Author: Chris Haldane

Read time: 6 minutes  

Workflow Commerce sets a higher bar than embedded payments. It requires payment infrastructure that doesn’t just sit inside a platform—it is designed to operate as part of the platform’s logic. That means interacting with invoices, customer records, credit terms, project accounting, and approval states in real time, not transmitting data after the fact and hoping everything lines up downstream. 

Most payment providers are built to clear transactions. Fortis is built to run the  workflows around them.

Built for B2B Workflows, Not Horizontal Commerce 

There’s an important architectural distinction between providers built for scale across many environments and providers built for depth inside specific ones. Horizontal platforms optimize for transaction volume and broad acceptance. That’s the right model for consumer commerce and high-volume ecommerce. It’s the wrong model for B2B workflow environments. 

Fortis was built specifically for ERP and business software platforms—the environments where receivables performance directly affects working capital, where billing complexity doesn’t fit a standard checkout model, and where a payment must interact with the operational system rather than simply clear the rails. 

That means our infrastructure works at the object level. Payment activity aligns directly with the ERP records and workflows that govern billing and reconciliation—invoices update, customer balances reflect accurately, project accounting adjusts—without a manual step in between. 

This matters most in industries where billing is genuinely complex: construction managing milestone payments and retainage, distribution reconciling across high invoice volumes, field services billing by project and contract terms, manufacturing and agriculture dealing with variable payment schedules and credit logic. These environments don’t need a better checkout. They need payment infrastructure that understands how the business actually operates.

What Workflow-First Architecture Actually Prioritizes 

Most payment architecture conversations start with acceptance—how many methods, how fast, how globally. Those are real considerations, but they’re not the right starting point for B2B workflow environments. 

A workflow-first architecture starts somewhere different: 

Receivables velocity: How quickly payments move from obligation to cash, without manual intervention slowing things down. 

Reconciliation accuracy: Whether payment activity lands correctly inside the ERP the first time, without exceptions to chase. 

ERP-native synchronization: Whether the payment system and the system of record are actually in sync, or just loosely connected. 

Workflow-aware automation: Whether business logic can drive payment behavior, or whether someone still has to manage it by hand. 

Financial visibility: Whether finance has a live, accurate picture of receivables, or a lagging one assembled from exports. 

These priorities change how integrations are built, how data is synchronized, and how payment logic interacts with billing logic. They also change what the technology is actually good for — and whether it can deliver the operational outcomes that Workflow Commerce is designed to produce.

An Architectural Position, Not a Feature Set 

Workflow Commerce isn’t a rebrand of embedded payments. It’s a different belief about what payments are for in a B2B context—that they should function as infrastructure inside operational systems, not as a transactional layer on top of them. 

Fortis is building around that belief. Not as a marketing position, but as an architectural one. The decisions we make about how integrations work, how data moves, and how payment logic interacts with ERP logic are all shaped by the same underlying conviction: in B2B environments, payment performance and operational performance are the same problem. 

The question that defined the last era of B2B payments was: can we accept digital payments? Most organizations can now. That’s no longer the differentiator. 

The question that defines this era is: are our payment workflows actually part of how the business operates? 

That’s the problem Fortis is built to solve. 

How manufacturing and engineering firms are closing the gap between commerce and cash—and why Fortis was recognized for leading the way. 

You’ve built a tight operation. Orders flow into your ERP. Fulfillment gets tracked. Invoices go out on time. But somewhere between “invoice sent” and “cash received,” things fall apart. 

Payments are still living in a separate system. Reconciliation is still manual. Your finance team is still chasing down settlement data that should already be in front of them. And every day that gap exists, it’s costing you in DSO, forecasting accuracy, and working capital you could be using to grow. 

This isn’t a technology problem. It’s a workflow problem—and it’s one of the most persistent challenges in manufacturing finance. That’s exactly why Fortis was named a 2026 FinTech Awards winner for Manufacturing and Engineering. 

The Disconnect Is Costing You More Than You Think 

When payments operate outside your ERP, your finance team becomes the integration layer—manually stitching together data that should flow automatically. The downstream effects compound fast: 

• Invoice-to-cash cycles slow down, and AR drags 

• Reconciliation across systems, entities, and locations becomes a weekly fire drill 

• Cash position and settlement timing stay murky until it’s too late to act 

• DSO climbs, forecasting suffers, and scaling gets harder 

For CFOs and finance leaders, this isn’t just operational friction— it’s a working capital problem hiding in plain sight. The root cause? The commerce workflow and the financial workflow aren’t talking to each other.

What Workflow Commerce Actually Looks Like 

The fix isn’t adding another tool to the stack. It’s embedding payments directly into the ERP systems your teams already use—so that orders, invoices, payments, and reconciliation operate as one connected workflow instead of four separate steps. 

When that happens, the full Workflow Commerce chain closes: 

Order → Fulfillment → Invoice → Payment → Reconciliation → Reporting 

That’s the shift manufacturers are making. And the results aren’t incremental—they’re structural.

Get Paid Faster—Without Changing How You Operate 

Embedding payments into your ERP doesn’t mean ripping out your existing systems. It means making them work harder. With payments inside the workflow, your teams can: 

• Send invoices with embedded payment options—no portal-hopping required 

• Accept ACH and commercial cards directly within ERP environments 

• Reduce DSO and accelerate AR through automation, not more headcount 

• See payment status and cash flow in real time—not after the close 

The result is a tighter connection between what you ship and when you get paid—with the visibility to manage cash flow proactively instead of reactively.

Why the Platforms You Rely on Are Evolving Too 

This shift isn’t just happening inside finance teams—it’s reshaping the ERP and industry software ecosystems that manufacturers depend on. The platforms serving manufacturing and engineering firms are under real pressure to embed payments natively, because their customers are demanding it. 

For software providers, embedding payments means delivering more complete workflows, reducing churn through deeper integration, and unlocking revenue tied directly to customer usage. It’s not a product roadmap decision anymore—it’s a competitive one.

Why Fortis—and Why Now 

Fortis was built specifically for the complexity of B2B commerce—ERP-native integrations, ACH and commercial card support, automated reconciliation, and real-time visibility into settlement and reporting. That’s not a feature list. It’s what Workflow Commerce looks like in practice. 

The 2026 FinTech Awards recognized Fortis in the Manufacturing and Engineering category for exactly this reason. Here’s what the judges said:

The Bottom Line 

Manufacturing and engineering firms have always been good at building tight operations. The ones pulling ahead right now are the ones closing the last gap—connecting their commerce workflow directly to their financial outcomes. 

Payments aren’t a back-office function anymore. They’re embedded in how you sell, fulfill, and recognize revenue. And when they’re connected to your ERP—not bolted on beside it—cash flow accelerates, visibility improves, and your finance team can finally stop playing catch-up. 

Ready to see what Workflow Commerce looks like inside your ERP? Let’s talk. 

Read time: 6 minutes 

If the problem in B2B payments isn’t checkout, then what is it?  

Over the past decade, the industry focused on transaction efficiency—and that focus made sense. Digital acceptance needed to happen. Payment methods needed to expand. Friction at the moment of payment needed to decrease. B2B payments needed to modernize, and they did.  

But as organizations modernized their payment rails, a different problem came into focus. The transaction improved. The workflow around it didn’t.  

Payments in B2B environments don’t exist in isolation. They originate in contracts, purchase orders, milestone schedules, and subscription agreements. They move through approvals, update ERP records, and influence reconciliation, reporting, and working capital decisions. And yet most payment systems still function as endpoints—discrete transaction tools sitting adjacent to the operational workflows they’re supposed to serve.

That’s the shift now taking shape. We call it Workflow Commerce.

What Is Workflow Commerce? 

In most B2B environments today, payments sit adjacent to the workflows that govern financial operations. They interact with ERP systems and billing platforms, but they don’t behave as part of them. Data passes between systems after the fact. Reconciliation happens in a separate step. Reporting lags behind what’s actually happening in receivables. 

Workflow Commerce changes the underlying assumption. Instead of asking how do we make this payment easier to complete, the question becomes how does this payment behave inside the system that governs invoicing, approvals, reconciliation, and reporting? 

In practice, that means a few things look different: 

• Payment initiation is tied to workflow events—an invoice created, a milestone approved, a subscription renewed—rather than being a standalone action a customer takes. 
• Payment activity interacts directly with ERP records in real time. Invoices update. Customer balances reflect accurately. Project accounting adjusts. No export, no manual match, no lag. 
• Reconciliation happens within the same workflow that generated the obligation, not in a separate process downstream. 
• Workflow logic, the rules that govern how the business operates, can be used to trigger follow-ups, retries, approvals, and dispute handling automatically, rather than requiring someone to manage exceptions by hand. 

None of these capabilities are entirely new in isolation. What’s new is treating them as a system, and recognizing that they only deliver real value when they work together.

Why This Is Happening Now 

Three forces are converging to push the market in this direction.  

ERP and vertical SaaS platforms have become the operational core of how B2B companies run. Billing, inventory, project accounting, financial reporting—it all lives inside structured systems of record. When payments operate outside that structure, the misalignment is no longer just inconvenient. It’s a measurable operational cost.  

Finance teams are under real pressure on receivables performance and working capital visibility. Getting paid faster matters. But if payment acceptance doesn’t connect to accurate reconciliation and forecasting, the downstream value is limited.  

And software platforms are competing on operational depth, not just features. Embedding a payment experience creates a monetization opportunity. Orchestrating the full financial workflow creates something harder to displace.  

When those three pressures converge, optimizing the transaction is no longer a sufficient answer. 

Digitization vs. Orchestration 

There’s a useful distinction worth drawing here.  

Digitization converts paper to pixels. It takes a manual process and makes it electronic. B2B payments have largely achieved this—checks gave way to ACH, invoices moved online, payment links replaced phone-in payments.  

Orchestration is something different. It’s about aligning systems so that activity in one part of the workflow automatically and accurately reflects in every other part. It’s not about converting a process. It’s about connecting them. 

Most B2B organizations have digitized their payments. Very few have orchestrated them. 

That’s the gap Workflow Commerce is designed to close—not by replacing what’s already working, but by making payments function as infrastructure inside the business rather than a layer on top of it. 

What Change When This Works 

When payments operate as part of the workflow rather than alongside it, the impact isn’t limited to the moment of acceptance. It runs through the entire financial lifecycle.  

Finance spends less time reconciling and more time analyzing. Receivables visibility is live, not lagged. Working capital decisions are based on accurate data. Operational teams aren’t waiting for the back office to catch up.  

And for the platforms that power these workflows, it changes the value proposition entirely. 

Embedded payments give customers a better way to pay. Workflow Commerce  gives them a better way to operate.   

The organizations that move from transaction optimization to workflow orchestration won’t just process payments more efficiently. They’ll fundamentally change how their businesses operate. 

Workflow Commerce sets a higher bar. In Part 3, we break down what it actually takes to build for it—and why the architecture behind it matters. Read Part 3: What Workflow Commerce Requires →

Read time: 5 minutes 

Most of the innovation in B2B payments over the last decade has been focused on the wrong moment. 

Faster checkout. More payment methods. Embedded pay buttons inside platforms. These were real improvements—and they were necessary. But they addressed the visible part of a much longer chain, and in B2B, the visible tip was never really the problem. 

A B2B payment doesn’t start at checkout. It starts when a contract is signed, a purchase order is approved, a milestone is hit, or an invoice is generated inside an ERP. From there, it moves through approval workflows, touches credit limits, triggers billing logic, and eventually has to land correctly in reconciliation and reporting. Checkout is one moment in that sequence. A lot has to go right before it. Even more has to go right after.   

That’s where most organizations are still struggling.

The Work That Happens After the Transaction 

Take a construction company running progress billing. A project hits a milestone. An invoice goes out. The customer pays through a digital link. The funds clear—and that part works fine. 

But now retainage needs to be tracked. The partial payment has to be applied to the right line items. Job-cost accounting has to reconcile. The ERP needs to reflect updated project balances. Finance needs to know what’s outstanding and what’s actually collectible.   

The transaction succeeded. The workflow didn’t. 

The same pattern shows up in distribution, where high invoice volumes create reconciliation lag across shipments, credits, and returns. In field services, where billing varies by project, location, and contract terms—and payment acceptance is just one variable in a far more complex equation.   

In each case, the real friction isn’t getting paid. It’s everything that has to happen for that payment to mean something operationally.

Embedded Payments Aren’t Enough 

Many platforms have moved toward embedded payments as a solution, and it’s a step in the right direction. But embedding a payment experience inside a platform doesn’t automatically integrate it into the workflow.  

A payment button inside a SaaS platform simplifies how customers pay. It doesn’t ensure that payment activity aligns with invoice states, approval logic, or reconciliation processes inside the ERP. The payment clears on one side. The operational system has to catch up on the other.  

When that gap exists, teams fill it manually—exporting reports, matching exceptions, chasing data across systems that were never designed to work together. It doesn’t show up in a product demo. It shows up in how many hours finance spends every month not analyzing, but reconciling.  

As B2B organizations have centralized operations around ERP systems and vertical platforms, these misalignments have become harder to ignore. Workflows are more structured now, which means the places where payments fall out of sync are more obvious—and more costly.

The Right Question 

For years, B2B payments strategy has asked: how do we make it easier to pay? 

That’s still worth asking. But there’s a more consequential question beneath it: how do payments function as part of the workflow, not alongside it? 

The constraint in B2B isn’t usually acceptance. Most businesses can get paid. The constraint is alignment—between what the payment system knows and what the operational system needs to act on. Between when money moves and when the business actually has visibility into it. Between the transaction and everything it’s supposed to trigger. 

Until that’s solved, organizations will keep absorbing the friction internally. It just won’t show up in payment metrics. It’ll show up in headcount, in delayed closes, in reporting that’s always a step behind. 

This isn’t a checkout problem. It’s a workflow problem. 

B2B payments have a workflow problem. In Part 2, we introduce the operating model designed to solve it. Read Part 2: Workflow Commerce →

How Real-Time AR and Embedded Payments Will Transform Finance and Customer Experience 

AR Is Entering Its Most Transformative Year Yet 

Finance teams are entering 2026 facing tighter cash flow, rising customer expectations, and increasingly complex operational environments. What was once a back-office workflow—Accounts Receivable—has become a strategic function tied directly to financial resilience and customer satisfaction. 

Deloitte’s 2026 Finance Trends Outlook highlights that finance organizations are rapidly shifting toward real-time, continuous insight to support faster, more agile decision-making. That shift places AR at the center of modern financial performance: responsible for accurate reporting, stronger forecasting, and a more reliable customer experience. 

As finance leaders expand their enterprise influence, AR is evolving into foundational financial infrastructure—grounded in accurate, connected, always-current receivables data.

2026 Trend #1: AR Becomes a Customer Experience Function

Accurate, intuitive AR interactions now influence customer trust and retention. 

In 2026, every AR touchpoint—every invoice, balance inquiry, portal login, or payment attempt—will shape the customer relationship. Businesses increasingly expect the same level of clarity and ease they get in consumer commerce. 

But fragmented AR processes create delays, confusion, and unnecessary friction. 
When AR is connected and consistent, it reinforces trust and strengthens long-term account health. 

This year, AR moves firmly from back-office execution into a frontline customer experience driver.

2026 Trend #2: Real-Time AR Powers Faster, More Confident Decisions

Finance teams can no longer rely on delayed or manual AR reporting. 

Traditional AR models—batch-based, manually reconciled, and slow to update—are no longer adequate for the pace of modern business. 

Deloitte notes that finance leaders are under intensifying pressure to support rapid, scenario-based decision-making amid economic and regulatory uncertainty. This level of agility is only possible when AR data reflects the current moment. 

Real-time AR visibility unlocks: 

• Earlier risk detection
• More accurate forecasting 
• Cleaner, more reliable cash-flow insight 
• Better alignment across finance, operations, support, and product teams 

In 2026, real-time AR becomes the new baseline for operational and financial confidence.

2026 Trend #3: Embedded Payments Become the Foundation of AR Accuracy

Instant payment data = instant financial truth. 

Even the best AR processes break down when payment data is delayed or siloed. If transactions happen outside the ERP, platform, or commerce system, AR visibility becomes out of sync the moment the payment is made. 

Embedded payments solve this by moving payment acceptance inside the systems where customers already work. With native, integrated payment flows: 

• Balances update automatically 
• Payment status is accurate in real time 
• Reconciliation becomes dramatically easier 
• Teams operate from a single financial source of truth 

In 2026, embedded payments will be essential to AR modernization and real-time financial accuracy.

2026 Trend #4: AR Extends into Every Customer Touchpoint

AR can no longer “live” solely inside the ERP. Customers move fluidly across channels, and AR must follow them. 

A modern AR ecosystem ensures that: 

• A portal payment should sync instantly with the ERP 
• A subscription renewal should adjust balances without delay 
• A mobile checkout should influence cash-flow projections in real time 

This requires unified, integrated workflows that connect ERP, commerce, and platform ecosystems into a single financial experience. 

AR becomes the connective tissue between customer activity and financial truth.

2026 Trend #5: AR Becomes a Key Driver of Retention

Accurate billing and immediate confirmations shape customer loyalty. 

Trust is built on clarity. When billing, balances, and payment confirmations are accurate and instant, customer confidence grows. When they’re not, frustration quickly follows. 

In 2026, AR will directly influence: 

• Subscription renewals 
• B2B contract longevity 
• Platform engagement 
• Multichannel commerce satisfaction 

AR’s role will expand from collections to proactive revenue protection and customer-retention strategy.

2026 Trend #6: Automation and AI Raise the Stakes for AR Modernization

AI requires consistent, high-quality AR data to work effectively. 

Automation and AI adoption will accelerate in 2026—yet these technologies depend entirely on clean, connected, real-time financial data. 

If AR data is delayed, inconsistent, or fragmented: 

• Automations fail 
• Workflows stall 
• AI-driven forecasting loses accuracy 

Deloitte notes that successful AI adoption requires strong data foundations—starting with AR, where financial truth originates. 

 Organizations that modernize AR will be best positioned to leverage AI for prioritization, forecasting, and workflow orchestration. 

How Fortis Helps Finance Teams and Platforms Lead This Transformation

Fortis enables businesses and software platforms to adopt these trends without disrupting existing systems. 

By embedding payments directly into native financial and operational workflows, Fortis helps teams gain: 

Instant Payment Activity 
Balances, statuses, and ledger entries update in real time—eliminating reconciliation delays. 

Real-Time AR Visibility 
Finance teams operate from clean, high-integrity data suitable for forecasting, automation, and AI. 

A Better Customer Experience
Customers enjoy smoother billing, intuitive payment options, and consistent confirmation across every channel. 

A True Transformative Partnership 
Fortis supports teams with hands-on expertise, flexible integrations, and a partnership model designed to drive long-term growth—consistent with our high-service, high-growth commitment. 

For CFOs and finance leaders, this means clearer forecasts and more informed decisions. For software platforms and developers, it means deeper product value, higher retention, and a modern embedded-payments foundation. 

Fortis turns fragmented invoice-to-cash workflows into a unified financial ecosystem that strengthens visibility, trust, and performance.

2026: The Year AR Becomes Strategic 

The trends shaping 2026 point to a clear shift: AR is evolving from a reactive process into a strategic growth engine. Organizations that unify payments, data, and customer workflows will move faster, deliver stronger experiences, and gain lasting competitive advantage. 

Fortis helps teams make that shift—one payment, one workflow, and one real-time insight at a time. 

Let’s connect and explore how Fortis can help modernize AR for the year ahead. 

Read Time: 4 minutes 

This is the second post in our Accelerate AR series—a four-part guide to transforming your invoice-to-cash process using embedded payments inside your ERP.

Today’s focus: why manual invoicing is costing you more than time—and how automation helps you bill faster with fewer errors.

Invoicing is the heartbeat of your cash flow. But for too many finance teams, it’s a process riddled with inefficiencies—manual tasks, outdated tools, and fragmented systems.

Despite having powerful ERPs in place, businesses often still rely on spreadsheets, email attachments, and disconnected billing workflows that slow everything down. The result isn’t just a little friction—it’s a direct hit to revenue and customer satisfaction.

Manual Entry Madness

Surprisingly, 53% of mid-market B2B companies still rely on spreadsheets to manage accounts receivable.
Source: e2b teknologies

That’s not just out of date—it’s risky.

Spreadsheets are static, siloed, and prone to human error. They can’t offer real-time visibility, and they certainly don’t scale with your business. When your team is spending hours each week copying invoice data between systems, the margin for error increases—and the cost of those mistakes adds up.

In fact, 94% of spreadsheets contain errors.
Source: Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth

Those errors often lead to incorrect invoice amounts, missing details, or formatting issues that delay payments and erode customer trust.

Delayed Invoicing, Delayed Payments

It’s not just the accuracy of invoices that matters—it’s the speed. Manual processes often delay invoice creation and delivery, especially when teams toggle between ERPs and third-party tools or rely on batch processing.

According to the Credit Research Foundation, 61% of late payments are due to administrative errors or invoices arriving too late.

That’s a staggering stat. It means most of your payment delays may have nothing to do with customer behavior—and everything to do with internal bottlenecks.

And with every delay, cash flow takes a hit.

Why Speed and Accuracy Matter Now More Than Ever

In a fast-paced, digital-first economy, outdated invoicing doesn’t just cause frustration—it limits your ability to grow.

Here’s why:

• Delayed billing = delayed revenue. The longer it takes to issue invoices, the longer it takes to collect.
• Manual effort scales poorly. As your business grows, AR teams become overwhelmed by volume—leading to burnout, more errors, and slower collections.
• Customer relationships suffer. Mistakes or delays create friction, damage trust, and increase the likelihood of disputes or payment holds.
• Reporting is unreliable. Without real-time data, finance leaders can’t forecast accurately or respond to changes quickly.

Modern businesses need more than spreadsheets and email attachments. They need embedded workflows that move at the speed of business.

What Automated Invoicing Looks Like

Imagine this: A sale is completed. The ERP system instantly pulls the right billing information and generates a professional, branded invoice—automatically.

The invoice is emailed to the customer immediately, with a secure link to pay online. If payment isn’t made within a few days, a polite reminder is sent—automatically, based on the rules your team has set.

Meanwhile, your AR team has a live dashboard showing exactly which invoices are pending, which are overdue, and which are paid. No digging. No spreadsheets. No delays.

That’s what AR acceleration looks like—and it starts with invoicing.

How to Modernize Your Invoicing Workflow

Most modern ERPs already have the capability to support embedded payments and AR automation. The key is tapping into those native features and eliminating your reliance on disconnected tools.

Here are three areas to focus on:

• Automate invoice generation. Look for tools that pull directly from ERP data to reduce errors and avoid manual entry.
• Digitize invoice delivery. Replace printouts and attachments with direct-to-inbox emails that include payment options.
• Set smart follow-ups. Use rule-based reminders to ensure consistent collections without the need for manual outreach.

By focusing on these improvements, your team can move faster, reduce mistakes, and improve customer experience—all without switching platforms.

Embedded Invoicing: A Smarter Way Forward

Modern ERPs already offer powerful tools for automating invoicing—but tapping into those features often requires the right configuration and support. That’s where embedded payment solutions come in.

By integrating invoicing and payment capabilities directly into your ERP, you create a more cohesive, automated workflow. Invoices can be generated and delivered instantly, payment options can be included up front, and follow-ups can run on autopilot—reducing delays and manual effort.

For finance teams, that means more time for strategic work, fewer errors, and better visibility across the billing cycle.

What’s Next in the Series

Modern invoicing sets the stage for faster payments. In the next post, we’ll explore how embedded payment options remove friction for your customers—and accelerate collections for your team.

Take the Next Step

Talk to Fortis and discover how automated invoicing inside your ERP can help you move faster—with fewer errors and a better experience for everyone involved.