A Payment Strategy is ‘Vital’ for Corporates – and it Starts with ACH

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A payments strategy is a deliberate approach to choosing the right payment methods, processes, technologies and controls while balancing cost, speed, risk, liquidity and the customer or supplier experience. Does your corporate have a payments strategy? If the answer is no, you likely need to rethink things. "A payment strategy for corporate practitioners right now is vital now more than ever," said Olivia Maciel, AAP, APRP, Nacha Senior Director, ACH Education and Corporate Outreach. "Simply documenting your organization's payment types, the platforms and tools your organization utilizes is just really not enough anymore."

Maciel told Nacha's Payments SmartCast podcast "it's no longer about just moving money"-stressing the need to make "strategic decisions" on factors including payment methods, processes to use those methods, technology, controls, and the customer experience.

So what makes a successful payment strategy? Lee Ann Perkins starts at the top of the alphabet with A, for ACH.

"A good payment strategy starts by asking what the payment needs to achieve and then choosing the payment method that fits … those needs. And that's why ACH is always a foundation for me," said Perkins, FCT, MBA, CTP (CD), Assistant Treasurer and Senior Director at Ankura Consulting Group. Increasingly, that includes Same Day ACH.

"There's many useful reason for Same Day ACH and I urge our listeners to think about the areas of their payments, their strategy and their uses, and then bring Same Day ACH into the process where it makes sense, because it absolutely needs to be an intentional use, but it's very helpful for companies as we go about our daily business," Perkins told the podcast.

On Sept. 17, 2027, the per payment limit for Same Day ACH will climb from $1 million to $10 million, something Maciel said will make Same Day ACH "more strategic."

"It creates opportunities for larger dollar tax concentration, market sweeps, disparate treasury funding activities," said Maciel. "In a modern payment strategy I think Same Day ACH makes more and more strategic sense."

Listen to the podcast below to hear from a corporate treasury practitioner on why a payments strategy is just as crucial as other enterprise strategies.