BirchStreet Partners With Viewpost to Expand SmartPay for Hospitality

What the partnership adds to SmartPay

BirchStreet SmartPay™ is an embedded solution that lets hospitality operators manage supplier payments as part of the end-to-end procure-to-pay process. According to BirchStreet, it processes billions of dollars in annual payment volume.

Through the Viewpost partnership, BirchStreet is extending its supplier enablement and payment conversion capabilities. The stated goal is that customers can digitize more payments with less effort. The company says AI-enriched analysis and continuous supplier outreach help identify suppliers at the moment they are most likely to accept electronic payments. This is meant to increase participation, speed up the conversion of remaining paper payments, and improve the experience for both buyers and suppliers.

Fitting into existing systems and keeping control of funds

BirchStreet says the expanded capabilities are delivered through SmartPay and designed to fit within the ERP workflows, payment processors and banking relationships customers already use. The aim is to minimize operational change.

On the funding side, the company says Viewpost routes payments through suppliers' preferred digital methods while allowing clients to retain control of their funds until settlement, rather than funding payments in advance. According to BirchStreet, this preserves liquidity, improves cash flow and maximizes float.

The two companies also list several expected benefits for hospitality operators:

• Higher electronic payment adoption
• Better payment control and visibility
• Streamlined reconciliation
• Reduced fraud exposure associated with paper checks

Comments from both companies

John McCaffrey, COO and President of BirchStreet, said: "Payments create the most value when they are a seamless extension of the procure-to-pay process." He added that combining BirchStreet's hospitality-specific platform with Viewpost's approach to supplier enablement and payment conversion should help customers digitize more payments faster while improving visibility, control and efficiency.

Jordan Novak, Chief Revenue Officer of Viewpost, said: "Together, Viewpost and BirchStreet are setting a new standard for embedded payments in hospitality."

About the companies and what it means for operators

BirchStreet was founded in 2002 and describes itself as a leading global provider of enterprise procure-to-pay solutions for the hospitality industry. Its AI-enabled platform covers eProcurement, accounts payable automation, invoice management, inventory management, recipe management, supplier payments and analytics. The company says its customers manage tens of billions of spend annually across categories such as food and beverage, operating supplies, maintenance services and capital projects.

Viewpost describes itself as an enterprise payments technology company focused on accelerating the digitization of B2B transactions at scale. It says it converts check-based payments into secure electronic alternatives at the point of payment issuance.

For hospitality operators already using BirchStreet, the announcement points to a way to move more supplier payments off paper without replacing their ERP, payment processors or banks. The release does not give pricing, availability dates or performance figures, so the real-world impact on payment conversion rates remains to be shown.