Coupa Unveils Vision to Transform Fragmented B2B Payments Process with New Coupa Pay Offering

Coupa Software (NASDAQ: COUP), a leader in business spend management (BSM), today unveiled its vision for a business-to-business (B2B) payments solution that aims to put an end to the complex, manual, and inefficient payment processes that companies currently use. Called Coupa Pay, this industry-first offering spans a set of payment and financing solutions that empowers businesses to spend smarter at every transactional step of their business spend management strategy.

Research shows that nearly one-in-four companies originate payments with eleven or more banks, and one-in-two companies make at least half of their B2B payments manually[1]. Add to that the fact that payment times to suppliers around the world are getting longer, and it’s clear that companies are in need of a more agile, modern, and efficient solution to manage payments.

“While we’ve seen innovation across many different payment rails, buyers and suppliers are still left with fragmented solutions that are inefficient, error-prone, and lack end-to-end visibility and control across all business spend,” said Ravi Thakur, senior vice president of Business Acceleration at Coupa. “Coupa Pay is a natural step in our journey to help companies spend smarter. It inherently offers a two-fold advantage. Our customers get value by extending payments as part of their overall business spend management strategy, and their suppliers get a more efficient and inclusive experience throughout the process.”

Coupa Virtual Cards for Purchase Orders

The first payments solution from Coupa is Coupa Virtual Cards, which bring more visibility and control into business spend. Finance departments often waste resources to reconcile payments for low-value, high-volume transactions and onboard suppliers to pay one-off transactions. To reduce the need for manual processing, Coupa Virtual Cards produce a unique, one-time-use credit card number for authorized suppliers that automatically reconciles credit card charges and statements to a purchase order (PO). Coupa Virtual Cards streamline the payment reconciliation process and make these low-value, high-volume payments both more efficient and secure for buyers and suppliers.

Coupa Virtual Cards is just the first of a number of different payment solutions that Coupa expects to be rolling out in the future.

Coupa Supply Chain Finance

The Coupa Supply Chain Finance (SCF) solution provides suppliers with access to third-party payment financing within Coupa, making it simpler for suppliers to get better rates and giving buyers additional flexibility to extend their payment terms. To get paid faster, suppliers today use multiple financing solutions that require multiple integrations, which are a hassle for both companies and their suppliers. Coupa SCF brings businesses, their suppliers, and financial institutions together on the Coupa BSM Platform to reduce complexity, offer a unified user experience, and consolidate reporting, while optimizing working capital and financing decisions.

Coupa SCF comes on the heels of Coupa Accelerate, which provides early payment discount solutions to buyers that want to pay suppliers early and receive greater returns on their cash investment. Coupa Accelerate leverages the Coupa BSM Platform to bring discount terms directly into the PO to capture terms flexibly and efficiently to optimize working capital.

“We’re excited about the vision that Coupa has set for Coupa Pay, said JR Miller, senior vice president finance and controller at Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. “We already have greater tracking, compliance, and management of our spend with Coupa’s current solution, and the ability to extend that same level of visibility and control into payments and financing puts us in an even greater position to focus on helping save the lives of the millions of people affected by blood cancer.”

To learn more about Coupa Pay, click here. To read more about how Coupa can help your company achieve greater visibility into its business spend, visit https://www.coupa.com/.