By Andrew Jamison, CEO & Co-Founder of Extend.
Despite years of digital transformation, B2B payments remain stubbornly antiquated. Many companies still rely on outdated methods that haven’t evolved with the pace of modern business, creating unnecessary complexity, inefficiencies, and risk.
At a time when businesses are looking to move faster, close books sooner, and protect against rising fraud threats, legacy payment workflows stand in the way. Finance teams spend way too much time on manual processes. Sensitive account data is left exposed. Cash flow suffers due to delayed or fragmented payment cycles.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Virtual cards offer a path forward, enabling companies to manage payments with greater control, visibility, and efficiency—all while working within the banking and accounting systems teams already rely on.
For CPAs and accounting professionals, this presents a valuable opportunity: helping modernize payments without overhauling existing infrastructure.
By using virtual cards, finance leaders can play a pivotal role in reducing fraud exposure, simplifying reconciliation, and making smarter use of credit.
The problem with legacy B2B payments
For many organizations, the true cost of legacy payments is hiding in plain sight—tucked into inefficient workflows, limited controls, and growing security concerns.
Take checks for example, they continue to be widely used, yet offer little-to-no visibility once sent. There’s no real-time tracking and they expose sensitive bank account details with every transaction, making them a top target for fraud. In 2022 alone, business email compromise scams, many involving check or ACH fraud, cost U.S. companies $2.7 billion.
ACH payments, while more secure, aren’t a silver bullet. Delays in settlement, coupled with limited remittance data, often lead to reconciliation issues and strained cash flow. A mid-sized law firm, for example, may spend 15+ hours each month manually matching payments to invoices—delaying financial close and tying up staff with repetitive, low-value tasks.
Even corporate cards have their shortcomings. They’re typically not designed for granular controls, like issuing one-time cards to a specific vendor or capping spend by employee. As a result, businesses often limit who gets a credit card at all—forcing teams to share cards, which creates audit and compliance risks.
There’s also a financial toll: Manual invoice processing alone can cost $10 to $40 per invoice. And without modern spend controls, businesses miss out on valuable working capital strategies that could strengthen their bottom line.
How virtual cards solve these challenges
Virtual cards directly address these pain points—offering finance teams a way to enhance security, gain tighter control, and streamline operations without changing banks or overhauling accounting systems.
Security is one of the most immediate gains. Unlike checks or ACH transfers, which expose sensitive account information, virtual cards generate a unique number for each transaction and often include dynamic CVVs and short expiration dates. This dramatically limits exposure to fraud. In fact, industry research shows virtual cards reduce fraud risk by up to 85% compared to checks. Consider a healthcare provider frequently targeted by vendor impersonation scams—issuing unique virtual cards per vendor allows them to avoid sharing banking credentials altogether.
Control is another key advantage. Virtual cards can be configured with predefined spending limits, merchant restrictions, and expiration dates. A franchise owner, for instance, could issue auto-expiring cards to seasonal staff or location managers, ensuring spending stays within budget and timelines without the need for shared corporate cards or manual tracking.
Efficiency and reconciliation also benefit. Virtual cards incorporate rich metadata, like project codes or client tags, which sync with accounting platforms like QuickBooks or NetSuite. A construction firm, for example, could issue virtual cards to subcontractors with pre-approved budgets and project tags—eliminating invoice disputes and manual GL coding. Industry estimates say it takes 10–15 minutes to process an invoice on average. With automation through integrated virtual card and accounting platforms, that can drop to just 2–3 minutes—cutting reconciliation time by up to 75%.
Cash flow gets a boost. Businesses can retain their existing credit terms while earning 1–2% cash back on spend. For a company managing $5 million in annual vendor payments, that’s up to $50,000 in additional value that can be reinvested into the business, without ever having to switch banks or open a new line of credit.
Why finance teams—and banks—need this technology
Virtual cards are a win-win scenario for businesses and banks. Businesses gain access to the modern tools they need while banks can stay competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape. Rather than replacing traditional corporate cards, virtual cards build on top of them, bringing added control, automation, and security through a familiar foundation.
Many banks have already adopted this approach. All of the bank partners we work with, for instance, have expanded their offerings by layering virtual card capabilities onto existing commercial card programs—helping them retain and grow their small business client base.
This kind of flexibility is particularly valuable for community and regional banks. As expectations evolve, so do the stakes. According to research from PYMNTS and Mastercard, 60% of SMBs would consider switching banks for better digital tools. Offering virtual cards is a straightforward way for banks to meet that demand and hold onto the customer relationships they’ve spent decades building.
Whether you’re advising clients or managing finance functions in-house, this is a conversation worth having. Asking your bank about virtual card options can open the door to smarter, safer payment workflows. Platforms like Extend, among others, can also enable virtual card functionality without requiring a switch in banking relationships, giving businesses access to modern solutions while continuing to work with their existing bank partner.
The B2B payment gap—and how finance teams can close it
Payments remain one of the most overlooked levers for improving control, efficiency, and financial outcomes. Yet today, it’s one of the easiest to modernize thanks to virtual cards and expense management tools that work within your existing infrastructure.
In your next meeting, it’s worth asking a few simple questions:
- How much time is your team spending on payment errors or reconciliation?
- Are we earning anything back on vendor payments?
- Could a more secure payment method reduce fraud exposure or operational drag?
The future of B2B payments isn’t about ripping out what already works and starting from scratch. It’s about making the systems you already rely on work smarter.
Virtual cards are a logical step forward for finance teams ready to bring more security, control, and intelligence to the way money moves.
It’s time to embrace new technology and play a pivotal role in modernizing B2B payments.
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Andrew is the CEO and Co-Founder of Extend. Prior to starting Extend, Andrew was the head of B2B Corporate Payments Products at American Express with a mandate to drive digital payment innovation and adoption. Over the course of six years he doubled B2B payment volumes by launching and scaling new capabilities and platforms. Before American Express, Andrew spent eight years managing global SAP deployments for large multinational corporations.
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