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Customize your internal payment processing needs with ‘Pay by Invoice’ at Amazon Business

No two businesses are alike. Each one has their own goals, internal policies and procedures. At Amazon Business we obsess around the differences in our customers, and how we can best support their internal procurement, reconciliation and payment teams to streamline their procure-to-pay processes. To do this, Amazon Business is helping innovate on behalf of its customers by offering a customizable invoicing payment method for businesses of all sizes and industries — Pay by Invoice.

Pay by Invoice allows eligible customers the option to buy now and pay later with payment terms and a purchasing line offered on Amazon Business.

Amazon Business believes a trusted invoicing experience enables worry-free purchasing — and we do this by making invoicing configurable, accessible and dependable for customers. Pay by Invoice provides Amazon Business customers access to millions of suppliers, with the convenience of using a single configurable invoicing solution to purchase. The vision of Pay by Invoice was to put businesses back in the driver’s seat. No need to change internal policies to work with a supplier or have separate negotiated terms with each individual supplier. With Pay by Invoice, the customer chooses what works for them.

Exactly how customizable can invoicing be for buyers? Pay by Invoice focuses on providing approved customers options to extend payment terms and tailoring the invoice format and delivery experience to ensure businesses can set up their invoicing account based on their needs. Businesses come in all different shapes and sizes, and Pay by Invoice understands that a standard out-of-the-box payment method cannot be one size fits all.

Pay by Invoice customizations can be mapped directly to how a business sets up and manages a supplier.

On-boarding Suppliers: Focus on purchasing needs, not supplier contracts
Rather than managing multiple supplier term contracts, Pay by Invoice allows business customers to benefit from a single net payment term with Amazon for items purchased across millions of sellers. This streamlined process allows businesses to focus on their purchasing needs rather than managing numerous supplier term contracts.

Establishing Payment Terms: Easily manage working capital and free up cash flow with net terms that work for customers
Pay by Invoice gives businesses more flexibility and control with their working capital with a standard net payment term of 30 days, available to all eligible customers. Many businesses have to conduct negotiations with their suppliers to attain longer payment terms that they require due to their own payment processing timelines or internal inventory management pipeline; however, Amazon Business makes it easy for customers. With a Business Prime membership, eligible customers can simply apply online for 45-day net terms with the Small and Medium Business Prime plans, or 60-day net terms with the Enterprise plan, subject to approval.

Receiving Invoices: Customized invoice set-up to align to customer processes, instead of customers changing their process to fit to a cookie-cutter payment method
Pay by Invoice allows customers to customize their invoicing access, delivery and bill-to addresses — in line with their organization structure and strict accounts payable and procurement processes or policies. Pay By Invoice (1) allows businesses to specify which purchasing groups should have invoicing available to them as a payment method and which groups should not have access to invoicing; (2) enables businesses who may have different locations or departments to receive invoices that display different bill-to addresses in order to process their payment; (3) provides customers an option to receive invoices at multiple and different email addresses if they have a need due to decentralized reconciliation or accounts payable departments that need to receive the invoices.

Reconciling Invoices: Simplify reconciliation with digital and itemized invoices
Businesses have different reconciliation processes, and receiving invoices in a specific digital format and/or with varying levels of detail can impact the time it takes to reconcile purchases prior to payment. With Pay by Invoice, customers can receive invoices in PDF format via email and/or in XML or EDI format via electronic messages through a system integration. In addition, invoices are itemized with purchasing detail, line-item tax detail, corresponding purchase order (PO) numbers, and even optional customer-defined fields such as cost centers or budget codes. The options of customized digital formats and line-item detail helps Amazon Business customers receive, reconcile and process their payments faster — resulting in lower costs and improved cash flow.

Managing Your Account: Simplify your reconciliation processes by managing your invoicing settings, viewing your account balances, downloading your invoices and generating reporting to track spend — online with your Amazon Business account.

Organizations can manage their end-to-end invoicing experience with their online account — and invite other users from the organization to have the same access, at their discretion. Customers can simply view their account and balances for quick reference or use additional tools to disburse refunds to their business bank account or build customized reporting to track spend and reconcile payments. Amazon Business has made it easy for customers to utilize their Pay by Invoice account in the way they choose.

To learn more about Pay by Invoice on Amazon Business, click here.

Yogita Mathur is a Senior Manager of Product Management for Amazon Business Payments.