’s exactly what could happen if your team is still using paper processes. As more business comes in, your team could be overwhelmed with the number of invoices to process and paperwork to do. It’s right here that other problems can come up as employees become dissatisfied with the mundane daily tasks and paperwork can start to get lost in the shuffle. Eventually, deadlines can start getting missed—and nobody wants that to happen. That’s one reason why it makes sense to use electronic payment systems such as ACH payment processing.
Best ACH Payment Processing Companies
The best ACH payment processing companies provide the software and support your business needs to pay suppliers electronically through this trusted payment method. The average ACH payment processing time is quite short, and your ACH payment processing company should use the proper automation to ensure that no unnecessary delays are introduced into the transactions. These companies should also have a large supplier network so that they can know who accepts ACH payments online and who would prefer them.
These organizations are experts in their field and they know what business-to-business ACH payments are and how to best go about processing them. One of the best ACH payment processing companies is AvidXchange. AvidPay from AvidXchange integrates seamlessly with either your ERP or your accounting system to allow you to pay your suppliers quickly and directly without having to print a single piece of paper. AvidPay is also highly secure and features our AvidXchange Positive Pay feature, which generates a fraud detection report for every payment made via paper check. One of the other advantages of going paperless is 24/7 cloud access. As more and more teams move to hybrid and remote work, accounts payable teams will need to be able to keep doing their jobs regardless of their physical location. That’s where a cloud-based automated solution such as AvidXchange can help. We make it easy to gain access and visibility into your accounts payable processes from anywhere and at any time.
ACH Providers
ACH providers are payment processing companies that offer you the ability to accept ACH payments online. The best of these allow you to send and accept other kinds of payments as well. Furthermore, an automation solution like AvidXchange is far more than just a payment processing system. Rather, AvidXchange automates your entire accounts payable process from the moment an invoice is received to its final approval and eventual payment. Our solution ensures that the ACH payment processing time is kept to a minimum because your team doesn’t have to spend a lot of time filling out paperwork. As one of the premier providers of business-to-business ACH services, AvidXchange possesses the experience you can trust to help make your accounts payable team more agile, efficient, and scalable. Since ACH payments are the preferred B2B payment method, it would be disadvantageous not to hire a great ACH provider like AvidXchange.
ACH Payment Services
In the modern digital world, the vast majority of your suppliers will have the ability to accept ACH payments online, and many will prefer to do so. ACH payments are preferred for their security and their fast ACH payment processing time. Furthermore, they are electronic, which means they will not be delayed by traffic or weather like a mail carrier delivering a paper check could be. Although there is not really a way to achieve an instant ACH transfer online, it is easy to instantly make payments through an automated accounts payable solution like AvidXchange. Our ACH payment app offers all the ACH payment services you could possibly need as well as the ability to pay using other methods. Different suppliers may prefer different payment methods, and not all will want to receive an online ACH payment. That’s why going with a versatile payment system like AvidPay could be a great decision for your team.
Accept ACH Payments Instantly
Using a reputable payment processing company can allow you to accept ACH payments instantly, although the transaction may still not be complete until one-to-two days have passed. Having the ability to accept ACH payments online is crucial—that’s why you can use an instant ACH transfer app. However, it is important that you make a good choice. Some services may offer the ability to do an instant ACH transfer “no verification”, but that can compromise the security of the transaction, which requires both parties to be verified and trusted. Although there is no good way to do an instant ACH transfer online because of the processing times, you can instantly send a payment that can still be processed far faster than a paper check.
Best ACH Processing Companies
The best ACH processing companies make it easy and simple to do ACH check processing. Some will even offer an ACH processing app so that you can accept payments on the go. Regardless of which ACH processing company you choose, what matters most is that you choose one with experience and that you trust. Your accounts payable processes are too important to risk hiring a less-than-stellar processing company. Consider investing in an automated solution from a company with experience, like AvidXchange, so that you can start utilizing the preferred payment method of each of your suppliers who accept ACH payments online.
