Adflex and SAP Taulia Join Forces to Accelerate Virtual Card Payments

WHY THIS MATTERS
This partnership tackles a key bottleneck in virtual card adoption: operational friction on the supplier side. While virtual cards offer clear benefits—improved cash flow, security, and working capital flexibility—the manual processes required to accept and reconcile them have limited scale. By automating straight-through processing (STP), Adflex and SAP Taulia are addressing the “last mile” problem that has slowed broader adoption.

It also highlights a deeper trend in B2B payments: embedding finance directly into ERP and procurement workflows. As companies look to unlock liquidity and optimise working capital, automation and seamless integration—not just payment methods—are becoming the real differentiators. Reducing PCI-DSS scope is another major advantage, lowering compliance burden while improving efficiency.

Digital business payments specialist Adflex today announced a strategic partnership with SAP Taulia, a global fintech leader in working capital solutions. By integrating Adflex STP (Straight-Through-Processing), SAP Taulia can offer virtual card automation for suppliers, removing manual processes and reducing PCI-DSS scope. 

Virtual cards are a powerful working capital tool, but only if suppliers can process them efficiently. Often delivered via email or portal, they are managed individually, making the process slow and labour-intensive. Adflex STP automates card reading, eliminating manual entry and, in many cases, removing PCI-DSS compliance requirements. 

The partnership automates the last-mile delivery of ERP-embedded virtual cards from SAP Taulia, removing barriers to issuance and boosting supplier acceptance.

This comes as virtual card adoption continues to grow: over 90% of procurement leaders are using, planning to use, or are interested in using, virtual cards, and 85% in EMEA expect to assign more than a quarter of spend to them within two years. This surge is happening at a time when 72% of procurement professionals report increased demands on their function. 

Doug Anderson, senior product marketing manager at SAP Taulia, said: “Partnering with Adflex to automate virtual card payments in Europe is another significant milestone in our mission to help businesses everywhere thrive by unlocking liquidity trapped in supply chains. By removing manual processes for procurement leaders, we are helping them move faster, reduce friction and make better use of working capital.”

Andy Downman, Commercial Director at Adflex, added: “Virtual cards started as a secure, convenient way to handle low-value ad hoc spend, but are now widely used for high-value supplier payments, often as an additional line of credit, creating challenges of scale as businesses process thousands of cards one-by-one.

“Adflex STP automates end-to-end processing, enabling SAP Taulia customers to manage any volume of virtual cards – regardless of the issuing bank – while reducing the burden of PCI-DSS compliance. Together with our partners, we’re helping organisations accept and issue payments faster, driving stronger relationships and growth.”

FF NEWS TAKE
Virtual cards don’t have an adoption problem—they have a usability problem.

This partnership shows the fix: automation. By removing manual processing and compliance friction, Adflex and SAP Taulia are making virtual cards scalable for real-world B2B use.

As procurement and finance teams face growing pressure, the winners in B2B payments will be those who eliminate operational complexity—not just introduce new payment methods.