Visa Commercial Pay has partnered with a number of Straight-Through Processing (STP) providers to enable more suppliers for card acceptance by making the processing of virtual cards seamless and automated for buyers and suppliers. When creating a supplier record in the Visa Commercial Pay Online Supplier Management section, it is possible to configure which STP Provider should process card payments on behalf of that supplier.
Note
Where your card issuer has made multiple STP options available for you, it is only possible to assign one STP provider per supplier record.
Once you have created a supplier record in Visa Commercial Pay Online, client admins can enable Stripe as an STP Option to enable the supplier for card acceptance.
When enabling a supplier for STP via Stripe, client admins have two choices about how the supplier is onboarded into Stripe's system:
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Buyer-provisioned boarding: The Admin user provides Stripe with all the supplier information required to process card payments by uploading it directly into Visa Commercial Pay .
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Supplier-provisioned boarding: The supplier provides Stripe with all the information required to process card payments.
Visa Commercial Pay presents client administrators the option of which boarding flow they wish to follow when enabling Stripe as an STP option for a supplier.
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Toggling 'Do you want to control the Stripe account' to Yes will activate buyer-provisioned boarding. Visa Commercial Pay will then prompt the administrator for the supplier information required by Stripe.
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Toggling 'Do you want to control the Stripe account' to No will activate supplier-provisioned boarding, and the supplier will need to use their existing Stripe account or create a new one.
Note
Each flow carries a different financial model for supplier payments. Please contact your issuer for further information about this. Once a Stripe Account ID has been created via one of the boarding flows above, it is not possible to change the onboarding method without creating a brand new supplier record in Supplier Management.
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By toggling 'Do you want to control the Stripe account?' to Yes, an Admin user is choosing to enter the supplier information into Visa Commercial Pay themselves.
NB. Once a client has decided to follow the buyer-provisioned onboarding process with Stripe, Visa Commercial Pay registers a Stripe Account ID before prompting you for the information required about that supplier.
Note
The information Stripe requires to process card payments on behalf of suppliers can differ per country. Visa Commercial Pay will automatically prompt you for the information Stripe require based on the Supplier Country you selected when creating the supplier record. This will typically include details about your supplier, their beneficiary owners and representatives, as well as their bank account details. These are the details of the account that Stripe will automatically deliver funds to for all virtual cards Stripe processes on a supplier's behalf.
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Once all information has been provided and Stripe has successfully completed onboarding, Visa Commercial Pay will present an STP Provider Status of active. Client admins will also receive an automated email notification from Visa Commercial Pay that Stripe is ready to start processing card payments on behalf of that supplier.
Provided that one other Admin user has also approved the supplier record, the supplier boarding process is complete. Your company is now ready to start making payments to that supplier via Stripe.
Card deployers will be able to see the name of the supplier (as entered by the Admin user when creating the supplier record) as an option when selecting Pay a Supplier in Visa Commercial Pay .
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You can choose to set it up so that your suppliers will need to directly submit the information Stripe requires to process card payments on their behalf. To do this, toggle to No when asked if you would like to control the Stripe account in Visa Commercial Pay .
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Visa Commercial Pay will enable you to send an email to your supplier with instructions on how they can register directly with Stripe to become enabled for card acceptance.
Visa Commercial Pay automatically populates the email address with the one you provided when you created the supplier record. You can override this and also include a message which will be included in the email to the supplier.
Note
For this boarding flow, suppliers enter their information directly into Stripe's dashboards rather than the Visa Commercial Pay platform. Once the supplier is set up for card acceptance in Stripe, they will have access to Stripe's Standard Accounts dashboards for visibility of all incoming payments you make to them in Visa Commercial Pay .
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Once the email has been sent to the supplier, the STP Provider status for the supplier will display as Awaiting Supplier Registration. Click Send Invite Email to resend the email either to the same email address or a different email address.
Once your supplier has provided all information about their company required by Stripe, client admins will receive an automated email notification from Visa Commercial Pay to confirm that Stripe is ready to start processing card payments on behalf of that supplier. Visa Commercial Pay will also present an STP Provider Status of active.
Provided that one other Admin user has also approved the supplier record, the supplier boarding process is complete and your company is now ready to start making payments to that supplier via Stripe. The supplier's name (as entered by the Admin user when creating the supplier record) will display for card deployers to choose from when selecting the Pay a Supplier option in Visa Commercial Pay .
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There are occasions when Stripe may require updates to the information, they hold about a supplier to continue processing card payments on their behalf.
When an update is required, the status of the Stripe account in Visa Commercial Pay will change to Information Required. This means that no payments to that supplier via Stripe will be possible until an Admin user or the buyer provides the outstanding information, depending on the original supplier onboarding flow.
If the original boarding flow was completed by the buyer, then an Admin user must provide the updated supplier information required in Visa Commercial Pay . If the original boarding flow was completed by your supplier directly in Stripe's dashboards, client admins will not be able to update the supplier's details. Client admins can re-issue the invite email to prompt the supplier to update their Stripe account.
In the event of Stripe requiring further information about a supplier, client admins will receive an automated Visa Commercial Pay email notification prompting them to take action.
The configuration of Visa Commercial Pay STP virtual card payments via Global Payments is currently an offline process managed by Visa, your card issuer and Global Payments. Please contact your issuer if you would like more information about activating STP via Global Payments for your supplier payments in Visa Commercial Pay.
You can use Visa Commercial Pay to pay suppliers via Global Payments, another STP Provider or directly to suppliers who already accept card payments. However, to do this you will need a separate, designated card pool for all of your supplier payments to be processed via Global Payments.
We recommend that client admins give the card pool a friendly name. This helps card deployers to easily identify which card pool(s) is to be used for payments to be processed by Global Payments on behalf of the supplier. Every virtual card created from that card pool will be processed via Global Payments.
Once Global Payments has been activated as the STP provider for your card pool(s), the following minimum data requirements apply for all card deployments for the card pool:
For payments to be successfully processed by Global Payments, all deployments must contain Buyer ID and Supplier ID values. Buyer IDs should be entered for each deployment into the Customer ID field in Visa Commercial Pay .
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Note: Customer ID is not a mandatory field by default, however, client administrators can make this field mandatory in the Manage Mandatory Data section of Visa Commercial Pay Online.
Client Admins must also set up a Custom Data Field named Field Supplier ID. Because any deployment without a Supplier ID will result in a failed payment through Global Payments, we strongly recommend that client admins make this field mandatory. Please see Custom Data Field Templates for help setting up custom data fields.
Up to 14 additional custom data fields can be communicated to Global Payments as part of the payment process. Please consult with your supplier if you feel values in any of these custom data fields could be useful to your supplier as part of their Accounts Receivable reconciliation process.
Once a supplier record has been set up, configured for Straight-Through Processing and approved by another Admin user, any user with card deployment rights will be able to make virtual card payments to this supplier in a straight-through manner.
To make a supplier payment to a supplier who has been boarded with a Straight-Through Processing provider, select Pay a Supplier from the navigation menu or the icon on the Visa Commercial Pay dashboard.
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All Suppliers who have been on-boarded with a Visa Commercial Pay Straight-Through Processing provider will be available for the card deployer to select. Select the Card Pool and enter the Payment Details and Custom Data Fields for the supplier payment, before clicking Create Payment.
If client admins have set up an approval workflow in Visa Commercial Pay, the standard approval workflow will apply for any supplier payments exceeding a user’s threshold. Please see the Approval Workflows section of this user guide for more information on setting up approval workflows.
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All Straight-Through Processing flows where Global Payments is the Visa Commercial Pay Straight-Through Processing provider, clients should follow the standard New Card workflow and not the Pay a Supplier workflow.
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The last four digits of the virtual card generated for the supplier payment will now display on screen. Full card details are not displayed in the Visa Commercial Pay screen for supplier payments made via Straight-Through Processing providers, however the Deployment ID, Supplier Reference and last four digits are all search criteria that can be used to locate the supplier payment in the Visa Commercial Pay product suite.
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In the background, Visa Commercial Pay and the selected Straight-Through Processing provider are automatically processing the virtual card payment on behalf of the supplier and delivering the funds into the supplier’s bank account. The deployment screen displays the status of the payment at all times.
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Please note that once a virtual card created for a supplier payment has been processed by a Visa Commercial Pay Straight-Through Processing provider, it is not possible to amend any payment already made to the supplier.
If the payment status with the STP Provider still displays as Pending, clicking Amend still allows you to change the Custom Data Fields, Supplier Reference, and the card controls (Charge Amount and Validity Dates) because the payment has not yet been processed.
If the payment status with the STP Provider is Complete, it will only be possible to update the card controls and the Supplier Reference.
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For any supplier payment where the STP Provider’s payment status is Pending, it is still possible to cancel the supplier payment because the payment has not yet been processed. If the STP Provider’s payment status is Complete, the deployment (and therefore the payment) can no longer be canceled.
The table below outlines all automated email notifications sent to buyers and suppliers during supplier onboarding and payments made via STP providers.
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Recipient |
Description |
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Supplier Stripe Invite |
Supplier |
Issued to suppliers from Visa Commercial Pay inviting them to complete the setup of their Stripe account (see Self-provisioned supplier-onboarding for further details). |
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Supplier Verification |
Supplier |
Verification email containing a single-use link providing access to the intended email account. |
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STP Provider Setup Complete |
Buyer (Admin user) |
Email confirmation notifying client admins that their supplier has completed the setup of their account with the chosen STP provider. |
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Supplier Requiring Approval |
Buyer (Admin user) |
Email notifying client admins that a supplier record is pending their approval in Visa Commercial Pay Online. |
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Supplier Approved |
Buyer (Admin user) |
Email notifying the Admin user that the setup of their supplier record has been approved by another Admin user. |
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Supplier Rejected |
Buyer (Admin user) |
Email notifying the Admin user that another Admin user has rejected the setup of their supplier record. |
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Supplier STP provider Account Status Changed |
Buyer (Admin user) |
A status change has been made to the STP Provider account held for a supplier. This could be either: 1) A notification to confirm that an STP Provider has now completed the steps required to process payments on behalf of a supplier. 2) A notification that the STP Provider requires further information about a supplier who had already been set up to accept card payments via Visa Commercial Pay before any further payments can be made to the supplier. Please see Updates to Stripe connected suppliers for further information. |