In a world where companies are being pressured to do more with less, payments data is emerging as an underleveraged asset.

At least, that’s the case for those companies whose accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) functions can capture it.

“The real operational shift happens when card and virtual cards carry remittance data and when that flows directly into the ERPs,”  Marc Pettican, global head of corporate solutions at Mastercard, told PYMNTS.

Particularly in B2B environments, where complexity can obscure opportunities, the real transformation begins when organizations stop treating payments as manual endpoints and start treating them as foundational building blocks of smarter, more connected operations.

“The biggest unlock is moving from what I would classify as reactive reconciliation to proactive decisioning,” Pettican said. “At that point, reconciliation stops being the month-end cleanup exercise and becomes more continuous.”

The implication is one that’s becoming increasingly clear and attractive: payments should not introduce friction. They should help to dissolve it.

Unlocking Smarter B2B Payments Through Data and Automation

The enterprise push toward automated and data-driven decision-making is central to what Mastercard calls “adaptive commercial acceptance,” which represents a model where payment acceptance scales only when it is fully integrated into existing workflows.

“Cards ultimately stop being perceived as a cost and start being perceived as an operational enabler,” Pettican said, noting that, rather than focusing solely on fiscal cost, organizations should consider time saved, reductions in manual reconciliation, faster cash application and lower dispute volumes.

After all, in many cases, the gains of operationalizing card use for B2B payments can be significant. Finance teams can process higher volumes without adding headcount, while suppliers benefit from improved cash flow predictability and reduced administrative burden.

Still, when card conversations do come around to the economics, they increasingly look better than they perhaps ever have. Mastercard’s own research, cited by Pettican, indicated that 57% of suppliers that accept cards use services to automate transaction processing, while over one-third say card acceptance helps them with greater payment visibility.

For leadership teams seeking to operationalize these insights, a measured, incremental approach can prove beneficial compared to rip-and-replace initiatives. Rather than overhauling existing systems, organizations can build on their current data and technology foundations.

“Start with the existing data and technology that you have within the organization, because everything else depends on it,” Pettican said.

As organizations increasingly rely on data to modernize payments, security and trust become foundational to long-term success. Protecting sensitive information, maintaining strong controls and using data responsibly are critical to realizing the full value of automation. In an increasingly digital ecosystem, businesses that pair innovation with resilience will be best positioned to scale confidently.

Ignoring Smarter Payments Leaves Stronger Operations on the Table

Despite the promise of digitization, many organizations still struggle with fragmented data environments due to a persistent disconnect between payment data, remittance information and invoice records across B2B.

“The biggest break point occurs when payment data, the remittance data and invoice data are just not working together,” Pettican said.

The result is a paradox familiar to many finance leaders: more data, but less clarity.

The solution, Pettican suggested, often lies in standardization and direct system integration. Platforms like Mastercard’s Mastercard Receivables Manager aim to “unify the payment and the remittance data … and deliver that in a standardized format directly into the ERP platforms,” he said, reducing manual intervention and improving data consistency.

“Richer data replaces friction and replaces it with facts. When you’ve got invoice-level data shared alongside the payment, you can resolve faster,” Pettican said. “Commercial payments … deliver value when the business knows where that payment is, how it’s been settled, and how it will be reconciled.”

At the same time, API-led innovation is playing an increasingly important role in helping modernize commercial payments. As businesses look to connect fragmented finance, procurement and payment systems, standardized integrations can help reduce manual processes, improve interoperability and accelerate adoption of more efficient payment methods. Solutions such as Mastercard’s Commercial Connect API reflect the growing industry shift toward embedded, workflow-driven payments that meet businesses where they already operate.

After all, even digital payments can fail to deliver full value if they are not unified across systems. And as organizations continue to invest in automation, the quality and accessibility of a firm’s own payments data could prove to be critical in determining the effectiveness of downstream decisions.