The quick answer is yes. When companies begin to automate the accounts payable workflow, they’re often shocked with finding out how much of their efforts involved manual processes. Replacing paper checks with electronic payments improves efficiency and cost-saving measures in many aspects of the business: • A payment management system automates many manual tasks, such as communicating with payees, obtaining payment approvals, and sending the payment. The time and money saved through automation enable the accounts payable to focus on other cost-saving efforts, such as offering early payments as leverage for negotiating invoice prices. • Electronic payments like eChecks reduce the “float” time, a period between the • issuing check and the transaction hitting the account. Electronic payment transfers help payers have a better sense of when a payment will appear in the company bank account; this can help payers align their cash flow with invoice payments. • Issuing an eCheck as payment instead of a paper check reduces production costs, such as printing ink, the paper material, postage for mailing, etc. • E-Checks speed the reconciliation effort, because it does not have to deal manually with “returned” checks that did not arrive at their destination or were never deposited. • The cost of processing an eCheck is often significantly lower than a paper check and much lower than international wire transfer fees.