September 15, 2025 • 19 mins
Our Modern Finance series continues with episode three, featuring Steve Buchberger and Heather Dawood from Deluxe. We explored why more than 80% of businesses are still managing accounts payable manually — and the insights may surprise you.
The pair explain how today's finance professionals are caught in a challenging paradox: highly skilled individuals spending countless hours on manual tasks, serving as the frontline against fraud while having little time to implement strategic improvements. This has created peculiar workplace phenomena like "CFO Tuesdays," where executives come into the office specifically to manually process ACH payments – a clear misuse of talent and time.
Beyond the inefficiencies, we explore the very real risks these outdated methods create. From human error and payment delays to check fraud and the burden of managing sensitive banking information, these challenges affect both operational efficiency and vendor relationships. As Heather pointedly observes, "Financial fraud was a white collar crime. Now it's an everyone crime."
The conversation takes an encouraging turn as we unpack Deluxe's innovative approach to AP automation. Their solutions integrate directly with businesses' ERP systems to simplify payment processes regardless of method, while their recent acquisition of CheckMatch from Kinexys by J.P. Morgan creates a more secure digital alternative to mailing checks. Perhaps most compelling is how these improvements translate into stronger vendor relationships – offering payment choice, ensuring timely delivery, and providing transparency transforms the payment process from a potential friction point into a relationship-building opportunity.
What stands out most is how Deluxe reframes AP from an operational burden into a strategic advantage. By delivering secure, streamlined processes and giving vendors more choice and transparency, automation transforms payments into a foundation for stronger, more trusting business relationships.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to this special four-part series titled
Modern Finance, sponsored byDeluxe, where we explore the
future of financial automation.
From treasury to accountspayable and receivable, we're
diving into how AI andintelligent automation are
transforming every corner offinance.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom leaders at Deluxe who are
(00:23):
driving innovation anddelivering real-world results.
Whether you're navigatingcompliance, fighting fraud or
connecting the financial dots,this series is packed with
insights you won't want to miss.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers.
This episode is part of ourfour-part series titled Modern
Finance and is being brought toyou by Deluxe.
Four-part series titled ModernFinance and is being brought to
you by Deluxe.
We kicked off the series with afascinating episode with Yogesh
J Prakasam from Deluxe, wherewe discussed how AI is
influencing the paymentsecosystem and, specifically,
(00:55):
treasury management.
In the second episode, I spokewith Pat Moy about accounts
receivable automation.
Today, we'll be discussingaccounts payable automation with
two very special guests SteveBuchberger, who is the Executive
Director of Payables ProductManagement at Deluxe, and
Heather Daywood, paymentsIndustry and Treasury Management
Expert at Deluxe.
So, steve Heather, thank you somuch for being here and welcome
to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Thanks for having us.
Greg, Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Thank you.
So, steve, let's start with you.
If you don't mind, tell ouraudience a little bit about
yourself, maybe where you grewup, where you went to school,
where you currently live, a fewthings like that.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, sure, I grew up in a small northwestern part of
the state in Wisconsin,marathon Wisconsin.
I still live in MarathonWisconsin.
I've made it as far south andactually I've lived in Wisconsin
all my life.
I made it as far south asMilwaukee.
At one point after college I'veactually.
I went to college and got mybachelor's degree in management
information systems, which is acombination of a computer degree
with a business emphasis andthen a master's in finance, both
(01:53):
through the inverse Wisconsinsystem.
So lots of Wisconsin.
I've worked in payments now for30 plus years and time flies
and been in the industry now forquite a long time.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Okay, great.
Well, tell us about your roletoday at Deluxe.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Sure, I'm in charge of our payable solutions, so
helping any solutions that helpbusinesses make payments,
whether it's paying a supplier,consumer, so B2B, b2c.
I also manage our strategicpartnerships within our B2B
payments area.
So we have quite a fewcompanies that we partner with
that embed our solutions intheir technology and take it to
(02:30):
market as part of a broadersolution that they offer.
So I'm responsible for thosepartnerships as well as our
payable solutions overall.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Heather over to you Same question.
A little bit about yourself andthen also about your role there
at Deluxe.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Sure, a little bit about yourself and then also
about your role there at Deluxe.
Sure, so I'm a Boston girl,born and raised in Boston and
moved 40 miles south of mychildhood home and now live in
Providence, rhode Island.
I like to say I like to be in,on or near the water at all
times.
I studied at the University ofMassachusetts for my undergrad
and then I did the executiveleadership program at Babson,
(03:04):
and I like to say that I grew upin banking.
So I spent the first 15 yearsor so of my career working in
banking, serving in the businessbanking and commercial banking
space, really focused onpayments and treasury, and then
moved on to RevCycle softwareand served the upstate market
(03:26):
where I was on the road prettyconstantly.
I called it an aging, fatteningand lonesome role.
I spent about 30 hours a weekbehind the wheel.
I'm delighted to have joinedDeluxe in the fall of 2024.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Okay, okay.
So the common theme is you bothwere born and moved a little
bit south.
I think that's what we got outof that.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
That's one of many things that Steve and I have in
common.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Okay, I'm sure we'll learn more throughout the
conversation.
So, Heather, just sticking withyou if you don't mind.
For those in the audience thatmay not know much about Deluxe,
could you kind of tell us aboutDeluxe, what you do and kind of
how Deluxe fits into thepayments ecosystem?
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Sure, to the payments ecosystem Sure.
So here at Deluxe, I work as adirector and then serving the
mid-market space, and we helpour clients with automated
payables, integrated receivables, and ultimately, what we do is
we help our clients to pay, getpaid and thrive.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Okay, so let's go ahead and dive into the topic at
hand, which is reallyrethinking accounts payable
through intelligent automation.
I know that's a mouthful, but Ithink we'll unpack that along
the way.
Steve, to set the stage, canyou describe what accounts
payable function typically lookslike, and maybe what size
companies or financialinstitutions that you most often
work with?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
A sweet spot for us is the mid-market business.
We do work with largecorporates and other size small
businesses as well, but in themid-market I think we find it's
a good mix, where there iscomplexity in the process but
also we're able to, in a fairlystraightforward way, help them
become more streamlined in theirpayables processes and so when
(05:00):
you think about payables overalland what businesses are doing,
it sounds pretty straightforward, right?
You have a supplier, they'vedone something for you, provided
a product, provided a service.
You owe them some money forthat service, so you're going to
make a payment.
Where the complexity is is justall the steps to that and the
different people that might beinvolved.
From you know, when you lookend to end, from invoice receipt
(05:23):
through the approval process tomake sure that invoice is
accurate, that the products andservices described have been
fulfilled, approving that andthen the fulfillment of the
payment.
And I think that area isgetting more complex too because
there are more payment optionsin the industry, different ways
the supplier needs to want toget paid and then ultimately
reconciling that payment throughyour system.
(05:45):
So it is a process thatbusinesses do all the time, but
I'd say the complexity there areareas of complexity.
There are areas of inefficiency,and mid-market is a good size
company where we can help themsolve that complexity with
solutions that we offer.
Financial institutions for usare really a channel I think is
(06:06):
the best way to look.
We have very strategicpartnerships with many financial
institutions.
In the case of our B2B payments, financial institutions really
serve as a way for us to get tomore businesses because they
have a trusted relationship withtheir business clients and
providing payment services forthem as a bank, and so Deluxe is
(06:29):
a technology services providerto financial institutions,
ultimately helps financialinstitutions in the types of
sophisticated payments productsthey provide and helping those
businesses solve their problems.
So really a good channel for usto get to more businesses and
extend our reach.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Heather Deluxe's research highlights that over
80% of businesses still usemanual or semi-manual AP
processes.
To still use manual orsemi-manual AP processes.
So why do you think so manyorganizations remain stuck in
kind of these outdated methods?
Obviously they're inefficient.
So why do you think they justcontinue to do that?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Well, I think that modern day finance teams have
highly skilled people inundatedwith manual processes working as
the frontline against fraud anddon't have enough time put
aside to be able to really focuson strategy and how they can
improve efficiencies, work in asafer, more efficient manner,
because they're in the trenches,really navigating on a daily
(07:31):
basis through the inundation ofpaperwork, touching paper
multiple times, going throughphysically handing people
documents for approval.
We have a kind of joke amongstsome friends and colleagues
talking about CFO Tuesdays,where we've got clients who have
CFOs working remotely but theycome into the office
(07:53):
specifically on a day of theweek to manually comb through
all of the ACH.
We've got again highly skilled,highly compensated employees
taking on the responsibility ofmanaging bank account
information for the vendors,going through the process of
identifying who they're talkingto, how do they verify whether
or not they are dealing with abusiness email compromise.
(08:15):
Through all of these dailyissues they don't have enough
time to kind of hit pause andreflect on how they can
implement some of the greatresources made available to them
today.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Okay, sounds like you know.
Getting unstuck from what youdo every day on a daily basis is
part of the challenge.
So, heather, we'll stick withyou.
What are the primaryoperational and compliance risks
that arise from these manualworkflows?
Speaker 4 (08:45):
like you mentioned, paper invoicing, check
processing and things like that.
So we have an incredible amountof human error.
There's human key error.
There's things that are delayedpayments maybe that are delayed
because of the manual processesand going through the invoicing
authorization process, maybegoing through the payment
approval process, so we've gotreputational risk with vendors.
(09:06):
Then we're dealing with checkfraud.
Checks are sent out in the mail.
There's so much fraud, theactivity that's happening around
that.
I used to say that financialfraud was a white collar crime.
Now it's an everyone crime andso there's risk there.
And then, of course, managingvendor bank account information
(09:27):
is a tremendous responsibilityand a huge burden on the
financial teams.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
All right.
Well, we've kind of level seton kind of who Deluxe works with
, the size of companies, the APfunction and obviously some of
the negative things that's goingon kind of in that space right
now.
So let's turn to how Deluxe ishelping with automation in this
space.
So Steve, talk a little bitabout Deluxe's AP automation
(09:53):
solutions.
And how does Deluxe identifythe critical pain points of
these merchants that maybe arestill doing things manually?
So how do your solutions, youknow, solve for those critical
pain points?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
If you look at, like I was saying before, that
there's multiple ways that youmay pay a supplier and there's
different reasons why you mightpay them one way or the other.
Whether you have their bankinginformation to do ACH, the
supplier may have a preferenceof how they want to get paid and
there are obviously new,different ways to pay some of
the real-time payment optionsthat are emerging.
(10:27):
And so a business, as we lookat these businesses, and if
they're just working off of kindof, I'd say, the legacy way of
doing things, they're oftengoing to different ways to make
those payments.
If it's ACH, there's a filethat they might be providing.
If it's a check, they might beprinting the checks themselves
and putting them in the mail.
If it's a wire, there's adifferent system that they can
(10:50):
go to to initiate a wire.
So each of those systems havetheir own processes.
Often it's outside of the ERPitself, so they're going to do
something outside of their ERP.
So where we really focused isreally helping the business work
within their ERP systems, likethe mid-market and the prevalent
ERP systems that they work with, and so trying to make it as
(11:10):
simple as possible.
So, really, what are they tryingto do?
They're trying to pay asupplier.
So really, what are they tryingto do?
They're trying to pay asupplier.
How they pay the supplier is alevel of complexity that we can
remove because the system, oursystem, can manage that.
So the business itself that'smaking the payment doesn't have
to do something different,depending on how they pay, and
they also don't have to be theone responsible for gathering
(11:33):
supplier information and storingsensitive banking information
and things like that withintheir systems.
That that can all be managedthrough a payable solution that
helps them to do that, and evenall the way to the
reconciliation that that paymentwas made the supplier and
getting that back into your ERP,so to be able to work from your
ERP system, do what you want todo in the most streamlined way
(11:57):
is really what we're striving toaccomplish with our customers.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Okay, so, steve, sticking with you.
In early August, deluxeacquired Checkmatch from JP
Morgan, which will help expandyour Deluxe payment network.
The announcement can be found,obviously, on the website, but a
few questions about it.
Why did Deluxe choose to do it,what does it mean for your
clients and how does it fit intoyour overall payment solution?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
So let me start by talking about what CheckMatch
does, and actually Deluxe had asimilar solution.
We call the Deluxe PaymentNetwork and it's focused on the
idea of when a business, oractually an aggregator, a
company that's printing andmailing a lot of checks on
behalf of many businesses, whenyou're printing the check and
sending it, it's often going toon the payee or the recipient
(12:45):
side, it's often going to alockbox.
A lockbox is a service forbusinesses that receive enough
payments in check that they'veautomated through lockbox
processing, enough payments incheck that they've automated
through lockbox processing, andit's an efficient way to process
those check payments and getthat cash applied for the
businesses that are receivingthose payments.
So in that ecosystem, a checkis being printed and mailed,
(13:08):
received by a lockbox, and thenit's being turned digital, it's
being imaged, and so what welook to do is to fit in the
middle of that and that's thesame thing that Checkmatch was
really working to solve and havea way to send a check, with any
associated remittance,digitally to the lockbox.
So, instead of going throughthe United States postal system,
(13:29):
we can deliver those checks ina much more secure and efficient
and cost-effective manner, andthe lockboxes are joining me
because it actually saves themlabor and time to receive those
check payments digitally.
So really, when you think aboutsending a check, there's some
risk inherent in terms of itgoes through the postal system
(13:50):
and it may take a varying degreeof time to get to the recipient
.
It may also have some risk ofbeing exposed during the postal
system.
It may also have some risk ofbeing exposed during the postal
system.
So these networks help to solvethat by being a much more
controlled time, faster, at alower cost and in a much more
secure way.
So both the locks and JPMCMorgan with their check match
(14:13):
application, we're buildingthese networks, signing up
lockbox providers to join andthrough the acquisition now we
are bringing these networkstogether and it's really about
scale.
So what it means is now we havemore lockbox suppliers using
lockboxes in our network, whichmeans we can get more checks
(14:34):
through this network moreefficiently as we combine the
two networks and that's going todrive value for all
participants.
The lockbox will get moredigital, which saves them labor
and time, and the partners we'reworking with that are sending
the checks will be able to routemore checks this way, more
secure, at a lower cost, moreefficiently.
So we're really excited aboutit.
(14:55):
We believe this can haveimportant impact on the industry
in terms of reducing checkfraud and the risk associated
with mailing check payments.
And we know there's still a lotof check payments because,
again, it is something that'singrained in many businesses'
systems the pay-by-check, andyou don't need to gather
sensitive banking information oranything like that to send
(15:16):
somebody a check.
You just need to know theiraddress and how much you owe
them and you can send a check.
So now we're allowingbusinesses to send checks more
efficiently, at a lower risk,when they do choose to send a
check.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
So Heather over to you.
So what are some of the metricsthat companies that adopt the
AP solutions from Deluxe, whatare some of the metrics that
they measure and where do theysee improvement?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
So speed and accuracy are ways that our clients are
measuring the benefits of usingour solutions.
We're able to take a singlefile transfer and we will
initiate payments on behalf ofour clients.
We are sending payments to thevendors, we're verifying who's
receiving the payments and we'regiving the vendors payee choice
(16:02):
.
So this improves the vendorrelationship.
It improves efficiencies andmanual processes are eliminated,
and also reduces risk, whichleads to a reduction in fraud
overall, which allows thesehighly skilled finance team
members to focus on moreproductive efforts to contribute
(16:22):
to the bottom line of anorganization.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Okay.
Well, let's turn to a subjectthat maybe doesn't get talked
about a lot, and that's howgetting payments right can lead
to better vendor relationships.
We haven't really discussedthat, so, heather, sticking with
you, how does AP automationtranslate into improved vendor
satisfaction and building thosestronger, trust-based
(16:45):
relationships?
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Well, I think for our clients who are paying vendors,
we're simplifying the processso they have ease in payment.
We're then looking at speed topay, which is really important
when you're negotiating terms.
If you're able to actuallydetermine when a payment arrives
, you're able to have strengthin the relationship, strength in
(17:08):
negotiations.
And then, of course, when we'regiving vendors the option to
receive payment however theylike.
Do they want to process ane-card?
Do they want to receive ane-check?
Do they want an ECH transaction?
Some vendors don't want toshare that bank information, but
if they're able to actually loginto the portal and provide
this in a safe environment, thenthey're actually able to
(17:30):
receive funds faster and moreefficient manner and also be
able to log in and verifypayments and look at the history
.
It's just all about creatingtransparency, meeting and
exceeding expectations in thoserelationships.
And, again, when you're able tolet the vendor really determine
how that payment is processed,it's just a win for our clients.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Okay, so, steve Heather, this has been a great
discussion so far.
Steve, if there's one keyinsight or piece of advice that
you want Treasury and financialleaders to take away from this
conversation, what would that be?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I mean from a business perspective.
I think the natural thing is tojust keep forging ahead.
Here's another paymentmethodology we might start to
use.
Some suppliers are looking forit, but if you just continue
down the way you've been going,the complexity continues to grow
.
And to take that step back andreally look at what you're doing
and why you're doing it, and isthere a way to make this more
(18:28):
efficient and manage your risk,whether it's the risk of fraud,
the risk of storing sensitiveinformation more effectively.
So that's really what I thinkis important for businesses to
do Look at the bigger pictureand where you'd like to get.
And then how do you get there?
Through solutions like Deluxeand others offer to the market.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Heather, same question for you.
What would your last piece ofadvice be to the audience?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
I get it, change is difficult and sometimes just
identifying a partner who hasthe experience, and sometimes
just identifying a partner whohas the experience, who's done
this time and time again, whocan help to alleviate some of
the stressors, to simplify theprocess, minimize the load on
the work, the work on the frontend, to help you to have a
better experience, and all ofthe things we've just talked
(19:15):
about.
Just know you don't have to goit alone, that we're here to
help.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Okay, great, steve Heather, thank you so much for
being on the show today.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so thank you for being
here today.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, thank you, Greg Pleasure.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Thank you, greg, and to all you listeners out there,
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Thank you for listening to today's episode.
If you'd like more informationon the transformative potential
of AI and automation in modernfinance, please visit
wwwdeluxecom.
Slash receivables hyphenmanagement.
Slash cash hyphen application.
Welcome to this special four-part series titled
Modern Finance, sponsored byDeluxe, where we explore the
future of financial automation.
From treasury to accountspayable and receivable, we're
diving into how AI andintelligent automation are
transforming every corner offinance.
In each episode, you'll hearfrom leaders at Deluxe who are
(00:23):
driving innovation anddelivering real-world results.
Whether you're navigatingcompliance, fighting fraud or
connecting the financial dots,this series is packed with
insights you won't want to miss.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Hello everyone and welcome to the Leaders in
Payments podcast.
I'm your host, greg Myers.
This episode is part of ourfour-part series titled Modern
Finance and is being brought toyou by Deluxe.
Four-part series titled ModernFinance and is being brought to
you by Deluxe.
We kicked off the series with afascinating episode with Yogesh
J Prakasam from Deluxe, wherewe discussed how AI is
influencing the paymentsecosystem and, specifically,
(00:55):
treasury management.
In the second episode, I spokewith Pat Moy about accounts
receivable automation.
Today, we'll be discussingaccounts payable automation with
two very special guests SteveBuchberger, who is the Executive
Director of Payables ProductManagement at Deluxe, and
Heather Daywood, paymentsIndustry and Treasury Management
Expert at Deluxe.
So, steve Heather, thank you somuch for being here and welcome
to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Thanks for having us.
Greg, Pleasure to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Thank you.
So, steve, let's start with you.
If you don't mind, tell ouraudience a little bit about
yourself, maybe where you grewup, where you went to school,
where you currently live, a fewthings like that.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Yeah, sure, I grew up in a small northwestern part of
the state in Wisconsin,marathon Wisconsin.
I still live in MarathonWisconsin.
I've made it as far south andactually I've lived in Wisconsin
all my life.
I made it as far south asMilwaukee.
At one point after college I'veactually.
I went to college and got mybachelor's degree in management
information systems, which is acombination of a computer degree
with a business emphasis andthen a master's in finance, both
(01:53):
through the inverse Wisconsinsystem.
So lots of Wisconsin.
I've worked in payments now for30 plus years and time flies
and been in the industry now forquite a long time.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
Okay, great.
Well, tell us about your roletoday at Deluxe.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Sure, I'm in charge of our payable solutions, so
helping any solutions that helpbusinesses make payments,
whether it's paying a supplier,consumer, so B2B, b2c.
I also manage our strategicpartnerships within our B2B
payments area.
So we have quite a fewcompanies that we partner with
that embed our solutions intheir technology and take it to
(02:30):
market as part of a broadersolution that they offer.
So I'm responsible for thosepartnerships as well as our
payable solutions overall.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Heather over to you Same question.
A little bit about yourself andthen also about your role there
at Deluxe.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
Sure, a little bit about yourself and then also
about your role there at Deluxe.
Sure, so I'm a Boston girl,born and raised in Boston and
moved 40 miles south of mychildhood home and now live in
Providence, rhode Island.
I like to say I like to be in,on or near the water at all
times.
I studied at the University ofMassachusetts for my undergrad
and then I did the executiveleadership program at Babson,
(03:04):
and I like to say that I grew upin banking.
So I spent the first 15 yearsor so of my career working in
banking, serving in the businessbanking and commercial banking
space, really focused onpayments and treasury, and then
moved on to RevCycle softwareand served the upstate market
(03:26):
where I was on the road prettyconstantly.
I called it an aging, fatteningand lonesome role.
I spent about 30 hours a weekbehind the wheel.
I'm delighted to have joinedDeluxe in the fall of 2024.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Okay, okay.
So the common theme is you bothwere born and moved a little
bit south.
I think that's what we got outof that.
Speaker 4 (03:45):
That's one of many things that Steve and I have in
common.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Okay, I'm sure we'll learn more throughout the
conversation.
So, Heather, just sticking withyou if you don't mind.
For those in the audience thatmay not know much about Deluxe,
could you kind of tell us aboutDeluxe, what you do and kind of
how Deluxe fits into thepayments ecosystem?
Speaker 4 (04:01):
Sure, to the payments ecosystem Sure.
So here at Deluxe, I work as adirector and then serving the
mid-market space, and we helpour clients with automated
payables, integrated receivables, and ultimately, what we do is
we help our clients to pay, getpaid and thrive.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Okay, so let's go ahead and dive into the topic at
hand, which is reallyrethinking accounts payable
through intelligent automation.
I know that's a mouthful, but Ithink we'll unpack that along
the way.
Steve, to set the stage, canyou describe what accounts
payable function typically lookslike, and maybe what size
companies or financialinstitutions that you most often
work with?
Speaker 3 (04:38):
A sweet spot for us is the mid-market business.
We do work with largecorporates and other size small
businesses as well, but in themid-market I think we find it's
a good mix, where there iscomplexity in the process but
also we're able to, in a fairlystraightforward way, help them
become more streamlined in theirpayables processes and so when
(05:00):
you think about payables overalland what businesses are doing,
it sounds pretty straightforward, right?
You have a supplier, they'vedone something for you, provided
a product, provided a service.
You owe them some money forthat service, so you're going to
make a payment.
Where the complexity is is justall the steps to that and the
different people that might beinvolved.
From you know, when you lookend to end, from invoice receipt
(05:23):
through the approval process tomake sure that invoice is
accurate, that the products andservices described have been
fulfilled, approving that andthen the fulfillment of the
payment.
And I think that area isgetting more complex too because
there are more payment optionsin the industry, different ways
the supplier needs to want toget paid and then ultimately
reconciling that payment throughyour system.
(05:45):
So it is a process thatbusinesses do all the time, but
I'd say the complexity there areareas of complexity.
There are areas of inefficiency,and mid-market is a good size
company where we can help themsolve that complexity with
solutions that we offer.
Financial institutions for usare really a channel I think is
(06:06):
the best way to look.
We have very strategicpartnerships with many financial
institutions.
In the case of our B2B payments, financial institutions really
serve as a way for us to get tomore businesses because they
have a trusted relationship withtheir business clients and
providing payment services forthem as a bank, and so Deluxe is
(06:29):
a technology services providerto financial institutions,
ultimately helps financialinstitutions in the types of
sophisticated payments productsthey provide and helping those
businesses solve their problems.
So really a good channel for usto get to more businesses and
extend our reach.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Heather Deluxe's research highlights that over
80% of businesses still usemanual or semi-manual AP
processes.
To still use manual orsemi-manual AP processes.
So why do you think so manyorganizations remain stuck in
kind of these outdated methods?
Obviously they're inefficient.
So why do you think they justcontinue to do that?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Well, I think that modern day finance teams have
highly skilled people inundatedwith manual processes working as
the frontline against fraud anddon't have enough time put
aside to be able to really focuson strategy and how they can
improve efficiencies, work in asafer, more efficient manner,
because they're in the trenches,really navigating on a daily
(07:31):
basis through the inundation ofpaperwork, touching paper
multiple times, going throughphysically handing people
documents for approval.
We have a kind of joke amongstsome friends and colleagues
talking about CFO Tuesdays,where we've got clients who have
CFOs working remotely but theycome into the office
(07:53):
specifically on a day of theweek to manually comb through
all of the ACH.
We've got again highly skilled,highly compensated employees
taking on the responsibility ofmanaging bank account
information for the vendors,going through the process of
identifying who they're talkingto, how do they verify whether
or not they are dealing with abusiness email compromise.
(08:15):
Through all of these dailyissues they don't have enough
time to kind of hit pause andreflect on how they can
implement some of the greatresources made available to them
today.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Okay, sounds like you know.
Getting unstuck from what youdo every day on a daily basis is
part of the challenge.
So, heather, we'll stick withyou.
What are the primaryoperational and compliance risks
that arise from these manualworkflows?
Speaker 4 (08:45):
like you mentioned, paper invoicing, check
processing and things like that.
So we have an incredible amountof human error.
There's human key error.
There's things that are delayedpayments maybe that are delayed
because of the manual processesand going through the invoicing
authorization process, maybegoing through the payment
approval process, so we've gotreputational risk with vendors.
(09:06):
Then we're dealing with checkfraud.
Checks are sent out in the mail.
There's so much fraud, theactivity that's happening around
that.
I used to say that financialfraud was a white collar crime.
Now it's an everyone crime andso there's risk there.
And then, of course, managingvendor bank account information
(09:27):
is a tremendous responsibilityand a huge burden on the
financial teams.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
All right.
Well, we've kind of level seton kind of who Deluxe works with
, the size of companies, the APfunction and obviously some of
the negative things that's goingon kind of in that space right
now.
So let's turn to how Deluxe ishelping with automation in this
space.
So Steve, talk a little bitabout Deluxe's AP automation
(09:53):
solutions.
And how does Deluxe identifythe critical pain points of
these merchants that maybe arestill doing things manually?
So how do your solutions, youknow, solve for those critical
pain points?
Speaker 3 (10:06):
If you look at, like I was saying before, that
there's multiple ways that youmay pay a supplier and there's
different reasons why you mightpay them one way or the other.
Whether you have their bankinginformation to do ACH, the
supplier may have a preferenceof how they want to get paid and
there are obviously new,different ways to pay some of
the real-time payment optionsthat are emerging.
(10:27):
And so a business, as we lookat these businesses, and if
they're just working off of kindof, I'd say, the legacy way of
doing things, they're oftengoing to different ways to make
those payments.
If it's ACH, there's a filethat they might be providing.
If it's a check, they might beprinting the checks themselves
and putting them in the mail.
If it's a wire, there's adifferent system that they can
(10:50):
go to to initiate a wire.
So each of those systems havetheir own processes.
Often it's outside of the ERPitself, so they're going to do
something outside of their ERP.
So where we really focused isreally helping the business work
within their ERP systems, likethe mid-market and the prevalent
ERP systems that they work with, and so trying to make it as
(11:10):
simple as possible.
So, really, what are they tryingto do?
They're trying to pay asupplier.
So really, what are they tryingto do?
They're trying to pay asupplier.
How they pay the supplier is alevel of complexity that we can
remove because the system, oursystem, can manage that.
So the business itself that'smaking the payment doesn't have
to do something different,depending on how they pay, and
they also don't have to be theone responsible for gathering
(11:33):
supplier information and storingsensitive banking information
and things like that withintheir systems.
That that can all be managedthrough a payable solution that
helps them to do that, and evenall the way to the
reconciliation that that paymentwas made the supplier and
getting that back into your ERP,so to be able to work from your
ERP system, do what you want todo in the most streamlined way
(11:57):
is really what we're striving toaccomplish with our customers.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Okay, so, steve, sticking with you.
In early August, deluxeacquired Checkmatch from JP
Morgan, which will help expandyour Deluxe payment network.
The announcement can be found,obviously, on the website, but a
few questions about it.
Why did Deluxe choose to do it,what does it mean for your
clients and how does it fit intoyour overall payment solution?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
So let me start by talking about what CheckMatch
does, and actually Deluxe had asimilar solution.
We call the Deluxe PaymentNetwork and it's focused on the
idea of when a business, oractually an aggregator, a
company that's printing andmailing a lot of checks on
behalf of many businesses, whenyou're printing the check and
sending it, it's often going toon the payee or the recipient
(12:45):
side, it's often going to alockbox.
A lockbox is a service forbusinesses that receive enough
payments in check that they'veautomated through lockbox
processing, enough payments incheck that they've automated
through lockbox processing, andit's an efficient way to process
those check payments and getthat cash applied for the
businesses that are receivingthose payments.
So in that ecosystem, a checkis being printed and mailed,
(13:08):
received by a lockbox, and thenit's being turned digital, it's
being imaged, and so what welook to do is to fit in the
middle of that and that's thesame thing that Checkmatch was
really working to solve and havea way to send a check, with any
associated remittance,digitally to the lockbox.
So, instead of going throughthe United States postal system,
(13:29):
we can deliver those checks ina much more secure and efficient
and cost-effective manner, andthe lockboxes are joining me
because it actually saves themlabor and time to receive those
check payments digitally.
So really, when you think aboutsending a check, there's some
risk inherent in terms of itgoes through the postal system
(13:50):
and it may take a varying degreeof time to get to the recipient
.
It may also have some risk ofbeing exposed during the postal
system.
It may also have some risk ofbeing exposed during the postal
system.
So these networks help to solvethat by being a much more
controlled time, faster, at alower cost and in a much more
secure way.
So both the locks and JPMCMorgan with their check match
(14:13):
application, we're buildingthese networks, signing up
lockbox providers to join andthrough the acquisition now we
are bringing these networkstogether and it's really about
scale.
So what it means is now we havemore lockbox suppliers using
lockboxes in our network, whichmeans we can get more checks
(14:34):
through this network moreefficiently as we combine the
two networks and that's going todrive value for all
participants.
The lockbox will get moredigital, which saves them labor
and time, and the partners we'reworking with that are sending
the checks will be able to routemore checks this way, more
secure, at a lower cost, moreefficiently.
So we're really excited aboutit.
(14:55):
We believe this can haveimportant impact on the industry
in terms of reducing checkfraud and the risk associated
with mailing check payments.
And we know there's still a lotof check payments because,
again, it is something that'singrained in many businesses'
systems the pay-by-check, andyou don't need to gather
sensitive banking information oranything like that to send
(15:16):
somebody a check.
You just need to know theiraddress and how much you owe
them and you can send a check.
So now we're allowingbusinesses to send checks more
efficiently, at a lower risk,when they do choose to send a
check.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
So Heather over to you.
So what are some of the metricsthat companies that adopt the
AP solutions from Deluxe, whatare some of the metrics that
they measure and where do theysee improvement?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
So speed and accuracy are ways that our clients are
measuring the benefits of usingour solutions.
We're able to take a singlefile transfer and we will
initiate payments on behalf ofour clients.
We are sending payments to thevendors, we're verifying who's
receiving the payments and we'regiving the vendors payee choice
(16:02):
.
So this improves the vendorrelationship.
It improves efficiencies andmanual processes are eliminated,
and also reduces risk, whichleads to a reduction in fraud
overall, which allows thesehighly skilled finance team
members to focus on moreproductive efforts to contribute
(16:22):
to the bottom line of anorganization.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Okay.
Well, let's turn to a subjectthat maybe doesn't get talked
about a lot, and that's howgetting payments right can lead
to better vendor relationships.
We haven't really discussedthat, so, heather, sticking with
you, how does AP automationtranslate into improved vendor
satisfaction and building thosestronger, trust-based
(16:45):
relationships?
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Well, I think for our clients who are paying vendors,
we're simplifying the processso they have ease in payment.
We're then looking at speed topay, which is really important
when you're negotiating terms.
If you're able to actuallydetermine when a payment arrives
, you're able to have strengthin the relationship, strength in
(17:08):
negotiations.
And then, of course, when we'regiving vendors the option to
receive payment however theylike.
Do they want to process ane-card?
Do they want to receive ane-check?
Do they want an ECH transaction?
Some vendors don't want toshare that bank information, but
if they're able to actually loginto the portal and provide
this in a safe environment, thenthey're actually able to
(17:30):
receive funds faster and moreefficient manner and also be
able to log in and verifypayments and look at the history
.
It's just all about creatingtransparency, meeting and
exceeding expectations in thoserelationships.
And, again, when you're able tolet the vendor really determine
how that payment is processed,it's just a win for our clients.
Speaker 2 (17:54):
Okay, so, steve Heather, this has been a great
discussion so far.
Steve, if there's one keyinsight or piece of advice that
you want Treasury and financialleaders to take away from this
conversation, what would that be?
Speaker 3 (18:08):
I mean from a business perspective.
I think the natural thing is tojust keep forging ahead.
Here's another paymentmethodology we might start to
use.
Some suppliers are looking forit, but if you just continue
down the way you've been going,the complexity continues to grow
.
And to take that step back andreally look at what you're doing
and why you're doing it, and isthere a way to make this more
(18:28):
efficient and manage your risk,whether it's the risk of fraud,
the risk of storing sensitiveinformation more effectively.
So that's really what I thinkis important for businesses to
do Look at the bigger pictureand where you'd like to get.
And then how do you get there?
Through solutions like Deluxeand others offer to the market.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Heather, same question for you.
What would your last piece ofadvice be to the audience?
Speaker 4 (18:54):
I get it, change is difficult and sometimes just
identifying a partner who hasthe experience, and sometimes
just identifying a partner whohas the experience, who's done
this time and time again, whocan help to alleviate some of
the stressors, to simplify theprocess, minimize the load on
the work, the work on the frontend, to help you to have a
better experience, and all ofthe things we've just talked
(19:15):
about.
Just know you don't have to goit alone, that we're here to
help.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Okay, great, steve Heather, thank you so much for
being on the show today.
I know your time is veryvaluable, so thank you for being
here today.
Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, thank you, Greg Pleasure.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
Thank you, greg, and to all you listeners out there,
I thank you for your time aswell, and until the next story.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Thank you for listening to today's episode.
If you'd like more informationon the transformative potential
of AI and automation in modernfinance, please visit
wwwdeluxecom.
Slash receivables hyphenmanagement.
Slash cash hyphen application.
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