The number of purchasing cards continues to grow and is forecast to comprise 10% of B2B payments volume by 2010, Celent data shows. P-cards are also widely expected to play an important role in automating purchase orders and invoices and streamlining payments dataflow.

P-card-related programs lifted corporate expenditures at a compounded rate of about 21% since 2000, a report by Aberdeen Group showed. Transactional volumes grew 15% over the same period. There are new solutions of integrating p-cards with modern workflow and data management tools as well.

Payment process can be improved in the enterprises by automating them in order to decrease inefficiencies in the handling of paper checks. The move is aimed at improving cash flow and the efficiency of working capital.

Purchase-to-pay process is automated by implementing tools to digitize incoming invoices or to receive invoices that are already in an electronic format.