B2B Payment Questions
Questions about which rails exist for an invoice, what each costs in structure rather than in quoted rate, and how to decide between them.
How business-to-business payments actually work: which rails exist, what each costs, and which fits which invoice.
What this category covers
This category covers which rails exist for an invoice, what each costs in structure rather than in quoted rate, and how to decide between them. The answers are written to give you the structure of the decision - what has to be true, who decides it, and what to get in writing - rather than a single number that stops being accurate the moment your volume or card mix changes.
Where an answer depends on your own account, it says so and points at the statement line that would tell you. A page cannot know your effective rate, and any page that claims to is guessing.
Why it matters operationally
Rail choice is usually worth more than rate negotiation, and it is the decision most B2B sellers never consciously make.
The cost of getting this wrong is rarely dramatic. It is a few basis points on every transaction, every month, which is exactly why it goes unexamined for years.
Where operators go wrong
- Treating B2B like retail with larger numbers, and inheriting a flat-rate processor as a result.
- Accepting cards on invoices where ACH would have cost a fraction, because nobody set a threshold.
0 questions in this category
This category is still being built out. We keep it linked from the questions hub, but hold it back from search listings until it carries at least 3 published answers — a page with nothing to list is not worth anybody's click.
What to read next
Read the pillar guide at /b2b-payment-processing, then run your own numbers with the savings calculator.
Related reading on this topic
The guides, analysis, state references and tools on this site that deal with the same subject as the questions above.