For Small Businesses
For Large Businesses
American Express® Buyer Initiated Payments
Working capital optimisation for you. Peace of mind for your suppliers.
Help increase Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) for your business and decrease Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) for your suppliers by consolidating Card payments to suppliers into one simple and secure online platform.
Turn your Accounts Payable process into an efficient source of savings
American Express Buyer Initiated Payments is a web portal that lets buyers quickly and efficiently schedule payments to suppliers. It can integrate easily into your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software without disrupting existing Accounts Payable (AP) processes.
Optimise your working capital while controlling when and how suppliers are paid
Buyer Initiated Payments: Benefits for buyers
Manage cash flow
Extend your DPO by up to 58 days1 so you can have more cash on hand to invest in your business.
Increase efficiencies
Consolidate supplier payments into one online platform that integrates with existing Accounts Payable processes.
Improve control
Make payments faster and strengthen supplier relationships while maintaining internal compliance.
Enjoy incentives
Take advantage of early payment incentives from suppliers without impacting your cash on hand.
Buyer Initiated Payments: Benefits for suppliers
Manage cash flow
Potentially accelerate payment to help increase liquidity and reduce DSO2.
Increase efficiencies
Gain peace of mind knowing that American Express assumes risk for authorised transactions.
Build effective relationships
Demonstrate flexibility to help improve relationships and potentially gain more business.
Automate payments
Buyer Initiated Payments removes the need to manually key payments, while providing you with a remittance file.
How does Buyer Initiated Payments work?
Payment Initiated
The buyer uses the web-based Buyer Initiated Payments (BIP) platform to schedule payments of approved invoices to suppliers.
Funds Sent
American Express processes the payment on the scheduled date and deposits funds into the supplier's designated account within one business day. A remittance advice is sent to the supplier.
Payment Confirmed
The BIP platform updates with real-time payment information. BIP Enterprise customers receive an automatic confirmation of payment.
Statement Settled
The buyer pays American Express, extending DPO by up to 58 days1.
Case study: a wholesaler optimises their working capital
The Challenge: A wholesaler, following standard industry practices, offered longer payment terms to its customers than those offered by its suppliers. As a result, cash was going out more quickly than it was coming in, and they were unable to purchase optimum levels of stock for their customers without incurring hefty interest rates.
The Solution: By making use of American Express Buyer Initiated Payments, the wholesaler was able to take advantage of process efficiencies as both a buyer and seller—and gain more days to pay on both ends.
As a buyer, they’ve increased Days Payable Outstanding (DPO), resulting in optimised working capital. As a seller, they’ve taken advantage of earlier payments from customers. BIP allowed them to receive payments just five days after the customer authorised them, which is significantly faster than conventional invoice terms and still allowed their customer to pay only when the statement is due.
Finally, the wholesaler benefitted from enhanced supplier relationships, as BIP enabled them to pay their own suppliers more promptly than most traditional invoicing processes, while still increasing DPO on their end.
Start your American Express Buyer Initiated Payments application
Fill out the form to request a call back from a Specialist, or reach out to us at 1300 729 483, Monday to Friday 9am-5pm.
Not an American Express Card Member?
Sign up for an American Express Corporate Card program to open up a world of perks, tools and opportunities.
Frequently Asked Questions
American Express Buyer Initiated Payments is an automated web portal that lets buyers quickly and efficiently schedule payments to suppliers. It can integrate easily into your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software without disrupting your existing Accounts Payable (AP) process.
Buyer Initiated Payments can have benefits for buyers and suppliers. For buyers, it can extend Days Payable Outstanding (DPO) by up to 58 days, offering more cash-flow flexibility to help manage business operations. It can also help streamline Accounts Payable processes by consolidating the bulk of supplier payments into one easy-to-use online platform and improve relationships with suppliers by helping ensure that they’re paid on time or early—which can also allow buyers to take advantage of early-savings discounts. For suppliers, BIP can help reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), which may help increase liquidity by creating more cash-on-hand.
An American Express BIP program can help buyers save by reducing administrative costs associated with managing multiple payment platforms, helping ensure compliance with company payment policies and creating visibility into spending. Accelerating payments to suppliers can also let you take advantage of early payment discounts and create a strong position to negotiate volume payment incentives.
BIP Express is a web portal that allows buyers to log in and schedule single supplier payments or upload a spreadsheet for multiple payment processing. BIP Enterprise automates the delivery of a payment instruction file from the Buyer’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform to the BIP platform.
Find more ways to streamline business spend
American Express vPayment™
A virtual payment solution assigning a specific-use account number and preauthorised amount per transaction.
American Express AccessLine®
Make fast and secure payments domestically – even to merchants who don’t accept Card payments.
Terms & Conditions
1. The number of days by which your DPO is extended will vary depending on: (i) when during your American Express Card billing cycle you charge a transaction to a supplier; (ii) the date the transaction is posted to your account; and (iii) the date you pay the amount due on your American Express billing statement.
2. DSO reduction varies depending on the agreed terms upon which your customer makes payment using BIP.