However, these businesses have historically been unwilling to move away from paper checks until there was an electronic equivalent of a universally accepted payment method that is free to use. Invoice Central has become the electronic equivalent of the check and is a real tool for suppliers to help transition their customers away from paper. "

"Invoice Central is a perfect alternative for business owners who prefer sending payments for free online without exposing all their banking details to bookkeepers or other staff. In addition, Invoice Central provides the efficiency our company needs to get paid faster," said Mark Horn, Corporate Credit Manager, Mayer Electric Company.

The enhancements announced today are poised to help Invoice Central's suppliers who reduce the cost of payment acceptance while easing the onboarding process for small businesses that enroll and add their bank account to the site.

The first enhancement, Level 2 and 3 interchange qualification, is geared at helping suppliers who choose to receive credit card payments but want to keep the cost of acceptance low.

Tammy Duke of Penn Waste, a supplier on Invoice Central since 2014 shared, "We see Invoice Central as a key component of our strategy to help our business customers migrate from paper checks to electronic payment channels. The ability to reduce our processing fees for card payments accepted through Invoice Central is additional motivation for our company to encourage business customers to sign up and receive and pay our invoices through the site."

The second enhancement announced today eases the process for small businesses when they opt to use Invoice Central's electronic bill payment feature for the first time.

This service, launched through a partnership with Plaid, a leading financial technology platform, allows Invoice Central users to add their bank account instantaneously using their online bank credentials. It also gives Invoice Central users the opportunity to take advantage of electronic payments in Invoice Central immediately after connecting to their bank via Plaid by authenticating their account in real-time.

"Invoice Central's focus is to simplify the bill payment process for small businesses. We partnered with Plaid because they have significant banking industry experience and established relationships with many banks to provide services such as bank authentication. Together we are able to offer Invoice Central users a simple, fast, and secure way to add their bank account to Invoice Central and begin making payments to all of their suppliers," Mr. Harrison explained.

This latest suite of enhancements follows the launch of Invoice Central's "Pay Anyone" feature, which allows small to mid-sized businesses the ability to pay all of their vendors through one consolidated website.

In the last 12 months, tens of thousands of business bill payers have joined Invoice Central, in addition to large-scale suppliers such as CDW Corporation, a leading provider of integrated information technology solutions, which did not accept online payments prior to joining Invoice Central as a supplier in 2015.

"Invoice Central's consolidated approach to electronic billing and payments simplified our entire billing process. Since using Invoice Central, CDW has improved payment processing efficiencies while expediting the payment process for our customers," said Cindy Buelow, Senior Manager AR & Credit Services, CDW.