Amex, Intacct Cut B2B Check Deal

With some 70 percent of all B2B transactions that cloud accounting vendor Intacct sees still requiring paper checks, American Express Global Corporate Payments cut a deal with the company to integrate a Pay Now button that sidesteps the various manual processes involved in causing checks to materialize and be shipped to customers.

Amex has “tens of thousands” of B2B customers dealing extensively with checks and Intacct has “more than 8,000 direct customers” and “more than 50,000 client entities,” which are locations or divisions of those customers that handle their own check processing, said Rob Alcock, the VP for global emerging business development within Amex’s global corporate payments division.

The idea is that instead of a company having to process the invoice, arrange for a check to be cut, process the check, mail the check and monitor to see when the check is deposited, the enduser can now click that Pay Now button and all forms are autopopulated and Amex cuts and mails the checks and tracks them. It’s “an integrated experience,” Alcock said, “and it reduces the cost.”

“The Intacct Check Delivery Service will enable businesses to send check payments to suppliers and have their general ledger automatically updated – all with a click of a button,” the two companies said.

Darryl Brown, President, Global Corporate Payment Americas for Amex, said the logistical implications—and associated costs—of handling dead-tree checks has forces some companies to avoid such systems.

“While middle market companies are increasingly adopting cloud to support priorities and investments for growth, supplier payments and financing still tend to sit outside of the cloud due to infrastructure hurdles and business model challenges,” Brown said. “Our partnership with Intacct will facilitate the integration of payment services into their core financial management system, thus offering a ready-to-use (package) without an IT investment.”

Before this partnership, Intacct customers dealing with paper checks “always had to cobble things together,” Alcock said.

“This new partnership will help mid-market companies save time and money by easily facilitating B2B payments through American Express Global Corporate Payments products within the Intacct platform. By utilizing the cloud-based payment solution, companies can reduce payment processing errors and drive operation efficiency by streamlining their payment workflow,” Amex said.