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Leaders In Payments
Leaders In Payments
Special Series: Modern Finance with John Rubinetti, President of B2B Payments at Deluxe | Episode 435
Bridging the gap between Treasury, Accounts Receivable, and Accounts Payable represents the critical "last mile" in financial automation. John Rubenetti, President of B2B Payments at Deluxe, reveals how leading organizations are connecting these traditionally siloed functions to create seamless, intelligent financial ecosystems.
The challenge isn't implementing individual automation solutions—it's connecting them. "The friction shows up in the handoffs," Rubenetti explains. When data and money flow through disconnected systems, finance leaders lose visibility and control. True transformation happens when organizations align technology, people, and processes to create end-to-end financial workflows.
Many CFOs underestimate the complexity of integration. They may believe they understand departmental processes but miss critical dependencies or manual workarounds. Data quality becomes another stumbling block—if information isn't clean today, automation won't deliver promised insights. Rubenetti advises starting with a clear vision, taking a phased approach, and choosing partners who understand both the technology and change management aspects.
The conversation explores how modern thinking must accompany modern tools. While dashboards provide visibility, embedding intelligence directly into workflows creates transformative value. Instead of merely reporting numbers, advanced systems prioritize actions, handle exceptions through AI, and trigger automated responses—shifting from static reporting to dynamic decision support.
Rubenetti highlights three significant B2B payment trends: mid-market automation (where 70% still lack automated AP/AR processes), enhanced security (as "fraud thrives in manual processes"), and payment modernization. Despite technological advances, paper checks remain surprisingly prevalent, particularly among small and mid-sized businesses who value the detailed information that accompanies them.
Deluxe has evolved far beyond its reputation as "the check company" to become a comprehensive payments and data organization. Their solutions now span the entire financial ecosystem—from treasury management to merchant services—helping businesses move money faster, safer, and more efficiently while maintaining the data integrity essential for strategic decision-making.
Ready to complete your financial automation journey? Start by mastering the basics before pursuing flashier technologies. The foundation you build today will determine your success tomorrow.
Welcome to this special four-part series titled Modern Finance, sponsored by Deluxe, where we explore the future of financial automation. From Treasury to accounts payable and receivable, we're diving into how AI and intelligent automation are transforming every corner of finance. In each episode, you'll hear from leaders at Deluxe who are driving innovation and delivering real-world results. Whether you're navigating compliance, fighting fraud, or connecting the financial dots, this series is packed with insights you won't want to miss.
SPEAKER_02:Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Leaders in Payments Podcast. I'm your host, Greg Myers. This episode is part of our four-part series titled Modern Finance and is being brought to you by Deluxe. We kicked off the series with a fascinating episode with Yoges Jay Aprokassam from Deluxe, where we discuss how AI is influencing the payments ecosystem and specifically treasury management. In the second episode, I spoke with Pat Moy about accounts receivable automation. In the third episode, I spoke with Steve Bookberger and Heather Daywood about accounts payable automation. Today I'm honored to have as our very special guest, John Rubenetti, the president of B2B Payments at Deluxe. We're going to be talking about the last mile of automation, modern tools versus modern thinking, and some B2B payment trends. So, John, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show. Greg, thanks for having me.
SPEAKER_01:Really appreciate the opportunity.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. So let's get started by talking a little bit about you and Deluxe. So if you don't mind, tell our audience a little bit about yourself, maybe where you grew up, where you went to school, where you currently live, a few things like that.
SPEAKER_01:Sure, sure. So I am originally from New Jersey, spent my whole life there for this deluxe opportunity. 18 months ago, moved down to Atlanta. So I've been in Atlanta for a little bit. It's a little uh little different than New Jersey, but it's been really great. I've really enjoyed my time down here. I went to school in New Jersey, did my undergrad at Montclair State, did my master's at Seton Hall. So I'm kind of Jersey Jersey Jersey. So but it's been good. I've been in payments for 20 plus years. Uh started my career at American Express on the commercial card side, then in the B2B payments, then I moved on the banking side, spent time at Citizens Bank and the treasure uh running treasury sales for their uh business banking and commercial enterprise banking. Then went on to the other side of payments, which is the merchant side of the business at uh Bank of America merchant services, first data joint venture. Did that for about five years, and then five years when FISERF bought First Data, had the opportunity to move over to FISERF. So it was a good time, and then uh moved over to Deluxe, which kind of compassed all of my experience and bank contacts and selling into banks and managing banks relationships. So it's been fun, it's been a nice ride and uh made a lot of friends along the way.
SPEAKER_02:Great, great. So for those who may not be familiar, can you give us a quick overview of what deluxe does and the role it plays in the payments and financial ecosystem? Sure.
SPEAKER_01:Because yeah, do you know what deluxe is a company that a lot of people know the name and know us as the check company, but they don't know, you know, or realize how big of a role we actually do play in payments. And um, we work with a little over 4,000 or almost 4,000 banks and a little over 300,000 businesses to help them move money. And whether that's automated payables, automated receivables, whether it's running their lockbox operations, whether it's paying by check, utilizing our data tools to go after and win new customers for our financial institutions, or whether it's paying and accepting credit cards, right? Those are our businesses that at the end of the day, our job at deluxe is to really make payments faster, safer, and easier to use so that our clients can then go ahead and service their customers more effectively. Okay. Well, if you don't mind, tell us about your role today at deluxe. So my role as president of B2B payments, I oversee our sales, our go-to-market, our lockbox operation for our customers, our digital payables and receivables solutions. So basically, I manage the bank relationships, manage our client relationships. We go to the we go to market two ways. We go one through the banks that sell our products to their customers, and then we do also go direct to some of the larger lockbox providers. Think about utilities like you know, Comcast and American Express and Synchrony, and those are our big customers that uh we do their lockbox for. So that's it. So I spent a lot of time in front of our customers talking about what they need and what's changing in the uh in the payment space, and a lot of time in the markets. So yeah, it's been exciting.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, great. So let's dive into the topic at hand, the last mile of automation. So bridging treasury, AR, and AP. And we've talked about the treasury function in AI. We talked about automating accounts receivable, we talked about automating accounts payable. So to set the stage for this conversation, how do you define the last mile of automation across Treasury AR and AP?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so when I talk about the last mile, I'm I'm thinking about taking the good work that we've done and automating AP and AR and Treasury and then actually connecting it. I think a lot of companies do a real good job of finding a solution, right? But the friction that shows up in the handoffs, right? How the receivables data gets into the ERP system or how payments get reconciled by Treasury or how AP forecasts, right? I think that gets lost. So I think the last mile in my mind is about stitching those pieces together so that data and the money flow seamlessly, and that gives finance leaders the visibility into the cash and the ability to act on it real time. I mean, that's what the last mile in my mind is.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So let's assume a company starts down this path of integrating Treasury, AR, and AP into one kind of unified financial ecosystem. What is the key to this modernization being successful?
SPEAKER_01:From my perspective, it's alignment, right? The key is alignment, right? Alignment between the technology that you're selecting, the people that are utilizing it, and the processes that they have in place. When you get those aligned, that's where it kind of can come together. I think all too often companies invest in a great tool, right? But to get the groups to work together and get those teams to interact together, that's the piece that's kind of always missing. And I think a pitfall, right, that's out there is really underestimating data, right? And if the data is not coming in clean today or being consistent, the automation is not gonna deliver the insights that were promised by the technology, right? And I think the other piece that is so important here is the change management, right? The finance teams are busy today. So if the rollout of this is either disruptive, right, or too complex, the adoption's gonna lag, right? And so I think the companies that are successful are the ones that start out with a good, clear vision of the outcomes that they want. They take a phased approach because that's not always that easy to kind of have that patience, right? And then they choose the right partners that can help them integrate and adopt along the way. And so those three things are critical to success.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And you mentioned alignment. So how does deluxe help with that?
SPEAKER_01:So I think it's more about our approach to it and where what we don't do is just take a product and jam it in. What we try to do is ask the questions who's using it. Let's talk to those users, right? How you approach that conversation is just as important as the tool you have, right? The tool, like I said, is only one piece. It's understanding how it's going to be used, it's understanding how they do things today, and it's understanding how that change management process works. So we coach through that and we have kind of that approach with our customers.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And you did mention one sort of common pitfall, but are there other things that they should watch out for?
SPEAKER_01:Look, I think making sure they truly understand, right? A lot of times a CFO can say, Oh, yeah, I know what AP does, I know what AR does. And there are a few steps that they may have not understood fully, right? So really understanding the whole, you know, start-to-end process and kind of what happens in between, that's a pitfall that sometimes they think, oh yeah, you know, that's easy for AP to automate. And it's really not because they have some annual processes that they may not know about. They have a spreadsheet that they use and that that's not really effective or known. And so it's really uncovering what the true process is and the different touch points.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Well, let's talk about modern tools versus modern thinking. So, what modern tools does deluxe offer for this modernization or automation experience to CFOs and other financial leaders?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, and I'm glad you guys have done a real good job at highlighting several of our solutions, right? But first and foremost, it's receivables 360 plus, right? Which is AI-powered cash application solution. It is really modern and really gaining a lot of momentum in the marketplace. We have our integrated payable solution through the deluxe payment exchange. We launched our acquisition of JPMorgan Chase's check match. And so we've combined into one network to basically digitize the delivery of checks through directly to lockboxes. And so we're really, really excited about that. And then I think merchant services, which is helping businesses manage their payments seamlessly and accept payments. So I think those are the things that we're really excited about. But I kind of said this before, it's beyond the tools, it's about the kind of modern thinking and the modern go-to-market that we're thinking about. So I'm talking to my peers like Brian Mahane, who leads merchant services, is how do we work together? How do we come together? How do we talk about our solutions better to show that they integrate as part of a connected kind of ecosystem, right? That provides that better visibility. And our receivables platform, we have the ability to bring the merchant data in and bring all the ACH and the wire, right? So when you can bring all those payments together and talk about it in that way, that's what I think gives us that advantage.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Yeah, that's a great segue to the next question. So, from a modern thinking perspective, how do you coach financial leaders to move from sort of that dashboard mentality to more of an embedded decisioning as just an example?
SPEAKER_01:It's a great point, right? Because some of these solutions are like, oh, we'll give you a dashboard. And dashboards are great, right? And I love them. I think they're the first step that give you that visibility, but it's that modern thinking, that thinking of, you know, embedded decisioning, right? That's the next step and making sure embedding that into your workflow, right? And understanding the workflow so that you can not only improve it, right, but give them what they're looking for. I think what happens with dashboards is you get stuck staring at the numbers, but not necessarily having that insight real time to make decisions. So again, instead of just opening the dashboard, right, and seeing those numbers, ideally you want someone to have the embedded decisioning in there, right? Where you can prioritize which ones to work on, where you can take exceptions and use AI to start allowing those exceptions to go through, where you can work on the more complex ones, right? Where you can identify where to prioritize payments and what that does for your cash flow, right? Or even trigger a payment on the AP side, right? Those are the things that are embedded. You know, that takes a dashboard and really makes it take it to the next level. And so when they can look at that dashboard and have the embedded decisioning in there, it gives them the opportunity to shift from just looking at reports to really having automation that drives the outcomes which they want, which is better visibility into their cache and what to do with it.
SPEAKER_02:So it's really a mindset difference, right? It's kind of going from a static display to understanding what's going on behind the numbers. Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:That's the piece that really separates a company who buys a solution, right, versus someone who kind of really understands the process and what the solution's solving for.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:Well, how does a CFO or a company know that they've been successful integrating these functions into one system? Are there KPIs or other indicators that really define success?
SPEAKER_01:I think that the clearest signs of success show up on both the efficiency side and the insight side, right? So on the efficiency side, you'll see faster cash application, you'll see lower DSO, you'll see reduced manual touches, right? And a smoother reconciliation. And then on the insight side, a CFO is going to get real-time view of their cash, you know, and drive better forecasting, right? I think, you know, if I'm a CFO, if I can answer the question of where is my cash today and what should I do with it, that's when you'll see and know that the integration is working because you'll be able to kind of make those decisions so much easier and it'll be better for your business long term.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. For this last section, I'd like to focus on some trends in the marketplace when it comes to B2B payments. And you laid them out real nicely in a recent interview. So I wanted to walk through those with you. Trend number one, and we've talked a lot about this automating AP and AR. So kind of what a few of the past episodes have been about, but where do you see the biggest opportunity in that space?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, look, I think the biggest opportunity is in that middle market space. I think often it's in that space and through the bank partners, right? This is where banks, regional banks, and even the larger banks have really a stronghold on that mid-market customer base, right? And largely the large corporates have already heavily invested in automation and that, but the mid-sized companies, they're still wrestling with you know manual processes, paper checks, spreadsheets, right? Even systems that are not working together. They're just siloed, right? So they add one system to help with one thing, add another to help another, but they're not really talking. And I think, like I said, the banks are really in a perfect position to help deliver the automation to that segment. And I think for deluxe, we play right into that, right? And so we provide those tools like 360, like deluxe payment exchange, like deluxe payment network, so that they can take them to market quickly. And that's where we see kind of the greatest near-term lift is helping those mid-market companies, letting the banks kind of score that point with them on getting them to focus on other things for their financial institution, not these processes. So I think there's a really big opportunity in that mid-market space for the banks.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Trend number two, security and fraud. I mean, it can't get any bigger than that one from a trend perspective, right? And we've only briefly during this series touched on it. So how does automating AR and AP help reduce fraud?
SPEAKER_01:Aaron Powell Well, look, I think everybody is well aware that fraud thrives in manual processes, right? That that's that's just where it is. Paper checks, email approvals, spreadsheets that you know the AP and AR groups pass around, right? But when you automate there, you start to build controls, you build your audit trails, you you have digital approvals, right? You have bank rate encryption in things, right? And AI can flag things, anomalies for you before payments go out, right? So those kind of things reduce the opportunity for bad actors, but it also gives a CFO peace of mind because the system is actually working in the background, right, to protect not only their cash, but their data. And so that's the biggest thing I could say, right? Fraud thrives on those manual processes, and we have to get them out for their sake.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm still amazed there's so many companies that still have so many manual processes and write checks and have those kind of manual walk down the hall, have someone sign off on something. It just seems like we should be way past that, but I know we're really not.
SPEAKER_01:No, you know what? It's when I tell people, you know, what I'm responsible for, and they're like, people are still paying by checks. And I'm like, yeah, they are. And small businesses and mid-sized companies are even higher, right? Because they're still, they want that detail, they want that data to come with it. And that's why we feel like we're in a really good position at deluxe because we have that data for them. We have the ability to bring that in and help automate that stuff for them. So I'd like checks to slowly move and me be the one to help move them, not not the other way around. So, but yeah, I thought we'd be farther along. There's just until I think they're really fully integrated, that's when you have the ability to do that. Otherwise, if you're doing it one-off, people are that's sometimes just the easier way to do it because it's the way they've always done it.
SPEAKER_02:Yep, yep, absolutely. So the last trend, trend number three, is payment modernization. And you've talked about that in the past. So, can you explain what that means and why it's so relevant to the ARAP automation?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's kind of a little bit about what I was just talking about, right? So payment modernization is giving businesses more choice, speed, and transparency about how the money moves, right? Where everyone's talking about real-time payments, FedNow, ACH, deluxe payment exchange, right? All those rails need to be part of the mix, right? And if you're an ARAP or AR, that means the automation needs to be flexible enough. So if you're doing more checks today, you need that ability. And maybe you'll go to less checks down the road, but if you don't have the ability to have all of those payment rails kind of integrated into one solution, that's the modernization you need to start to maximize the efficiency and the types, right? And the data that comes along with it. I always say modernization matters just because it's not just about moving the money faster, it's about making sure that the data travels with it so that finance has the ability to make better decisions. And that's the piece where I think we need to get to is that modernization piece of having those things in one place so that you can make better decisions on what you're doing.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. So, John, this has been a great discussion so far. If there's one key insight or piece of advice you want Treasury and finance leaders to take away from this conversation, what would that be?
SPEAKER_01:You know, I get this a lot, and my answer is it's always very similar, right? I think so many people, and we do in our personal lives, right? They look at shiny objects or the new thing. Who wants the new iPhone? Who wants, you know, you go get the new iPhone and you don't even know how to use the iPhone that you had, right? And so I'm a big fan of focusing on the basics, right? And automate first. That way you can take advantage of all these wonderful things and AI that's part of it. You know, stat I like to share, right, is 70% of mid-market companies do not have an automated AP or AR process, right? So from my perspective, they can't even think about AI and those kind of things until they get that done. So, you know, it may not be sexy for a lot of people, but I can promise you it's effective and it gets you to where you need to be so that you can take the next step. But stick into the basics, don't get wowed by the well, you can do all this AI. You can't do AI unless you have data and you have a place to go. And so I'm just a big fan of just the basics. Do the basics really well, automate that first. That's my advice to bankers that are out there that are talking to mid-market customers, have this conversation. And if you're a mid-market company, have the conversation with your organization. Trust me, they're all doing things that they know they shouldn't be doing, and there's ways to do them better. So they actually welcome the opportunity to talk about it. They're not as scared as people used to be about because everyone's using it themselves. And so it's a different time, it's not like you're introducing, you know, an automation process that no one heard of, right? So they're aware of it. And so don't be scared of it. Have the conversation.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Well, is there anything else you wanted to cover before we wrap up the show?
SPEAKER_01:You know, look, I think I would want to reiterate what I started out with, right? Which is many people know deluxe as the check company. And, you know, if you read our tagline, we're a payments and data company, and we have transitioned over the last five years, but a lot of people haven't followed that transition. And when you look at what we're doing in the automated payables and receivab space and the automation deluxe payment exchange, and that taking the post office and mail out and automating and digitizing checks into lockboxes, that's the kind of stuff that we're doing at deluxe. And people want to understand that because we're about much more than just checks, and we're really helping businesses and banks automate all the payables and receivables processes. So I think that's my message for folks we're not the deluxe that you think you know.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, great, John. I think that's a great way to wrap up. So thanks so much for being on the show today. I know your time's very valuable, so I really appreciate you being here.
SPEAKER_01:Greg, thank you for having me. Appreciate the opportunity.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. And to all you listeners out there, I thank you for your time as well. And until the next story.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you'd like more information on the transformative potential of AI and automation in modern finance, please visit www.delux.com slash receivables hyphen management slash cash hyphen application.