2013 Innovation Awards Nominee: Billtrust’s Invoice Central

Consumers have had access to time and money-saving bill aggregation sites for a number of years: Instead of writing individual checks to pay their bills, consumers can log in to a single website -? a bill aggregator -? and pay their bills online, taking advantage of a simpler, more convenient process. But until recently, small business owners who prefer to handle invoice receipt and bill paying online had to log onto multiple vendor sites -? each with its own platform and log-in protocol -? to receive and pay business invoices electronically. That all changed in 2012 when billing and payment industry leader Billtrust launched Invoice Central, an open business invoice network that gives companies a way to consolidate invoice receipt, payment processing and tracking on one user-friendly portal.

Available at no charge for small business payers, Invoice Central makes managing invoices and paying online fast and easy. Companies can now view invoices from participating vendors in a secure environment and make encrypted payments with one click. Instead of visiting multiple vendor sites and paying with paper checks, small businesses can manage all payables on a single site and pay electronically.

Small businesses can also schedule future payments and set payment reminders to avoid late fees, take advantage of early payment incentives and ensure that they experience no bill-related service disruptions. The ability to manage payables from one centralized portal helps companies stay better organized, and Invoice Central also allows businesses to view their complete invoice and payment history online, which delivers valuable operational insights.

Invoice Central already has a significant and growing vendor network that includes leading companies like PUMA, HD Supply, New Balance and Emerson Motor, and small business customers can indicate which of their vendors they want to start transacting with via Invoice Central. Along with the benefits Invoice Central provides to small businesses, it also delivers key efficiencies to participating vendors, including a reduction in paper costs and faster payment application.

Prior to the launch of Invoice Central, vendors and their small business customers had few good alternatives for electronic invoice management. Since many small business leaders use online bill paying platforms as consumers, enjoying the convenience a one-stop solution provides, there was definitely a demand for such a service in the small business sector, but it took an innovation by a respected industry leader like Billtrust to make it a reality.

Billtrust has earned a reputation as a trusted provider of comprehensive, next-generation outsourced billing services. The company processes invoices with an accounts receivable value of over $200 billion and has the infrastructure, security expertise and marketing resources in place to successfully launch Invoice Central. By showing extraordinary thought leadership in the small business invoice management space with the development and successful launch of Invoice Central, Billtrust has made a solid case to receive recognition for technology innovation.

Click here to see an in-progress list of nominees for the 2013 Innovation Awards.