A tech platform helps one company fix fragmentation in supply chain finance, dynamic discounting and virtual card programs.
At the spring meeting of NeuGroup for Working Capital Optimization, a member with a background in treasury who is now director of global procurement described how SAP Taulia—sponsor of the meeting—helped transform his company’s fragmented approach to working capital tools into a single global program offering vendors supply chain finance, dynamic discounting and virtual cards. He now has clear visibility through one dashboard where finance leaders can “toggle between different cash needs” and access all working capital levers. - Before making the move, the member said, “There was no fintech platform. It was a regional approach: a dynamic discounting platform here, an SCF bank there. We did a virtual card in this market, another one in a different market. Early last year, I got sign off from our leadership to streamline all these various fragmented approaches to one global overlay.”
The supply chain finance KYC puzzle. Among the biggest benefits for the member: The elimination of know-your-customer friction that depressed and delayed SCF enrollment by suppliers. “We wanted to do away with the KYC process, and we literally just wanted a button for a supplier to say, ‘sign me up.’” He achieved that outcome because suppliers were already using the SAP Taulia portal to view approved invoices. “When a supplier signs up for the AP invoice portal, the banks will take that as their KYC. So it's a straight-through process for SCF adoption of the suppliers,” he said.
- Another reason to move to SAP Taulia was a broad ERP consolidation about a decade ago when the company's CFO decided to standardize all ERPs to SAP following a major acquisition. SAP acquired Taulia in 2022 and the platform’s integration with SAP allows for more automated data flows, reducing reliance on file-based processes and simplifying reconciliation.
- An SAP Taulia executive at the meeting said, “We're embedded within SAP. So think about not having to set up a file, and automatic [API] calls that happen between SAP and our solution. So that's the beauty of it.”
- Taulia's analytics layer provides data on purchase orders, invoices and payments, helping identify cases where suppliers are being paid early outside of a formal discounting program.
- Taulia also markets the programs the company offers suppliers to increase adoption. “We do have marketing campaigns that we work with our buyers on, and those are sent out via e-mail and can be sent out from the buyers' URL,” the SAP Taulia exec said.
Drawing lines between treasury and procurement. At the member company, the SAP Taulia platform works within a clear governance structure in which treasury owns liquidity decisions and procurement negotiates price and relationships. Category managers are given a payment term target and held to it, but the mechanism for early supplier payment is a treasury decision based on funding cost, available liquidity and supplier need. This separation has made it easier to extend terms without creating commercial friction.
- "Procurement does not decide liquidity of the company," the member stated. "That's treasury's mandate. We negotiate best-in-class price and supplier relationships. And if they want liquidity, then we bring the working capital tool to them." The company's standard payment terms are net 90 days, and managers are given targets around payment term optimization but do not negotiate static early-payment discounts.
- Suppliers that want early payment are offered access to the Taulia platform via dynamic discounting or supply chain finance. "Treasury's essentially deciding the economics of using dynamic discounting versus other use of the cash, and then deciding what return they like better," the member said.
- For dynamic discounting, the company retains full discretion. "We do not guarantee cash flow," the member noted. "We have the right to turn it off." Suppliers that need greater AR predictability are steered toward supply chain finance, where the bank's balance sheet funds the early payment. "If you want AR predictability, SCF. If you want cost predictability but we can't guarantee you the money will be there, dynamic discounting."
- Net cash position is the KPI, not the growth in the programs. “Via treasury, I have an overall cash target I have to hit,” the member said. “It doesn’t matter how I get there,” the member said. That allows the team to use different levers depending on the quarter, supplier segment and cash position.
Looking ahead. The company is preparing to migrate its existing virtual card program, described by the member as "the hardest thing to reconcile in our company," to the Taulia virtual card solution. More broadly, the member's priority is expanding the program without adding headcount. "How can we continue to scale this program and still have cash flow growth with less cost on our side to support the program," he said.
- The platform's integration within SAP's infrastructure is central to that vision—not just for reconciliation, but for embedding working capital tools into the procurement culture so that every supplier interaction defaults to a consistent, scalable process.
