American Express Co. AXP, +0.34% announced Thursday that it would work with Billtrust BTRS, +2.42% on automation related to business-to-business (B2B) payments. Through the collaboration, suppliers will be able to automate virtual card payments from their customers and obtain a “real-time view of their outstanding invoices and current cash flow,” Amex said in a release. The company sees the partnership as a way to “enable suppliers to streamline acceptance of American Express virtual cards,” the release noted. The collaboration aims to address needs that have popped up as more companies move toward electronic payments and away from “paper-based” methods for their business payments. “While this trend is helping to benefit business buyers and suppliers with faster payments and greater cash flow, it has left some suppliers in need of an automated accounts receivable solution that can keep up,” Colleen Taylor, American Express’s U.S. president for global merchant services said in the release.
