Paystand today released the Zero Card, an entirely touchless, prepaid alternative to corporate expense cards designed for mid-market businesses that need more flexibility and control over budgets and spending. With robust functionality to support several use cases across expense management, fund disbursement, and bulk card creation, the Zero Card is the most versatile ePayable ever made.

Using the Zero Card streamlines invoice processing, expense reporting, and payment execution, and allows businesses to manage, track, and control company spending in real-time. But unlike any corporate card on the market, the Zero Card leverages Paystand's zero-fee payment network to give businesses a fast, secure way to eliminate the cost of transaction fees.

"The Zero Card combines the consumer-like experience of peer-to-peer payments with the speed and security of Paystand's no-fee payment network, said Jeremy Almond, CEO of Paystand. "We completely re-engineered the corporate card so businesses can move away from reactive spend management tactics to a place where they have visibility of spend before it happens."

Virtual card adoption is expected to surpass $5 trillion in transaction value by 2025. With Paystand's significant presence in the Accounts Receivable (AR) space, the Zero Card will help expand the footprint of virtual cards by over 130,000 businesses.

New Level of Speed and Control For Company Spending

The Zero Card is a prepaid virtual expense card that employees can use to securely make purchases online and over the phone. From a transaction point-of-view, it works exactly the same way as physical cards, except it requires no credit checks and businesses can issue and deactivate these 16-digit card numbers in just a few clicks.

Using the Zero Card, finance teams get better control and visibility over company spending, Accounts Payable (AP) processes become simpler and more efficient, payment cycles become shorter, and all parties in a transaction are better protected against fraud. It also reduces exception processing and allows you to capture more transaction detail for faster reconciliation.

Highlights of the Paystand Zero Card include:

• Real-time expense management: Instantly provision cards, create cost centers, assign budgets, distribute funds, and use the dashboard to get a real-time view of company spending.
  

• No transaction fees: Activate in-network mode for unlimited free payments (0% + $0.00) over Paystand's network. Merchants are not charged any card processing fees when paid with a Zero Card.
  

• Fraud prevention controls: Manage spend by category, team, and merchant code to reduce risk of fraud.
  

• Unlimited metadata: Capture and add critical remittance information (metadata) to transactions in order to simplify expense reporting and reconciliations.

Bridging the Payables Gap for B2B Payments

Consumer payments have all but shifted to digital methods, but AP departments and B2B payment processes still remain dependent on paper-based practices that cause errors, weeks-long delays and cash flow challenges for mid-market businesses.

With the average payment cycle taking about 35 days to complete and 47% of invoices paid late, businesses need a faster, more efficient way to make payments and manage total company-wide spend.

"The current economy has sparked a dramatic focus on working capital. For payments to flow seamlessly, businesses need to move toward cashless digital systems," said Mitch Kitamura, Managing Director at DNX Ventures. "Paystand's Zero Card is a critical step for connected commerce and will help unlock cash flow for businesses and move the economy forward."

One of the biggest challenges in B2B payments today is that AP and AR don't share a common payment infrastructure. This leads to misaligned financial interests and creates a zero-sum mentality between payers (AP) and receivers (AR). Instead of optimizing the entire payment journey, technology and process improvements for one group often lead to inefficiency and friction for the other, as both sides are stuck with a system designed in neither's best interest. This imbalance forces companies to accept high-fees, lengthy payment delays, or for both to move money between bank accounts.

“B2B payments needs revolution, not evolution. It has a long way to go before it achieves the ease and speed of consumer payments," said Mark Fisher, Paystand's VP of Marketing. "The Zero Card is the only solution designed for both AP and AR. It natively connects these two groups, bridging the gap for B2B payments to deliver impact beyond cost savings."

Delivering Speed, Efficiency and Control in B2B Payments

Earlier this year, Paystand raised a $20 million Series B led by top-tier investors in order to scale its AR products and make it easier for businesses to collect and send money. As part of that, CEO Jeremy Almond made a commitment to expand Paystand's payment network and give businesses new, digital channels to make zero-fee payments.

Paystand is already delivering on that promise with 4x growth of its payments network and the launch of a next-generation automated payables solution. With the new features launched today, Paystand gives its partners unprecedented control over company spend. These industry-first features empower merchants to adapt to customer needs instead of their payment processor's limitations.

For questions about the Zero Card, how it works, or a demo of our automated payables solution, contact Mark Fisher at mfisher@paystand.com.

For media assets, download the Zero Card press kit.

About Paystand

Paystand is the fastest growing commercial payment platform for midsize and enterprise companies, with over 130,000 businesses transacting on its payment network. Today, companies use Paystand to drive greater capital efficiency, streamline back-office operations, and enable best-in-class payment experiences.

The company has been consistently recognized as a top innovator in enterprise financial services. Paystand’s customers and partners include JCB, Silicon Valley Bank, Bugaboo, eMDs, Covetrus, and Vast Bank while its payment network includes two of the largest airlines, eight of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies, all five branches of the US military, and market leaders across hospitality, insurance, and food and beverage.

For more information about Paystand, visit us at paystand.com. Follow our blog and connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn.