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Payment Hub for Wholesale Distributors: Self-Service Portal + ERP Integration

A branded B2B payment portal connected to Epicor P21, Eclipse, Acumatica, NetSuite, Sage X3, or SAP Business One — so your customers pay faster and your AR team stops applying cash by hand.

Payment Hub for Wholesale Distribution: Overview

Clarity Payment Hub is a B2B self-service payment portal engineered for wholesale distributors. Your customers — retailers, contractors, end-users, and dealer accounts — log in, see live open invoices pulled from your distribution ERP, and pay by card or ACH. Every payment posts back automatically to Prophet 21, Eclipse, Acumatica, NetSuite, or whichever distribution platform you run.

Wholesale distribution is a payments-heavy business. You might run thousands of invoices a month across hundreds of accounts, each with its own terms, credit limit, and pricing. Payment Hub does not try to replace your ERP — it extends it with a modern customer-facing portal and removes the manual cash application bottleneck that holds up your entire AR team.

The people using Payment Hub every day are AR managers, cash-app clerks, branch managers, credit managers, and customer service reps. The customers using the portal are purchasers, accounts payable staff, and owner-operators who want to pay invoices the same way they pay every other vendor — online, on their schedule, without a phone call.

The AR Problem in Wholesale Distribution

Wholesale distribution runs on volume and thin margin. You know the math: every dollar of DSO is a dollar of working capital locked up, and every point of interchange is margin walking out the door. Yet most distributors still apply cash by hand, mail invoices and statements on paper, and take payments over the phone when customers call in.

Distribution industry benchmarks show average DSO in the 40–55 day range, with top-quartile distributors sitting closer to 30 days. The difference is almost entirely a function of how easy you make it for customers to pay. Distributors that provide a self-service portal typically collect faster, take more ACH (cheaper to process), and reduce the manual labor required to apply cash correctly against hundreds of invoices a day.

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Manual Cash App From P21, Eclipse, or Eagle

Your AR team spends hours every day applying payments against the right invoices. Consolidated payments and partial payments make the keying even worse.

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High Card Processing Cost

Without Level II/III data passing, card payments on $5K, $20K, or $50K invoices hit the highest interchange tier and quietly erode margin.

Slow Collections

Net-30 easily slips to net-45 or net-60 when the only way to pay is phone or mail. Distribution DSO benchmarks show average collectors 10–20 days behind the top quartile.

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No Customer Self-Service

Customers who want to pay online have no way to do it. They call, wait, speak to a rep, read card numbers over the phone, and hope the payment applies correctly.

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Gateway Lock-in From ERP Add-ons

Native P21, Eclipse, or Acumatica payment modules often force a single processor, making competitive rates impossible.

The cost of inaction. For a distributor processing $50M a year in B2B card volume at 3.1% effective rate, just dropping to 2.2% through Level II/III data is $450,000 annually. Add DSO reduction, fewer cash-app errors, and reclaimed AR labor, and the cost of leaving AR manual adds up fast.

How Clarity Payment Hub Solves It

Payment Hub gives your customers a branded self-service portal connected to your distribution ERP through Clarity Connect. They log in, see open invoices pulled live from P21, Eclipse, Acumatica, NetSuite, Sage X3, or SAP B1, and pay a single invoice or a consolidated batch. Every payment posts back into the ERP as applied cash against the right invoices.

The result is a distribution AR operation that looks and feels modern without touching your ERP of record. Your branches keep their workflows. Your CSRs stop taking payments over the phone. Your customers start paying faster.

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Automatic Cash App Back to Your ERP

Clarity Connect posts every portal payment into P21, Eclipse, Acumatica, NetSuite, or SAP as applied cash — no manual keying, no misapplied payments.

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Consolidated Payment Workflow

Customers select any mix of open invoices and pay them in a single transaction. The portal splits and applies the cash against each invoice correctly.

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Level II/III B2B Interchange Data

Payment Hub passes the enhanced data fields that qualify B2B transactions for the lowest card interchange tiers — often saving 0.5–1.0%.

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Credit Limit and Balance Visibility

Customers see their account balance, aging, and credit position in real time, reducing credit-hold confusion at the branch counter.

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PCI-Compliant Tokenized Wallet

Saved cards and ACH accounts are tokenized at the processor — never stored on your servers. Repeat customers pay in two clicks.

Clarity Payment Hub portal displaying a distribution customer's open invoices with search, filter by date, and pay buttons
Invoice search and self-service payment — distributors' customers find any invoice in seconds and pay on their own schedule.
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No gateway lock-in. Payment Hub works with virtually any processor, so you can negotiate your own rates and pass Level II/III data to unlock the lowest B2B card interchange — without replacing your P21, Eclipse, Acumatica, or NetSuite environment.

Common Wholesale Distribution Scenarios

Here are a few representative situations we see across distributors and how Clarity Payment Hub addresses each:

Regional distributor on Epicor Prophet 21

Situation:A plumbing and HVAC distributor with 15 branches runs P21. AR team applies 400+ payments a day by hand, and ~3% get misapplied.
Solution:Payment Hub goes live in under a week. Customers get emailed statements with pay links; ACH and card payments post back to P21 as applied cash automatically.
Outcome:Manual keying drops 80%, cash-app error rate falls below 0.3%, and DSO improves 6 days in the first quarter.

Electrical distributor on Epicor Eclipse

Situation:A multi-location electrical distributor on Eclipse takes most payments by check and phone. Credit-card interchange is averaging 3.2%.
Solution:Payment Hub deploys against Eclipse with a B2B-optimized gateway passing Level II/III data; customers self-register and use consolidated-pay flows.
Outcome:Effective card cost drops to 2.3%; check volume falls sharply; ACH adoption climbs over 50% of payment dollars within six months.

Specialty distributor on Acumatica

Situation:A $40M specialty products distributor on Acumatica wants a customer portal but has no appetite for custom development.
Solution:Payment Hub ships as a packaged, pre-built solution tied to Acumatica via Clarity Connect. Branded portal live in 48 hours.
Outcome:Customer-facing payment experience modernized; AR team redirected to higher-value credit and dispute work; customer NPS climbs.

Benefits for Wholesale Distribution Companies

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Lower DSO

Customers pay faster when it takes two clicks instead of a phone call. Distributors typically see 5–10 day DSO improvements.

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Level II/III Card Savings

Enhanced data passing often cuts effective card cost by 0.5–1.0% on B2B transactions.

Eliminated Cash-App Errors

Automated posting via Clarity Connect drives misapplied-payment rates toward zero.

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24/7 Customer Self-Service

Your customers pay on their schedule, not yours. Phones stop ringing with payment questions.

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ACH Adoption

The portal makes ACH as easy as card, shifting volume to the cheapest payment method.

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PCI Scope Minimized

Tokenization keeps raw card data off your infrastructure.

5–10 days
typical DSO improvement for distributors
0.5–1.0%
typical card-interchange savings with Level II/III
48 hrs
typical go-live time
80%+
reduction in manual cash-app labor

Distribution AR managers, cash-app clerks, credit managers, and CSRs all get time back when Payment Hub is in place. Branch managers get fewer payment-related interruptions. CFOs and controllers get real-time visibility into collections and cash position. And your customers — purchasers and AP staff at retailers, contractors, and end-users — get the digital self-service experience they expect.

ERPs We Integrate With for Wholesale Distribution

Wholesale distribution runs on a handful of dominant ERPs, and Payment Hub integrates with all of them via Clarity Connect. Here are the distribution ERPs we deploy against most often, each with a matching battlecard.

Integration pattern: Distributors typically run a single core ERP (P21, Eclipse, Eagle, Acumatica, NetSuite, or SAP B1) with one or two gateway relationships. Clarity Connect bridges both sides: pulling live invoices, pushing applied cash, and handling Level II/III pass-through on card payments for the lowest B2B interchange.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which distribution ERPs does Payment Hub integrate with?

Payment Hub integrates with Epicor Prophet 21, Epicor Eclipse, Epicor Eagle, Acumatica, NetSuite, Sage X3, SAP Business One, and more through Clarity Connect. Each major distribution ERP has a dedicated battlecard detailing the integration.

Can customers pay multiple invoices in one transaction?

Yes. Consolidated invoice payment is standard. Customers pick any mix of open invoices, pay once, and the portal splits and posts the payment against each invoice in the ERP automatically.

Will we save money on card processing?

Typically yes. Distributors processing B2B volume without Level II/III data are usually paying 0.5–1.0% more than necessary. Payment Hub passes the enhanced data required for the lowest B2B interchange tiers.

Are we locked into a payment processor?

No. Payment Hub is gateway-agnostic — keep your processor or negotiate better rates, without rebuilding your portal.

How long does it take to deploy for a distributor?

Most distributor deployments go live in 48 hours of receiving ERP sandbox credentials. The platform is packaged and pre-built, not a custom engagement.

Can ACH payments be prioritized over cards?

Yes. You control which payment methods appear and can prioritize ACH to shift volume to the cheaper method.

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