How virtual cards on both sides of the B2B transaction can strengthen you entire commercial relationship with clients
In almost every conversation we’ve had with issuing banks and credit unions this year, one theme keeps coming up: commercial clients are thinking about cash flow more than ever. They want to know when cash is coming in, when it needs to go out, and who can help them manage the gap in between.
That creates a real opportunity for financial institutions. Commercial card, and virtual card in particular, sits right in the middle of how a business pays its suppliers and how it gets paid by its customers. When it’s positioned the right way, card isn’t just a payment product. It becomes a working capital tool that opens the door to deeper relationships across treasury, deposits, and lending.
Below, we walk through what’s changing for your commercial clients, how virtual cards work on both sides of the cash flow equation, and how aligning your teams around one strategy can turn card revenue into relationship revenue.
Cash Flow Is Back on the CFO Agenda
The latest data tells a clear story. According to PYMNTS Intelligence’s September 2026 Working Capital Index, which surveyed CFOs and treasurers at middle market companies:
Put simply, businesses are holding onto cash longer, getting paid later, and feeling less certain about timing. They need tools that create cash predictability, and they need a trusted banking partner to help them use those tools well.
Two Sides of the Same Transaction
Nearly every business manages both sides of the cash flow equation: accounts payable and accounts receivable. On the AP side, the goal is to extend days payable outstanding (DPO) and hold onto cash longer. On the AR side, the priority is to reduce days sales outstanding (DSO) and get paid faster. Yet many banks approach these needs separately, missing the opportunity to show commercial clients how virtual cards can support both sides of the same working-capital coin.
The AP Side: Paying Invoices
For the buyer, virtual cards have become much more than a way to pay. A single-use virtual card can be generated automatically from a payment file, carrying the exact invoice amount and making reconciliation far simpler for the client’s AP team. The client also gains time before cash leaves the account, along with stronger controls and the potential for a revenue share.
Businesses are noticing. In the same PYMNTS study, the share of companies using corporate or virtual cards as a working capital solution jumped from 9% to 37% in a single year. And 38% of firms said they would move off standard payment terms when a virtual card or supplier financing offsets their cost of funds or cost of acceptance.
The AR Side: Collecting Invoices
For the supplier, card acceptance means getting paid faster. A Forrester study commissioned by Visa found that suppliers accepting commercial cards collected in about 15 days, compared to roughly 45 days for ACH and check.
B2B straight-through processing (STP) makes acceptance even easier. The STP provider processes the buyer’s virtual card on the supplier’s behalf, so AR staff never key in or store card numbers. Invoice-level remittance data travels with the payment, and funds settle to the supplier’s depository account where they match to open invoices, much like a lockbox.
There’s still plenty of room to grow here. Federal Reserve data shows the number of B2B checks fell 41% between 2015 and 2024, yet the dollar value of those checks barely moved, from $15.4 trillion to $15.0 trillion. Fewer checks are being written, but the ones that remain are large. Those high-value invoices are the next frontier for virtual card.
Best practice: Start with your top commercial clients and look at both sides of their business. Where are they still writing large checks to suppliers? And how are their own customers paying them? The answers often reveal an AP opportunity and an AR opportunity inside the same relationship.
Where Programs Tend to Get Stuck
Even with this opportunity in front of them, many institutions struggle to capture it. In our experience, the common thread is that commercial card is managed as a standalone product instead of as part of the client’s overall working capital and cash flow relationship.
That can look different depending on the model:
The result is that clients get several separate experiences instead of one connected relationship.
What CFOs Actually Want From Their Bank
Here’s what we find most encouraging. When the PYMNTS study asked how banks could better serve companies’ financing needs, the number one ask from CFOs was an advisory relationship. Not a new product or a new platform, but a person who understands their business.
That’s a strength community and regional institutions already have. The opportunity is to bring payments into that advisory conversation, so your bankers are talking about AP, AR, and cash flow together.
One Commercial Strategy, One Client Experience
We recommend four simple steps to bring it all together:
This builds on what we shared in last month’s article on portfolio reporting and KPIs, where we recommended bi-weekly touch-base calls between relationship managers, treasury management officers, and a commercial card subject matter expert. That partnership is where a one-relationship strategy comes to life.
From Card Revenue to Relationship Revenue
Ultimately, this is a shift in mindset. The old question was, “What interchange revenue will this generate?” The better question is, “What total relationship value will this create?”
A strong commercial card offering compounds that value:
Together, these drive what every institution is working toward: higher retention, greater share of wallet, and stronger client lifetime value.
Bringing It All Together
You don’t need to change everything at once to get started. Many of the institutions we work with begin with a handful of top clients, a shared conversation between their card, treasury, and lending teams, and a clearer picture of where cash is moving on both sides of the relationship.
We know firsthand what this takes because we’ve sat in your seat. Before Scale, our team led commercial card and treasury teams inside banks and went through the work of becoming a direct issuer ourselves. Now we help issuing banks and credit unions shorten that learning curve and build programs that grow the whole relationship.
Reach out and connect with a Scale team member today to talk through where your program and teams stand and how virtual cards can support your broader commercial strategy. We’d love to partner with you.
– Co-Founders Julie Schmitz and Nicole Slay.
