Payment service launched to help SMEs maintain healthy cashflow

Yorkshire-based B2B eCommerce and spend management firm Proactis has launched a new invoice payment service in a bid to help small businesses access funds and maintain a healthy cashflow.

The service, trading under the name of bePayd, enables small businesses to receive payment of their invoices within minutes of them being approved; a potentially welcomed solution by those facing financial uncertainty as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to escalate.

With larger organisations often only able to negotiate anything between 30- and 90-day payment terms, this will mean that smaller suppliers could receive payment weeks, possibly even months earlier than normal.

It works by offering suppliers of those businesses who opt-in to use the service the option to receive payment on their invoices almost immediately, in return for a small discount.

Funds are paid directly to the supplier by bePayd who then claim the full invoice amount from the service user under the usual invoice payment terms.

Ant Persse, Director of bePayd said: “Cashflow is an issue for all businesses – big and small – but by working together, we can help each other during these tough times.

“Never has the issue of timely invoice payments been more important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who are now facing unprecedented cashflow pressure on the back of the Covid-19 outbreak.

“While the Government works through the details of its various financial support proposals, these businesses require immediate support without the burden of taking on more debt.

“By signing up to bePayd, small businesses can get their cash faster, whilst big businesses take comfort in knowing they are doing everything they can to help their suppliers without any adverse effect on their own cashflow.”

Proactis officially launched the fully integrated service in February but after recognising that many small firms were becoming at risk of serious cashflow issues due to the current pandemic, they very swiftly simplified the bePayd process.

It can now be deployed with no meaningful effort from the large buyer and remotely without any physical interaction.

Ant added: “We realise that a complex IT integration process is the last thing that businesses need right now so we’ve created a way of getting businesses up and running straight away.”

Integration of the service will temporarily be offered free of charge so that those most reliant on timely invoice payments can access the cash they need to stay afloat.

Guy Battle, CEO of the Social Value Portal who identifies an organisation’s societal contribution said: “We are in a time of crisis and collaboration and working together has never been more important.

“Getting paid is vital to businesses even when things are good, but now it is absolutely critical. Solutions like bePayd exist to help with this”.

Proactis is now calling on other big businesses to take advantage of the free integration and support their suppliers during this time of need.