Simplifying online management of B2B mandates
Many companies wish to conclude B2B mandates with their customers in order to reduce their risks *. However, there is a lot to be done when the mandate cannot be concluded online. After all, for B2B mandates, a company must receive the confirmation that the mandate has been registered at the customer's bank.
With the paper flow , the customer must go to his bank to personally register the paper documents he received. If afterwards something turns out to be wrong or missing, the customer once more has to go to his bank. The documents must ultimately also be delivered to the supplier, as in this case only paper documents with a “wet” signature are considered to be valid.
In addition to the loss of time caused by the trips to the bank and the paper flow, we also identified at Twikey numerous other disadvantages of this way of working:
- The input of the mandate number (this is a mandatory number on the document) by the bank may sometimes be prone to errors.
- Not all bank employees know that a B2B mandate must always be registered at the bank. After all, this is not necessary for a CORE mandate.
- The customer forgets to communicate this registration to his supplier, who therefore keeps on waiting.
- The entire paper process may take from 2 to 8 weeks, which may put off a number of companies.
- The customer lies about the registration, in order to have goods or services delivered.
In this digital age, this way of working is no longer appropriate, but in times of Covid-19 you can in principle no longer conclude new contracts and mandates with professional customers this way. If you want to keep your company “up and running”, you can't help but digitize and conclude your B2B mandates online. This not only saves you a lot of time butbecause of the greatly simplified process, more customers will also be inclined to conclude a mandate digitally. A number of Twikey customers achieve a success rate of 100% in this domain!
What exactly does Twikey do with B2B mandates?
Unique solution in Belgium for B2B Direct Debits
These last few years, we have developed a unique network with all major Belgian banks. The necessary technical and business connections have been established. We have developed a complete procedure for B2B mandates with the Belgian banks Belfius, BNP Paribas Fortis, ING, KBC, Crelan and Bank J. Van Breda.
We defined with each bank how we would transmit them the signed documents and what kind of signatures they would accept. Frequently used online signing mechanisms are eID, itsme and some banks even allow the customer to sign with his bank card.
The banks also immediately check a number of key data that could possibly prevent the registration of the mandate:
- was it the proxy holder of the account who signed
- are there no required signatures missing
- can B2B mandates be concluded for the account specified
- is the account not blocked
If all these requirements are met, the customer will be informed of this and he will be sure that the mandate has been registered with the bank under the correct mandate number. The supplier is also immediately informed of this.
From time to time, we at Twikey encounter suppliers who check via a Direct Debit of 0.01 euro if the mandate has been correctly registered with the bank. In the case of a negative reply, they know that the mandate has not been registered correctly. This 0.01 euro Direct Debit check is completely unnecessary with a digital flow.
Finally, the digital mandate is stored in the Twikey environment of the supplier and automatically forwarded to his bank. From that moment onwards, it can be the object of collections.
Market leader for B2B mandates in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, we were the first party to conclude B2B mandates with the eMachtiging protocol. The Dutch procedure is very similar to the Belgian one. The same data are checked by the bank and the customer immediately receives a confirmation of the valid registration of the mandate.
Different from Belgium is that in the Netherlands customers can only sign through the banking applications (signing with the token in the banking environment). In addition, the banks also provide less feedback about possible errors.
On the other hand, Dutch customers can set a limit amount when signing the mandate. When collecting, the bank will check that this limit is not exceeded and will refuse the collection if this is the case. Twikey will of course forward this information.
Digital B2B mandates in other countries?
Unfortunately, there are currently no initiatives in other countries to digitize this B2B flow. Twikey is currently talking with a number of major foreign banks, but it will probably take a while before some progress is made in this field.
Twikey has worked out a solution for these countries that ensures the follow-up of the paper exchange, whereby both the start and the end of the process are handled completely digitally. Only the end customer still has to go through a “paper” flow and pay a visit to his bank.
Extra asset during Covid-19
Both the banks and Twikey prefer this online way of working. To give you a boost, we offer free online training on the use of our solution to companies that subscribe with us before 1 June 2020.
Do not hesitate to contact us should you wish more information on digital B2B mandates or regarding our solution.
*More information on setting up B2B mandates, their advantages and how to manage them online can be found in this blog.
