B2B Payment Reconciliation Barriers Persisted
Fragmented data standards have forced businesses to rely on manual processes despite the decline in check usage.
Updated on Sept. 28, 2026 in Remote Work
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The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland reported that incompatible payment standards and disconnected remittance data continue to prevent automated processing for B2B transactions. While check volume has decreased, businesses still struggle with manual reconciliation across different messaging formats.
Why it matters
The separation of payment and remittance data creates significant overhead, preventing straight-through processing. For operators, this creates persistent operational friction that keeps administrative costs high even as payment methods modernize.
B2B check volume declined to 2.7 billion in 2024 from 4.6 billion in 2015, representing a drop in transaction share from 32% to 13%. Meanwhile, 58% of small- to medium-sized businesses prioritize system integration as a critical factor in their technology evaluations.
The players
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland
A regional bank within the U.S. central banking system that monitors financial stability and payments infrastructure.
The details
Reconciliation remains hindered by the use of distinct standards, with wire and instant payments using ISO 20022, cards using ISO 8583, and legacy ACH payments relying on ANSI ASC X12. Because invoicing and payments operate as separate silos, businesses must manually align remittance data with bank settlements. This misalignment forces companies to maintain inefficient administrative workflows regardless of their chosen payment method.
Timeline
2015: B2B check payments totaled 4.6 billion transactions.
September 25, 2026: The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland released two research briefs on B2B processing.
Market Landscape
The reliance on legacy ANSI ASC X12 formats for ACH payments creates a fragmented environment that persists even as global financial markets shift toward ISO 20022 messaging standards. This gap between newer payment rails and established EDI formats marks a continuing barrier to achieving industry-wide automation.
Operators should review their current accounts payable and receivable workflows to identify where remittance data is manually reconciled against bank statements. Prioritize technology vendors that support automated data mapping between your accounting system and multiple payment rails.
The takeaway
The persistence of manual B2B reconciliation is less about the payment method and more about the fragmentation of underlying data formats. Operators should monitor their software providers' roadmaps for cross-standard compatibility to ensure they aren't paying for outdated, manual data entry.
Further reading
For more on the operational shifts in how companies manage staff and workflows, see the Remote Work section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by PYMNTS.
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