Why You Should Pay Your Suppliers On Time & How Instarem BizPay Can Help You Meet This Goal

It’s common knowledge that for any business to thrive (or even to survive), it needs the support and patronage of its customers. 

“The customer is a company’s raison d’être.” 

“The customer is the KING!” 

However, we often overlook the other critical element that keeps our business going – the suppliers. Almost every business purchases some kind of input material from a supplier and uses those inputs to produce something that they then sell to a customer. Where would a business be without its suppliers? Probably stuck between somewhere and nowhere! 

In early 2019, a global QuickBooks Study found that a majority of small businesses around the world (61%) struggled with cash flow problems. Furthermore, 2 out of 5 small business owners (42%) experienced cash flow issues in the previous year. The COVID-19 crisis has further aggravated these problems for small businesses.  

Instarem BizPay offers organisations an easy, quick and hassle-free way to make timely payments to suppliers, using their existing corporate credit cards.  

The Benefits of Paying Suppliers on Time

The best way for organisations to understand the benefits of paying suppliers on time is to put themselves in their suppliers’ shoes. 

This starts by asking how the organisation copes with late payments from customers. When customers extend their payment terms, it affects the firm’s cash flow, bottom line and many of their financial commitments.  

The same goes for vendors and suppliers. Firms that delay vendor payments or use them as a source of ‘finance’, struggle to keep them motivated and on-board for the long term. This will hurt their operations and ultimately, on their profitability. 

There are a few other reasons to pay suppliers on time: 

• To make suppliers keen to work with them. 
• To negotiate better deals and payment terms. 
• To promote meaningful relationships based on mutual trust and confidence. 
• To avoid interest charges on late payments. 
• To maintain their business reputation for fairness, honesty and financial robustness. 

All in all, not paying suppliers on time can strain organisations’ relationships with them. This can damage their financial position and even harm their market reputation. And that’s a very high price that no organisation can afford to pay.  

How Cash-Strapped Organisations Can Pay Their Suppliers with Instarem BizPay

Companies all over the world have been hit hard by the COVID-19 crisis. With many of them reeling under the effects of economic uncertainty, reduced demand and supply chain interruptions – dried-up cash flows are all too common. And these challenges are especially pronounced for small and medium businesses (SMBs) which have always struggled with short-term cash flow and debt exposure concerns. 

So how can businesses currently grappling with a cash crunch still make supplier payments, especially if getting an external loan (or credit) is not an option? If so, how? 

Instarem BizPay provides the answer. 

With Instarem BizPay, businesses can convert unused corporate credit card limits into cash flow for their business without paying any interest for up to 55 days*. They can use this cash flow to pay suppliers and vendors, including those who do not (or cannot) accept card payments.

And if these vendors are based in a different country (or countries), Instarem BizPay helps businesses make international payments while saving on expensive FX conversion and other fees (usually charged by banks for international transfers). Businesses and suppliers can negotiate mutually acceptable payment terms, and the former can make payments as per those terms. Instarem BizPay makes it all very easy. 

Here’s how Instarem BizPay works: 

Step 1: Sign up for a BizPay account and add a corporate credit card as your payment source.

Step 2: Fill out the recipient’s (i.e. vendor or supplier) information including their name, address, bill number, payment amount, direct deposit details, payment currency, etc. You can then charge the payment to your corporate card for funding.

Step 3: Instarem BizPay charges a small transaction fee and transfers the net payment amount to your beneficiary.

Step 4: You receive an email confirmation when your supplier gets their payment. The entire process is seamless, paperless and completely transparent. With Instarem BizPay, businesses can pay suppliers, vendors and contractors, pay salaries and bills, and even meet other business expenses – all by converting their unused corporate credit card limits into cash flows. 

Why Should Organisations Choose Instarem BizPay to Make Supplier Payments?

Firstly, Instarem BizPay enables businesses to boost their cash flow using existing resources, i.e. corporate credit cards. With COVID-19 forcing companies to curtail travel and business entertainment expenses,  Instarem BizPay provides a way to utilise corporate credit card limits optimally. 

Secondly, with Instarem BizPay, payments can be made to any corporate entity across multiple geographies. All a business needs to do is add their corporate credit card as a payment source, and Instarem BizPay will take care of the end-to-end transaction. It’s not only fast, but also cost-effective as businesses save on other fees that are usually associated with other credit solutions – particularly international ones – the benefits will outweigh these minimal costs in no time. 

What’s great is that suppliers can receive payments through Instarem BizPay even if they don’t accept credit card payments. They don’t even need to be ‘on-boarded’ to the Instarem BizPay platform as part of the payment process. Paying parties don’t have to fill out any bank application or wait for weeks to start using Instarem BizPay. All they need to do is sign up on Instarem BizPay once and complete their verification, and they can be up and running in just a few days. 

Another advantage of Instarem BizPay is that businesses can keep all the commercial benefits they already enjoy on their credit cards. So, membership rewards, cash rebates/discounts, redeemable points or air miles, etc. continue to accrue as usual. They won’t be affected by any payments made through Instarem BizPay. 

In short, Instarem BizPay provides a powerful yet user-friendly solution that benefits both organisations and their suppliers. The former can boost your cash flow and garner all the other advantages of making timely supplier payments, while the latter can get their monies on time and keep their operations going. These are crucial benefits that organisations should not ignore – especially in today’s challenging COVID world. 

For more information about Instarem BizPay, visit

SG: https://www.instarem.com/en-sg/business/

AU: https://www.instarem.com/en-au/business/

*55 days are indicative for reference purposes only. The actual number of days may vary as per the terms and conditions of an individual’s card issuing bank.