Why Smart CFOs Are Rethinking How Money Moves

B2B payments have evolved slowly because incentives were misaligned. Buyers prioritized cash control over speed, suppliers tolerated delays as the cost of doing business, and banks monetized complexity through fees and float.

As of 2024, roughly 40% of commercial transactions were still tied to checks. The day-to-day reality for many firms is one where invoices move slowly, reconciliations lag weeks behind transactions, and accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) teams focus on avoiding disruption rather than creating advantage.

But during a year’s worth of conversations with dozens of payments industry leaders for the PYMNTS original series “What’s Next In Payments,” a clear trendline emerged. The future of B2B payments isn’t being defined by any single technology or rail. Instead, it is being defined by a mindset shift. Payments are no longer passive endpoints in business processes; they are strategic instruments that shape how enterprises operate, compete and grow.

As organizations reassess their payments infrastructure, the most important questions are no longer about cost per transaction but about architectural flexibility, data intelligence and alignment with broader business goals. In a world where capital efficiency and operational resilience are paramount, payments have moved from the back office to the boardroom.

What’s next in B2B payments, then, is not merely faster money. It is smarter, more intentional money. It is payments designed to work as hard as the businesses that depend on them.

See also: Why CFOs Who Prioritize Cash Flow Improvements Start With Receivables Innovation

The End of Passive Payments Across B2B

Enterprises have increasingly come to expect payments to do more than settle obligations. They want embedded intelligence, including real-time status, automated reconciliation, dynamic payment terms, and data that feeds directly into treasury, procurement and forecasting systems.

“In the payments industry today, innovation is not a luxury; it’s a lifeline,” Nilesh Dusane, global head of institutional payments at AWS, told PYMNTS in July.

“Legacy infrastructure simply can’t keep up,” he added. “And the traditional model … those cycles are now too long and too costly.”

Globalized commerce, digital procurement and just-in-time supply chains have exposed the inefficiencies of legacy payment models, while new technologies have made those inefficiencies increasingly untenable.

“Digitized payments are intended to keep operations moving, even when markets aren’t,” Finexio CEO and founder Ernest Rolfson told PYMNTS in August.

“AP is now a frontline lever for liquidity and resilience,” he added.

B2B payments are increasingly being reclassified from an administrative cost to a lever for operational excellence.

“You can’t innovate your way out of uncertainty,” Geoff Brady, head of global trade and supply chain finance at Bank of America, told PYMNTS in July. “But if you’re smart about how you incorporate innovation into your risk framework, it becomes part of your process.”

Read also: How Strategic Mover CFOs Spent 2025 Solving Cash’s First-Mile Problem

Payments Emerge as Strategy for B2B CFOs, Not Afterthought

At the same time, the ongoing transformation of B2B payments has, traditionally, not been evenly distributed. Large enterprises with modern ERP systems and dedicated treasury teams can have an advantage.

“Many companies in the middle market struggle with unpaid invoices,” Boost Payment Solutions Chief Financial Officer Mariana Lamson told PYMNTS in July. “Sometimes as much as 30% go unresolved monthly. That’s not just an efficiency problem. It’s a business continuity risk.”

But nimble mid-market firms are often faster to adopt new models. As experts told PYMNTS this year, what is distinguishing the next generation of B2B payments from earlier iterations is integration. Working capital tools are no longer standalone finance products; they are embedded into procurement workflows, ERP systems and supplier portals.

“Payments are no longer a commodity,” Boost Payment Solutions Chief Revenue Officer Seth Goodman told PYMNTS in October. “They’re truly a strategic advantage when properly optimized.”

“Working capital is still the top priority for CFOs and treasurers,” he added.

This integration ensures that payment decisions reflect real-time operational data rather than static policies, aligning finance more closely with the realities of the business.

“Our biggest advantage is the depth and diversity of the payment data that we manage … having that consolidated into a single governed environment allows us to create actionable insights,” Boost Payment Solutions Chief Technology Officer Rinku Sharma told PYMNTS in December.

“All of the capabilities needed for a future-state Boost are reliant on having good data governance,” he added.

Generational changes play a key role in the B2B market’s shift, too.

“There’s a fundamental misalignment between the expectations of the younger generation and the reality of how things happen in the workplace,” Zachary Held of Boost Payment Solutions said in May. “…Forty-four percent of Gen Zers don’t even know how to write a check. At the same time, one-third of B2B payments are still made via check.”

Read also: How AI and Orchestration Rewired Cross-Border Payments in 2025

The Rise of Orchestration and Virtual Cards in Enterprise Payments

As payment options like ACH, wires, real-time payments, virtual cards and cross-border blockchain rails proliferate, the challenge for enterprises is no longer access but optimization. Choosing the right payment method for each transaction requires balancing cost, speed, risk and supplier preference. Doing this manually is impractical at scale.

“The really progressive companies are getting in front of [the transition to virtual cards],” WEX President of Corporate Payments Eric Frankovic told PYMNTS in April. “…They have to cut costs, they have to control costs, they have to keep a healthy supply chain.”

As Abhishek, global head of B2B Acceptance at Visa Commercial Solutions, told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in September, virtual cards can soothe some of the pain points that exist between buyers and suppliers.

Another defining trend in B2B payments is their migration into platforms. Marketplaces, vertical SaaS providers and procurement networks increasingly embed payments directly into their offerings, turning money movement into a native feature rather than an external dependency.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Platform Power: The Growing Importance of Embedded Finance to SMB Success” found that about 90% of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) said access to embedded finance is essential to their daily operations.

Ultimately, across 2025, competition shifted from who can process payments to who can enable outcomes like better cash flow, stronger supplier relationships, lower risk and clearer visibility.

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