Skip to main content

How Canadian Businesses are Automating Payments and Improving Cash Flow

By Diane Amato

Published on October 9, 2026 • 16 Min Read

TLDR

  • Manual payment and reconciliation processes may lead to errors and delays, limit cash visibility and introduce risks to the organization and client experience.

  • Connected financial systems can automate more of the payment journey, strengthen controls and give finance teams more timely, useful information.

  • Offering multiple ways to pay and building scalable payment infrastructure each help businesses better serve customers and suppliers as their needs evolve.

  • Modernization starts with understanding where processes are consuming time, where payment information is stalled and where cash is being held up – and engaging your banking partner early to help determine what comes next.

In our Treasury Management series, RBC speaks with Canadian businesses and the finance specialists who advise them about how money moves through a modernized operation – and what leaders are learning about managing cash flow, risk and payments.

Canada’s payment landscape is evolving quickly. But behind the scenes, even large, sophisticated companies still rely on manual processes. Spreadsheets, data entry and matching payments and invoices by hand remain part of the work of moving and reconciling money.

The challenge is that manual processes come with trade-offs. They can increase the potential for errors, slow reconciliation and make it harder to get a timely view of cash – challenges that become more pronounced as a business grows and payment volumes increase. They can also create organizational risk when critical processes depend on the knowledge of a few people and affect the client experience when incoming payments can’t be identified or applied quickly.

For finance teams, the cost is also measured in time. When people are downloading information from banking portals, moving data between systems and manually matching payments to invoices, they’re effectively doing work that connected systems can do for them.

The opportunity behind streamlined payments and collections is meaningful on several levels. By connecting financial systems and automating more of the payment journey, businesses can reduce the time spent determining who paid what, while gaining faster access to information, stronger controls and a clearer view of their cash.

The cost of staying manual: Five risks for businesses

Manual processes can work well enough for a long time. But as a business grows, so does the volume of information moving through its finance function – more payments, more suppliers, more customers and often more systems. Processes that previously felt manageable can gradually become a source of friction and risk.

While the specific challenges vary by business, Graham Sullivan, Senior Director of Client Integration and Transaction Banking at RBC, says several themes come up consistently.

  1. More opportunity for error

    Every manual step creates another opportunity for something to go wrong.

    “For accounting teams, it can mean more errors when journal entries are recorded and more time spent correcting and re-entering them,” says Sullivan. And as transaction volumes grow, so does the amount of processing work required – and the potential for errors along the way.

  2. Timeliness and delays

    Manual processes can also create a lag between when something happens and when the finance team knows about it. Information may need to be downloaded from a banking portal, transferred into another system and reconciled before it can be used.

    If a customer pays several invoices in one lump sum without enough information attached to identify them, for instance, the payment may sit as unapplied cash while someone works out where it belongs. Until that happens, the business has a less complete picture of what has been collected and what remains outstanding.

  3.  Organizational risk

    Disconnected systems can create different versions of the financial picture across a business. Accounting may have one spreadsheet, procurement another and accounts payable another still.  “For a treasurer to really get a holistic picture of the organization, they need to go out and reach into each of those sheets and try and pull that information together,” Sullivan says.

    Beyond the time involved, this fragmentation can make it harder for different functions to work from the same up-to-date information.

  4. Key-person risk

    Manual processes can become closely tied to the people who built and manage them. Over time, employees develop workarounds, spreadsheets and routines that may not be fully documented elsewhere.

    “Often, manual processes are nuanced and built through experience, trial and error,” says Sullivan. “So, if someone were to leave the organization or even go on vacation, it can cause a disconnect in the function.”

  5. Client experience

    Internal payment friction doesn’t always stay internal. When an incoming payment can’t be identified or applied promptly, a customer who has already paid could receive an unnecessary follow-up or collections notice.

    Together, these risks can affect how quickly a business understands its financial position, how reliably it can act on that information and how easily its processes can scale – while consuming valuable finance capacity.

What drives payment modernization

For some businesses, the need to modernize becomes obvious as transaction volumes grow and manual work becomes difficult to sustain. For others, the catalyst is a broader change in the business, such as an expansion, system upgrade, or a shift in how customers and suppliers want to pay and be paid.

The business has outgrown its processes

A process that works for hundreds of transactions may not work nearly as well for thousands. As a company adds customers, suppliers, locations or markets, payment volume and complexity can increase quickly – without necessarily adding the finance capacity to manage them.

Customers and suppliers expect more flexibility

Suppliers may have specific requirements around payment methods and timing, while customers increasingly expect convenient ways to pay. Sullivan recommends giving customers and suppliers as much choice as practical, while building the infrastructure to manage those choices efficiently.

“Typically, we recommend offering as many payment methods or payment rails as possible to give clients the best experience and then building a robust system that can help treasury and payment teams make smart decisions based on the nature of the payment.”

A technology change creates an opportunity

Modernization doesn’t always start with payments. A company may be moving systems to the cloud, replacing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, or undertaking a wider digital transformation. Rather than rebuilding the same manual processes around a new system, this creates an opportunity to ask: What could we connect or automate while we’re making the change?

The business wants greater control

Efficiency isn’t the only reason to integrate. Greater connectivity can also give businesses more control over how payments are initiated, approved and processed – particularly when they work with multiple financial institutions with different portals and approval processes.

“Having a fully integrated system gives you much more granular control over your internal systems,” Sullivan says. “It allows you to apply much more scrutiny to the payment process and the approval process.”

What changes when your financial systems connect?

In a manual environment, people often act as the connection between systems. They download information from one place, upload it somewhere else, enter data and bring together information from different sources.

Connecting those systems changes this flow. Information can move directly between a company’s financial systems and its bank, reducing the number of manual steps required to initiate payments, receive information and reconcile transactions.

An application programming interface (API) is one way to make that connection. In simple terms, an API allows two systems to communicate and exchange information in a standardized way. “Instead of having to go into a web portal, log in, download information, copy it and put it into another system, the API allows you to operate within your own controlled system,” explains Sullivan.

The same principle applies when a company connects its ERP system – its broader system of record for financial and operational information – or a treasury management system (TMS) -which focuses on managing treasury activities – with its banking partners.

Once those connections are in place, businesses can automate more of the payment journey:

  • Initiate: Payment instructions can flow from the company’s systems to its bank without employees manually re-entering or uploading information.

  • Control: Authorization rules can be built into the process, helping ensure payments receive the appropriate approvals before release.

  • Inform: More information can travel with a payment, helping businesses and their customers or suppliers understand what the transaction relates to.

  • Reconcile: Incoming payments can be matched against invoices and recorded more quickly, reducing the manual work required to determine who paid what.

What can a connected finance team do differently?

When routine processes are automated and information moves more freely between systems, teams spend less time gathering, entering and reconciling information – and more time using it. The impacts are different depending on the role.

Treasury: See the big picture sooner

Instead of reaching into separate systems and spreadsheets to assemble a picture of the organization, a treasurer can access a more consolidated, current view of cash and payments.  This visibility helps support decisions about how much cash the business needs to hold, where excess cash could be put to work and when financing may be required.

To learn more about how greater visibility into cash can support liquidity decisions, read

How Canadian Business Can Optimize Liquidity and Working Capital for Strategic Advantage.

Accounting: Spend less time correcting and re-entering

When information flows directly between systems, controllers and accounting teams may spend less time manually making journal entries, identifying mistakes, backing them out and entering them again. Sullivan describes the benefits simply as “much faster processing” with fewer manual errors – giving accounting teams more capacity for analysis, reporting and other higher-value work.

Accounts payable: Make payments with greater control

For accounts payable, connectivity can simplify how payments are created and processed. An integrated file format can also allow multiple payment types to flow through one standardized connection rather than requiring a separate build or process for each. That can make it easier to add payment capabilities as business requirements change.

For businesses operating internationally, those efficiencies can become increasingly valuable as the number of currencies, markets and payment requirements grow.

To learn more about managing the cost and complexity of payments across currencies, read Closing the Gap on FX Exposure: Best Practices for Your Finance Team.

Accounts receivable: Turn payments into usable information sooner

Receiving a payment is only part of the job. The finance team also needs to know who sent it, what it is for and which invoices should be applied against it.

When richer information travels with a payment and reconciliation is more automated, accounts receivable (AR) teams can identify and apply cash faster. The result is less unapplied cash and a more accurate view of what has been collected and what remains outstanding.

AR teams are then freed up to focus on work that may have been pushed aside by reconciliation, such as invoice issuance and collections.

Across each of these functions, there is a common thread: finance professionals spend less time acting as the link between disconnected systems and more time working with the information these systems provide – helping the business make faster, better-informed decisions about its cash.

Building a payment system that can scale

Modernizing payments can solve the challenges a business faces today. But the right infrastructure can also make it easier to accommodate what comes next, whether that means higher transaction volumes, new payment methods, additional banking relationships, or expansion into new markets.

One connection can support multiple payment types

With an integrated approach, businesses can consolidate different payment types through a standardized file rather than building a bespoke process for each one, making it easier to offer payment choice to clients without adding the same level of complexity behind each method.

Richer data makes payments more useful

The information that travels with a payment can be just as valuable as the payment itself.

ISO 20022, a global financial messaging standard, enables richer, more structured information to accompany payments. Details such as invoice and remittance information also make it easier for businesses to identify transactions and automate reconciliation.

For accounts receivable, better information can help turn incoming funds into usable, reconciled cash sooner. For the broader organization, this provides better data on how money is moving through the business.

Prepare for faster ways to move money

Canada’s payment infrastructure is evolving, too. Real-Time Rail (RTR) is being introduced as a new payment system that will enable Canadian-dollar payments to move between participating financial institutions in real time, with immediate confirmation and richer payment information.

For businesses, the opportunity goes beyond speed. Real-time payments have the potential to provide greater visibility into payment status and new ways to manage transactions and cash flow.

To learn more about what Real-Time Rail could mean for Canadian businesses.

The Food Dudes: Modernizing payments as the business evolved

When Eric Choy joined The Food Dudes’ finance team in 2018, paying suppliers was largely a manual process. The Toronto-based hospitality company would receive invoices, batch them and write between 100 and 200 cheques each month.

“That was our industry,” says Choy, now CFO of The Food Dudes. “Very manual, with a lot of room for error – and about 10 per cent of those cheques would get lost in the mail.”

The pandemic accelerated a shift that was already underway. Signing cheques in an office became impractical, while suppliers began adopting their own electronic payment processes. Some wanted direct deposit, others pre-authorized payments, wires or e-Transfers.

Electronic payments also gave the company greater control over timing. One meat supplier, for example, required payment by a specific day – a payment initiated on a Friday that didn’t arrive until Monday wasn’t sufficient. Electronic payments gave the finance team greater ability to manage that timing.

On the receivables side, however, moving money electronically solved only part of the problem.  A wedding or large event may be paid for by several family members, with payments arriving separately – and in different forms. If a large deposit arrives without identifying information, the finance team could spend hours determining which client and invoices it belongs to.

“We need the reporting to tell us who paid as part of a particular amount – the name, the company name, the invoice number, anything that can help,” Choy says. “Anyone can take an electronic payment. It’s the reporting tools that let us identify where the money came from.”

That information is particularly important for a company with highly seasonal revenue. Major events can create significant gaps between when expenses are incurred and revenue is received. When The Food Dudes work the Honda Indy, for example, roughly half of the company’s costs may be paid in June, the event takes place in July and payment arrives weeks later.

Understanding those cycles – and having visibility into the company’s cash position – allows The Food Dudes and its RBC team to plan around them. RBC has previously arranged a temporary increase to the company’s operating line tied to the Honda Indy commitment, helping bridge the working capital gap. For Choy, the combination of flexible payment capabilities, useful reporting and timely financial information is what makes modernization valuable. It helps the business understand where their money is coming from, where it is going and what it means for the operation.

How can a business get started?

The benefits of payment modernization may be clear, but getting there can take time. Businesses may be working with legacy systems, inconsistent data, limited IT capacity and processes that have evolved over the years. Rather than trying to transform everything at once, businesses can start by understanding the current environment and preparing the foundations for change.  

Five ways to prepare for payment modernization

  1. Map the current process

    Identify how payments and information move today, including manual hand-offs, delays and workarounds.

  2. Prioritize the pain points

    Look for the areas consuming the most time, creating the greatest operational risk or limiting access to timely information.

  3. Get your data ready

    Integration depends on clean, consistent data. Review payment and beneficiary information early and identify what needs to be standardized or remediated. Data cleanup can be a significant part of implementation, particularly for businesses with large vendor files.

  4. Assess your internal resources

    Determine whether your team has the technical capacity and institutional knowledge required – and where outside support may be needed.

  5. Engage your bank early

    Bring your banking partner into the design process to understand what is possible, identify constraints and align technical requirements before implementation begins.

Map before you modernize

“Before you start looking at solutions, take the time to map how payments work across your business today. Look at where your people are spending the most time, where information gets stuck and where manual processes are creating risk. Then bring your banking partner into the conversation early. The better you understand the problem you’re trying to solve, the better you can design a solution around what your business needs.”

— Graham Sullivan, Senior Director of Client Integration and Transaction Banking, RBC

How RBC can help

Modernizing payments typically brings together treasury, finance, technology and banking teams, making early alignment especially important.

“A lot of the time, you don’t know what you don’t know,” Sullivan says. “If you’ve never worked with sophisticated connectivity between a bank and an ERP system, you may not know what’s possible. That’s why we encourage clients to engage with us early in the design phase. We can help with best practices, data management, key constraints and milestones – and work with their technical teams to understand what’s possible on both sides.”

For larger implementations, RBC can also provide a single integration contact to coordinate technical work across the different teams involved. Working through requirements and system compatibility early helps surface issues before they become implementation roadblocks.

A better way to move money

Payment modernization can involve complex technology, multiple systems and many teams. But Sullivan offers a useful way to keep the objective in perspective.

“At the end of the day, it’s just money going out and money coming in,” he says. “But there’s a lot of nuance in the ways we can do it – and the ways we can support our clients.”

When payments move with the right information, controls and connectivity around them, the benefits extend well beyond the transaction itself. Finance teams can spend less time managing the mechanics of moving money and more time putting that money and information to work for the business.

Managing Fluctuating Cash Flow?

Whatever creates the gaps in your cash flow – whether it’s seasonality, project cycles, or payment terms – RBC Treasury Specialists can help you see your cash position clearly, align how you pay and get paid with your suppliers and clients, and put financing in place before the gap opens.

Talk to your RBC Relationship Manager

Visit the Payment and Cash Management Solutions page for payment tools and solutions.

Share This Article

Topics:

Commercial Client Success Stories