holy smokes, batman! best practices for becoming an … · the accounts payable &...

The Accounts Payable & Procure-To-Pay Conference & Expo is produced by:

HOLY SMOKES, BATMAN!

BEST PRACTICES FOR BECOMING AN

AP SUPERHERO

Meitra Aycock

Vice President,

Commercial Credit Product Management

Comdata


Agenda

• Optimizing your ePayables program

• Motivating your AP team

• Maintaining vendor compliance

• Who is Comdata?


What is an ePayables program?

Electronic payment solution that replaces checks with a

single-use,16-digit virtual credit card number

Benefits

• Eliminate cost/labor associated with checks

• Loaded with exact payment amount

• Reduce fraud

• Improve DSO and remittance advice


Be Part of the Whole Pie

General Guidelines for Success

Promote your program and the benefits of paperless pay

Incentivize

Educate

The Accounts Payable & Procure-To-Pay Conference & Expo is produced by: 5

Promote

• Brand your program

• Send card preference material while vendor is going through procurement

• Provide terms adjustments if they decide not to accept card

• Utilizing check stuffers as reminders

• Define an escalation path for vendors what call to opt out


Examples of Card Preference Materials


Incent • Incorporate into yearly or quarterly

performance goals

• Establish monthly or quarterly contests

• Movie tickets, gift cards, small bonuses

• Negotiate with vendor – “What will it

take for you to take credit card?”

• Lower fees (partner with a merchant ISO)

• Better terms

• Preferred status

• Proprietary Network

“We saved one of our produce

companies $75K a year

in merchant fees”


Educate

• Educate not only those in the field, but also vendors the benefits of virtual card

• Review every invoice in for potential card acceptance

• Utilize Purchasing card for those one-time vendors or for payments under $1,000

• Continuing education for program owner – make connections with your peers

and network

• Internal education and objection handling for business units and procurement

• Quantify programs’ value and share monthly reporting

• Use Peer Benchmarking Report to see how you compare to peers


Vendor Compliance

Do these issues resonate with you?

• “Vendor tells me I can only pay with card for transactions up to $5000”

• “My current contract with vendor doesn’t allow card as payment, but I know the vendor takes card from other customers”

• “The vendor tells me that they will take card but they will assess a 5% “convenience” fee”

Customer Feedback on an $840k invoice

“The vendor emailed and said they only took credit card payments for services not for equipment purchases. I told them per the contract they signed with MasterCard they could not pick and choose which invoices they accepted payment for, if they take it for one they have to take it for all. I started the conversation with a AR clerk and ended up with the VP of Finance for Holt Cat before they said I was right and ran the payment. What we made in rebates from that one transaction more than paid for our trip! ” <to the Exchange>


MasterCard Surcharge Rules 5.11.2

Merchant may impose a surcharge on MasterCard credit card (not debit or prepaid cards). Surcharge value must be disclosed at Point of Interactions (POS or invoice) and must be presented separately within transaction record.

Surcharge can take effect at multiple levels (Surcharge cap is 4%)

• Brand level (i.e., MasterCard level): cannot exceed discount rate

• Product level: Certain type or types of MasterCard cannot exceed surcharge rate cap (Merchant Discount less Durbin cap)

Surcharge can only be applied in states that allow surcharging (disallowed in 10 states), and MasterCard must be notified by merchant at least 30 days in advance of its intent to surcharge.

Merchant must register with MasterCard and provide written notification 30 days in advance of surcharge disclosure.


Transaction Surcharging Know Your Rights

Merchant registrations since January 2013:

• 1,486 locations in the US are registered

• 7.9 million total merchant locations in the US

If a merchant indicates they will apply a surcharge, we recommend the following actions:

• Ask the vendor if they’ve registered to surcharge

• Refer them to MC Rules (5.11.2): https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/merchants/get-support/merchant-surcharge-rules.html

• Contact your issuer’s Vendor Enrollment team so they can validate vendor’s registration status with MasterCard.

https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/merchants/get-support/merchant-surcharge-rules.html










Honor All Cards MasterCard Rule 5.10.1

“A Merchant must honor all valid Cards without discrimination when properly presented for payment. A Merchant must maintain a policy that does not discriminate among customers

seeking to make purchases with a Card.”

“A Merchant must not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or maximum Transaction amount to accept a properly presented MasterCard or Maestro Card.”

MasterCard Rule 5.11.3

Honor All Cards issues manifest in a number of scenarios in the Commercial Card space:

• Merchants refusing to accept virtual cards

• Not taking payments from some cardholders due to specific contract pricing

• Only taking payment for certain transaction values and not others

Taking cards at the point of sale and not via ecommerce is a non-violation as a merchant can choose to take cards in-store only.


Technology, Not Treasury

Technology Developer

Transaction Processor

Data Manager

Network Owner

Solely Focused on Payments We focus all R&D and innovation on creating better payment technology and services

Bank Agnostic Maintain flexibility in treasury relationships without interrupting your card programs

Unique in the Market No other provider has the comprehensive suite of solutions and in-house capabilities as Comdata.

We Build Programs We have a consultative model designed to build world-class programs

Commercial Card Issuer


What Makes Comdata’s Virtual Payments Different?

Comdata is outgrowing the virtual account market by nearly 3x

PayForYou

Merchant Credit Card Acceptance Program

Treasury Agnostic

Vendor Enrollment

Monthly Rebates

ComdataDirect CTX 820 Files

Best-in-Class Implementation

ERP Integration


Q A Questions & Answers

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