2026 Predictions: Using B2B Payments as a Strategic Lever for Growth

Clint Sears speaks with Martha Salinas, Chief Commercial Officer, and Inez Berkhof, Managing Director EMEA, to unpack TreviPay’s 2026 predictions for B2B invoicing and payments. They discuss why payments are becoming core finance infrastructure that powers smoother buyer experiences, stronger controls, and new opportunities to differentiate. The episode also explores how AI will reshape credit, personalization, fraud prevention, and how enterprises can turn regional compliance complexity into a scalable advantage worldwide.

Transcript

Speaker: 1:00:00

(Music) Thanks everyone for joining us today. SoI'm Clint Sears and we recently put together our 2026 predictions for B2B payments and we had experts inside and outside of TreviPay give their best efforts to try and figure out what's coming in the near future in 2026, and we thought it would be great to bring two of our biggest experts in the house with us today to break down a little bit about what we learned and just expand more on their own thoughts on the subject. I'll have our guests introduce themselves. Sure, Clint. Thank you for having me. So my name is Inez Berkhof. I head up TreviPay in the MAIA. That basically means that I'm responsible for all our clients in the MAIA region and help them grow their business. Awesome. Yeah, Martha. Hi, Clint and Ines. I'm Martha Salinas. I am the Chief Commercial Officer at TreviPay, and my team and I are responsible for all of our clients around the world. It's great to be here with both of you. Awesome. Yeah. So we'll dig in further and get into the details, but I think it'd just be easy to go over top level stuff. So basically, the big question, what trends do you guys foresee in B2B invoicing and payments by 2026 for yourself? We're trying to be polite with each other. No, I'm not. I'm not. Martha, he knows. So yeah, Martha, do you want to jump in and feel free to talk over each other and scream at each other, and we'll work it out. Well, I don't know if we're going to scream at each other. I like each other, so let's try to be nice about it. Yeah, I am very excited about 2026, because I see several things coming that I am excited about that I think are going to make, especially the relationship with our clients, even more powerful. I don't know how you feel about this in us, but very excited about it. I think I see three pillars of things that are beginning to happen in 2025 and that have been kind of like percolating the last few years and that are going to be even more important in 2026. So one is in the finance becoming more part of the infrastructure. And let me tell you what I mean by that. I think that throughout the years, the last couple of years, payments were an important function of what the finance teams were doing and even what the sales teams were doing. But it was kind of an additional feature, if that makes sense. It was just one more module in what embedded finance met. And I think that payments are becoming more and more a foundational layer of everything that happens in finance. So reconciliation, terms, just everything that has to do with payments. And it's basically to create a frictionless experience, not only for the finance team, but also for the buyers and the people they're serving. And I'm very excited about that because it's not only what happens with the finance team, but it's also what happens even at the point of sale. And I think that even the point of sale was seen as kind of separate from the order to cash process very much, I think, in 2026. It's going to become the only channel solution of embedded payments. And then, unfortunately, I also think that fraud is going to be a big topic, especially tied to AI. And yeah, all of this means that payments become a strategic lever, not only for efficiency, but also for growth as we think about how to take care of the buyer. And I'll stop there because I know Ines is going to have many more intelligent things to say. No, no, I can only build on what you just said, Martha. And the way I think about it is let me back up a step for a second because payments, to your point, used to be a separate feature from my perspective, from a European perspective. Payments is related to invoicing. And that is probably fueled by regulatory things that are happening in Europe. But what's more, I think there's today more emphasis and awareness by both commercial teams and finance teams that having a robust invoicing and payments strategy, let's say, gives you the opportunity to distinguish yourselves. It gives you the competitive edge in the marketplace. Because if you figure it out well, then your buyers will probably come more natural to you, will start to come back and spend over and over again, because you make their lives easy. So that's what I'm sensing in Europe. There's a lot of emphasis on regulatory stuff. But it combines the invoicing and the payments together. And it's all about how can we figure it out such that the buyer benefits basically from the pain going that regulation brings. But in the end, as a B2B seller, if you do figure it out and you have that competitive edge, obviously, you have your front row in the competitive game, let's say, in the marketplace. So that's what I'm seeing. There's a lot of buzz around compliance. And how can we make it a competitive advantage to figure that out? Perfect. And so, yeah, that kind of keys up a follow-up for me. As we take care of our buyers, and we're seeing this as a strategic lever for efficiency and growth, how do we take care of the global enterprise companies? And how can a company like TrieriPay really handle that as compliance becomes a bigger issue? A very good question, Clint. I guess even more so for large enterprise sellers and buyers. This is front and center in their strategy and in their minds, because, obviously, regulation has an impact. And the bigger you are as a company, the more impact it has, and the more robust you have to think about strategy. And that goes not only for the seller, but also for the buyer, because you probably receive more invoices. You have to make more payments and stuff like that. So I think the impact, predominantly, on enterprise sellers and buyers is the-- how do I say that? The way companies are thinking about, OK, how can I make my life easy from an invoicing perspective? How can I do it such that it's standardized on the seller side, but not too rigid? Because if I've got an enterprise buyer who likes or needs customization, again, I want to have a competitive edge. I want to be able to adjust, let's say, my invoicing process in a way that the buyer actually can handle and brush that invoice in a smooth way, doing all the checks and balances that large enterprise buyers typically do, offering the opportunity to simply manage disputes and stuff like that. So I think at the enterprise level, there's even more pain. I don't know if pain is the right word here, but definitely consideration about how to do this right. Because, yeah, like I said, if the strategy is done well, then the impact will be big, both for the enterprise center as well as for the enterprise buyer. There's a lot at stake, in my opinion. Yeah, Ines, if I can add to what you're saying, but it's also very much about customer segmentation. I think that that's something that offered, I think, especially sellers forget a little bit. I don't want to say forget that it's-- people don't realize the importance of customer segmentation. Because when it comes to payments, one size doesn't fit all. And absolutely, it doesn't matter how efficient and great your processes are. If you don't think a little deeper about customer segmentation, you're not going to be able to take care of the needs of your customers. And I'll give you an example. When you talk about an SMB, I mean, what they want is fast install approval, just like zero touch. The ECS is the most efficient. But when it comes to the large global enterprise buyers that you're asking about, Clint, they have very complex processes. And it's because they need controls. They need capabilities that SMB customer is not going to meet. And then even them, because they have developed those processes, the enterprise global buyers, they're all a little different. So even within that, the processes are a little different. So to a necessity point, you need to make sure that your processes are flexible and smart enough and can be configured well enough to be able to take care of the buyers that need PIO processes or that need purchasing controls and are not able to buy certain products with certain card. And all of this complexity that if you have a super efficient process that it's treating all your buyers the same, then you're not going to be able to take care of anybody well. Absolutely. Yeah. There's so many variables that it's sometimes surprising that people would take care of this themselves to me. And so not to toot around horns, but why not go to the expert second scales large as you need and as small as you need to handle all these different variables. Speaking of scale, it wouldn't be 2,026 predictions without talking about the thing that we just can't stop talking about even if we want to and we're tired of it. But I think there are interesting angles here when we bring up AI into this experience and how AI can help us scale and things like that. Martha, you already started, so I'm going to kick it to you after this. But you already started talking about, I think everything we're seeing, I've certainly looked into this myself. And it can be kind of scary at times, but I know that the right people are in front of it. But AI can be used for fraud. And we think that it's going to down the road. But what are some of the other ways that we can see AI starting to shape the world of payments as far as credit risk and personalized payment experiences and that scale that we were talking about? And Martha, do you want to kick it off a little more about fraud too? Yeah, I mean, the truth is that frauds are using AI, right? And they're using it really well. So that means that companies need to keep up, right? The good guys need to make sure that we keep up. And really, the only way to keep up is by using AI ourselves. It's just not sustainable to think that the processes that we've had in the past before AI became as popular as it is today and as easy to use worked, right? So we just need to make sure that companies keep up with that. And really, it's like every day, they get more and more clever, right? Some of the issues we've had to deal with are just really fascinating about everything in personation, right? And just, I don't know, I can't go on and on. And the only way companies are going to be able to keep up is by using AI themselves to be able to handle that. But on the other hand, AI also has some positive kind of applications that I am very excited about, especially because I'm on the commercial side. And I feel like AI is-- I don't feel-- I think AI is incredibly powerful in terms of customization and in terms of really getting to know your customers and being able to take care of the needs of your customers. I mean, I was talking before about the kind of the different variables and the different needs of different customer segments. Well, AI is incredibly powerful tool to be able to take care of your customers and also offer solutions that are even more innovative, like dynamic pricing, dynamic terms, be able to use the infrastructure that you have already placed to be able to-- for this particular transaction, you're going to allow these terms for this customer. Or for this particular transaction, you're going to be able to have purchasing controls that are a little tighter and more controlled than for this other transaction that is less important. So AI is a very, very powerful tool to not only create efficiencies, but also meet the customer where their needs are and then being able to use payments as strategic growth lever because of all that infrastructure and all that configuration that you can put throughout the order to cash process, including, again, the point of sale. So I'm very excited about AI. And to a certain degree, I think people are very scared about AI. I think we should be because it's so powerful, especially when bad people use it. But on the other hand, I think that to a certain degree, because it's replacing inefficient processes and obstacles that we had before, I have this hope that it's going to help us become a little more human, that I'm going to be able to spend a little bit more time, develop relationships, and thinking about having a more robust conversation. We see it, for example, with our customer service reps. In the past, it was more about, how many minutes do you stay on the telephone? And now, because AI is taking care of the basic issues, now our customer service reps can develop a deeper relationship with the buyers and the centers that are calling them. And I think that's the future, hopefully. I mean, it's more optimistic. It's more about being able to be more human because of the efficiencies that are being created. I agree with you, Martha, because I think the way we see AI, it might not be the same as any other company. I think we see AI as a supporting method, let's say, to augment our service and the personal touch that is now enriched and gives a different dimension, let's say, to the relationships, to your point, that we're building with the customers of our client. I think that's the power of AI in our world. But not only that, I mean, if you think about it, the AI obviously thrives on data. We sit on a ton of data of our clients, be it payment behavior or spend data. So we leverage AI, and I think this is really the future for AI, at least for a financial technology company such as ours, which is where do you use it to be smarter in your decision-making process, be it on the underwriting side and the fraud side. But not only that, leverage machine learning also to learn more about, let's say, the spend behavior of your buyers. And in fact, I mean, I'm bragging here a little bit, but our team, our product team has figured out a way to predict dormancy with customers. Isn't that cool that based on data that we have in our systems, we can now predict to a really high percentage. I think it's 88% or 89% likelihood that an account can go dormant based on the data that we have. That is beautiful information and very, very important information that we provide to our clients. And they can then obviously, from the commercial side, pick that up and address that in campaigns or in personal outreaches. There's so much that AI can do on the commercial side as well. So I'm super excited about what AI does for us and for our clients in the future, absolutely. I agree. And I think that what we're seeing, to your point, and that example of dormancy is almost magical, right? It's allowing us to be less reactive and more proactive. And it's very powerful. To Ines's point, the product that the service, that the product team created about dormancy, like in the past, we always had to do it after the fact. I thought this customer stop buying, what happened. But now it's like, through AI and data analytics, we can prevent it, if that makes sense, which is a powerful tool for our customers. And it's, again, turning payments into a strategic growth lever. So very powerful. And being less reactive and more proactive. And the same thing for the finance teams, right? It's being able to predict cash flow a little bit more or late payments a little bit more. What late payments mean in terms of a buyer that is having financial problems that we can get ahead of. So it's very powerful. Yes. And we're starting to breach this. But how about credit decisions and compliance in AI? I know you guys both have thoughts on that. Yeah. I mean, well, we've touched on it before. I think it's a no-brainer that AI has sort of another dimension to credit checks and compliance checks. I mean, we can't obviously reveal the secret sauce of traffic pay, right? But we are leveraging the data, machine learning, and AI a lot every day in how we manage. I think our credit team is leveraging 92 data points of a single account when we underwrite. That's impossible to do manually. That's impossible, right? So you can only do that if you make use of machine learning tools and AI. And it enriches the process because the most traditional way probably in a business environment, and especially if you think about offering terms or trade credit, if you go to a credit bureau and you use that information, it's quite static. But there's so much more that you can and should be leveraging and using when you think about credit checks and compliance checks. And it's not only for credit worthiness, but it's also for AML, right, KYC. So those checks are super important as well. You want to make sure that if you sell your product, that you sell it to the company that's, I don't know, for example, not in a sanctions country or doesn't have any subsidiaries in a sanctions country or whatever. That's a massive undertaking if you need to do those checks manually, right? And those are quite simple examples, but those are the ones that we leverage a lot. But then if you think about from a European perspective, compliance on the invoicing side as well, right? I mean, making sure that the invoice that you send out is compliant, right? For example, with regards to invoice mandate, but also tax compliance is important. And then on the buyer side, there's compliance as well, right? The receiving end of an invoice today in Europe also has its processes and doing those checks, whether it's not a fraudulent invoice, whether it has the proper PO on it, whether it has all the bells and whistles, let's say, for it to be a manageable invoice, that probably requires more technology rather than manual checks. So the more finesse and the more intelligence that you can add to that, the higher the likelihood that you have a correct invoice, which is good for the seller because if the seller knows or has a compliant invoice, the likelihood of that invoice getting paid on time is obviously increasing. And also on the buyer side, if the buyer knows that the invoice is compliant and there's no hiccups to be expected, then they can process it smoothly. Probably it lowers the number of disputes as well, right? Which is a better customer experience as well. So yeah, there's so much on the invoice compliance as well that has a risk, probably a mitigating effect, as well as a customer experience effect, in my opinion. Absolutely. And sorry, Martha, go ahead. Yeah, to add to what Ines is saying, what I also find fascinating is the power of the data that AI allows you to leverage, right? Like Ines is saying, 92 points, right? But how do you compile all the data, right, that you get externally and internally as well? And we're very lucky at TreviPay because we'll be doing this for more than 40 years. So we have all this amazing global data from the verticals in which we operate. And so AI has allowed us-- and we started many, many years ago with machine learning. But now AI has allowed us to leverage all that data that we've been gathering for how many years, and then enhance it with all these other data sources globally to be able to make even better credit decisions and be able to make them faster to Ines support. So it's just so powerful, right, to be able to combine both to offer better services to our clients. Absolutely. And you guys have both teed us up great for the next question, which is, as Ines has clearly proven, Europe leads on compliance and invoicing mandates. And then, well, in North America, we focus on embedded finance. How do these regional priorities influence global strategies? Ines, you and I talk about this so much, right, Ines? I'm going to let you handle the first one because you are in Europe working with global companies. I would love for you to start Ines, and then I'll add on. It's one of my favorite topics, Ines. It is. And Glynth, I would say, the one does not exclude the other. I mean, in Europe, obviously, we do have to do with those regulatory things, and that is front and center for European companies. But if you think about American companies-- and we do, in fact, have quite a few American clients that want to expand into Europe and have expanded successfully in Europe, but now need to start thinking about, oh, my gosh, that regulatory environment is a bit alien to them. And how do I deal with that? On one end, in Europe, it's front and center because we live with it every day. We're very familiar with it, and we're finding the right solutions for it. But if you're a global company and you're headquartered in the US, or even in the UK, for that matter, then you have to deal with the same thing. It's no different. And then I would say, I guess companies should think about this more from a platform technology perspective, because what you really want to do is do things at scale. And unfortunately, Europe is not one country. Europe is 27 different countries. So that potentially has 27 different ways of interpreting EU legislation, for example, because EU has directives, which is great, but it leaves a lot of freedom to the individual countries to implement those, which we, by the way, see on the invoice mandates side, for example. So there's regulation that's called VEDA, which basically says by 2030, there needs to be a more generic way of handling E-invoices. But until then, companies get the opportunity to fill that in as they wish. So OK, now you're a company in-- doesn't really matter which country. You want to operate in one of those countries in Europe, and you have to deal with the regulation. And the regulation is different. So you deal with regulation in Germany. That's totally different than regulation in France. So now, think about the American company. They come overseas and want to do business in Europe. Same thing, right? If they decide we expand into Europe, that doesn't mean we do one trick. No, it basically means you have to do tricks for every country to be compliant, right? So yeah, the strategy, to come back to your question, Kline, should be, how do I find a solution that is scalable and that's easy to deploy in different countries so that you can pivot quickly? Because I think speed is also something that distinguishes companies, right? If you are able to figure it out quickly, you can move ahead and take advantage of the commercial opportunities, right? If you need more time to figure it out, probably your competitor will be ahead of you. So yeah, that strategy is important. And finding a solution that is scalable and can make you move and pivot quickly, I think is important. I don't know, Martha, go ahead. Yeah, and to Ines's point, it's not only regulatory compliance. I mean, there's so many little idiosyncrasies when you are a global company, right? I mean, it's currency conversions, languages, and even cultural issues. Like, for example, in France, right, most of the time, you cannot do 30-day terms, right? There needs to be 45-day terms at least. And so if you are a global company, the best you can do is leverage, you know, efficient global processes that can be implemented in any country, but at the same time, like handle the idiosyncrasies and the compliance and all the other things that are particular to each country. And if you come from the US perspective, sometimes that's a little difficult to understand because we are such a huge country, right? There's little idiosyncrasies, right? Like, California tends to be a little more complicated because there's more rules in California. But in general, it's just one massive country, right? But then when you go to, like, Latin America, when you go to Europe, or when you go to even Australia, it's completely different. And you need to make sure that you have the infrastructure, including bank accounts, including people that understand how to do business in those countries, while at the same time leveraging, you know, the great tools that have been implemented and that have been there for a long time. So it's a balance, right? And that's someone that you and I talk about constantly because to be able to grow and to really be effective, you need to make sure that you are adapting, not only to the regulatory environment, but also to the culture, the customs and all the other idiosyncrasies that if you don't, you're not going to be successful. Great. And I have no doubt that you guys will be able to answer it so easily. But you're advising a CFO today, what actions should they take to future-proof invoicing and payment process for the next three years? And I know we don't have crystal balls to know exactly what's going to happen, but what are the main things that we tell them to do? I think I can start in us. I think don't think of payments as a back office function. Think of payments as a strategic growth lever. Think about customer segmentation because that's where it becomes a strategic growth lever. And think about payments as kind of proactive function as well, more than a reactive one to be able to predict cash flows, late payments and all the other major topics that CFOs think about. I think that would be me. Think of payments as a strategic growth lever and not only as a back office function. Emes? Yeah, gosh, how can I top that one? I would say then with a little bit of a European lens, instead of being afraid or scared of regulation, because I can see if you're not from Europe that regulation can be a little scary, but instead of being scared about it, I would say embrace it. Find the right partner to educate on the opportunities and to mark this point, because if you understand the opportunity for growth, then it's probably easier to put a strategy together where basically you handle the risk that is there from a compliance perspective and obviously the adherence to those policies, but you link it to your strategic growth agenda basically. So I think it's an opportunity more than a risk if you embrace it. And if you really think about the opportunities that it will give you, if you are a first mover, if you are the trusted and compliant partner for your customers, I think if you can be that partner, you have a really, really prosperous future ahead of you as a CFO. It's hard to top that as a closer. So as we look forward to 2026 and all the changes that are coming in the future, we just see that business is shrinking on the global stage, but with that, we have lots more variables and you need that partner that can scale with you, that can handle compliance and that can do it with speed. And obviously it'd be great if you chose one that had 40 years of experience already doing this as we have all these new things like AI coming into the fold. And yeah, I really love the idea that, you know, instead of looking at all of these different things that are coming down the pike as things that you have to take care of, find a partner that can help you use it as a strategic lever for growth, right? B2B payments as a strategic lever for growth as you kept saying more. This is just amazing. And I think we'll give you the advantage over your competitors. So as we close out, I want to invite everyone to check out trevipay.com and you can see the full report that we've been talking about today. This has been a great chat. Thank you both. I know I'm excited for 2026 and especially after this conversation, even more excited. So TreviPay will be there all the way and helping these companies grow.