The gap between promise and adoption
Pay-by-bank should be the simplest way to move money: Direct, low-cost, and instant. So why hasn’t every enterprise already switched?
For most organizations, the systems around pay-by-bank — not the payment itself — create the friction. Manual reconciliation, NACHA files, and vendor onboarding all reflect legacy processes that haven’t kept pace with technology.
The opportunity now isn’t to reinvent ACH, it’s to automate, orchestrate, and integrate it.
The inertia problem: “We already have ACH”
Finance teams often feel they already have pay-by-bank handled, but what they really have is a patchwork of spreadsheets, batch uploads, and delayed confirmations. That’s not automation, those are manual operations disguised as digital.
Let’s be clear, enterprises aren’t avoiding pay-by-bank, they’re avoiding the pain of maintaining it manually. Even with some level of automation for ACH transactions, there are still numerous pain points preventing organizations from taking advantage of a completely automated payments process. Those include these manual efforts:
- Reconciliation between systems (ERP ↔ bank)
- NACHA file generation and error handling
- Processing returns and reversals
- Payment exceptions and notifications of change (NOCs)
- Vendor onboarding (collecting and validating account details)
- Approval workflows and compliance checks
And there’s an additional wrinkle, the timing and (un)predictability of settlement. Finance and payments teams must juggle the effort in last mile processes with cash flow requirements and potential risk. This alone may lead teams to stay with existing — yet arduous — systems and workflows.
What modern pay-by-bank looks like
Modern pay-by-bank infrastructure changes the equation. Instead of juggling disconnected steps, every stage of the payment process works together.
ERP and bank reconciliation now happen automatically, enriched with remittance data that matches payments to invoices without manual effort. NACHA file handling disappears, replaced by direct API connections that validate payments in real time and eliminate upload errors. Returns and reversals no longer stall operations, they resolve automatically, with instant alerts and smart retry logic. Vendor onboarding is digital from the start, with account verification and compliance checks built directly into the workflow. Even settlement visibility improves, giving treasury predictable timing and accurate cash forecasting.
The technology to do all this isn’t new, the orchestration layer is. Entire workflows are now automated, seamless, and supported by intelligent systems that finally make pay-by-bank work the way it should.
The upside of moving past inertia
When pay-by-bank works seamlessly, the impact is immediate across the business. Operating costs fall as interchange and batch processing fees disappear. Working capital improves, with funds moving directly between accounts where there are no delays and no unnecessary holds.
Vendors and partners feel the difference too: Payments arrive quickly, predictably, and with full transparency. And with built-in validation at every step, compliance strengthens while fraud and error risks shrink.
It’s mindset shift: Consider pay-by-bank as a platform
Think beyond a system that is stitched together. Current pay-by-bank operations may only include the payment rails. The future of enterprise payments isn’t about which payment rail you use, but how intelligently it’s managed. When pay-by-bank is automated, integrated, and API-driven, it stops being a back-office burden and becomes a strategic advantage.
We’re entering the “second act” for pay-by-bank, one defined not by manual files and callbacks, but by seamless integration and intelligence. Enterprises that overcome inertia now will gain speed, cost efficiency, and control that legacy systems can’t match.
