David Legg
It’s the same in every public sector organisation: the more efficient your back-office systems, the more you can spend on front-line services. And the way you manage payment processes and supplier relationships is a big part of that.
Depending on your organisation, you may have fixed outgoings such as road maintenance or hospital cleaning, along with inevitable one-offs, for example repairing damaged bus shelters or kitchen fires. Budgets can fluctuate, with government funds often boosted by grants, donations or settlements, making careful cash flow management essential.
Lloyds can provide commercial card solutions to support the challenges that public bodies and their vendors face regarding payments, and we put you in control.
eOptimise – payment as usual for non-card-accepting vendors
Public sector bodies often deal with organisations that cannot accept card payments. That’s where eOptimise can help. You can continue to enjoy the convenience and cash flow benefits of card payment, but your supplier will receive the funds in their usual way – whether that’s through Bacs, CHAPS or some other method.
Pay more promptly
eOptimise provides more scope to bring forward your payment terms from, say, 30 days to 15 or 10 days because of your credit arrangement with us. So, you can pay your suppliers earlier without harming your cash flow.
For smaller or more local suppliers in your community, this can provide a real social benefit by helping them maintain a healthy cash flow and avoid financial strain. With the government keen to reduce the payment delays that cause business failures, this is an ideal solution.
Quicker payment will also encourage suppliers to prioritise your organisation’s needs, ensuring a stable and secure supply chain – crucial where there is economic uncertainty or high demand. You may even have scope for a discussion around discounts or other benefits. This mutual benefit strengthens your relationship and could improve your cost efficiency.
Make one-off payments easily with ePay
Onboarding low volume or one-time suppliers can create additional costs. Our virtual card solution, ePay, resolves this issue by generating a single use set of card details for every one-off purchase.
Simpler, safer payments with Straight Through Processing
The traditional card model relies on the supplier to take the right amount on the right day. So, you can waste considerable time matching up payments involving differing amounts or dates.
Straight Through Processing (STP) solves this by using a payment service provider (PSP) that sits in the middle of the transaction, processes it and pushes the funds directly into the supplier’s merchant account.
The supplier needs to be card-accepting, but STP simplifies the process and reduces fraud because only the PSP sees the card details, eliminating the need for PCI DSS compliance.
With STP controlling the details of the payment, you’ll know how much it is and when it was sent so you’re completely in control of the flow of funds. And by reducing back-office paperwork you’ll have more resources available for front-line services.
The future
Lloyds continues to invest in the commercial card area, developing more sophisticated and customer-oriented solutions every year – solutions that provide benefits for both sides of every transaction.
There are more products in the pipeline that we'll be releasing in due course to create further integrations and additional efficiencies.
For more information on our range of commercial card services, visit lloydsbank.com/cardsolutions or email us at [email protected]
