Making Payment Status Visible: A Supplier-Side Playbook for Faster Cash and Fewer Chases
You send the invoice. Then you wait.
But you don’t know if the buyer received it.
You don’t know if it was accepted.
You don’t know when it will be paid.
So your team starts chasing.
Not because they want to, but because they have no other option.
This is the hidden cost of opacity in B2B payments:
- AR teams become detectives.
- Cash flow becomes guesswork.
- Trust erodes with every follow-up.
Why This Is Your Problem — Even If the Buyer Holds the Funds
In theory, the buyer should confirm receipt, flag issues, and pay on time.
In practice, they don’t.
- Invoices get buried in inboxes or portals.
- Approval chains stall without notice.
- Payment terms don’t start until the invoice is “accepted” — but no one tells you when that happens.
So unless you build visibility into the process, you’re flying blind.
And that blindness costs you time, money, and trust.
What Good Looks Like
A modern supplier payment experience includes:
- ✅ Delivery confirmation — You know the invoice landed.
- ✅ Acceptance status — You know it passed validation and is in the queue.
- ✅ Scheduled payment date — You know when the money is coming.
- ✅ Exception reason — If something’s wrong, you know what and how to fix it.
- ✅ One-click resolution — You can correct and resubmit without starting over.
This is operational hygiene.
What to Do Now — A 90-Day Supplier-Side Plan
1. Standardize your invoice payload
- Include machine-readable fields: invoice ID, PO number, currency, amount.
- Why: Removes ambiguity and enables automated matching.
2. Use tracked delivery channels
- Send invoices via platforms or links that confirm delivery and open status.
- Why: Email alone gives you zero visibility.
3. Surface buyer-side states
- Integrate with buyer portals or request status callbacks: “Received,” “Accepted,” “Scheduled.”
- Why: You need to know where the invoice is in their system — not just that you sent it.
4. Automate exception handling
- Map common errors (missing PO, wrong currency) to one-click fixes.
- Why: Most delays are fixable in seconds if surfaced clearly.
5. Incentivize structured remittance
- Offer faster settlement or fee discounts to buyers who include proper metadata.
- Why: Better data = faster reconciliation = faster cash.
Metrics to Track
| Metric | Target |
|---|---|
| % of invoices confirmed delivered within 1 hour | >85% |
| Median time from delivery to acceptance | <24 hours |
| % of accepted invoices with scheduled payment date | >60% |
| AR hours per 1,000 invoices | ↓ 50% from baseline |
| DSO reduction after pilot | 3–5 days |
Why This Matters Now
APAC and Africa are two of the fastest-growing B2B payments regions today, but growth without clarity creates drag.
If your payment process still runs on email threads and Excel, you’re not ready for the volume that’s already here.
Buyers are choosing suppliers who make it easy to pay.
Not just cheaper. Not just faster.
Easier.
If your invoice disappears into a black box, you lose control.
If you can see what’s happening — and act on it — you win.
Final Note
WDIR exists to make the way businesses pay each other radically simpler.
That starts with visibility.
Not just for buyers.
For you, the supplier who did the work and deserves to get paid without chasing ghosts.
Build the pipe. Surface the signal. Shorten the cycle.
Let’s make payments behave like infrastructure — not a scavenger hunt.
Contact us today!
