A report published by Payments UK explains how having more data linked to a payment would benefit corporates making payments in the UK.

A focus on Enhanced Data with payments looks at what enhanced data actually is, why we need it, what it can offer and who it will benefit.

The report follows on from Payments UK’s World Class Payments in the UK report last August, which set out four priorities for the future of world-class payments (the other three are open access, request to pay and confirmation of payee).

Automated reconciliation

For corporate payments, Enhanced Data will mean the development of accounts software to increase the opportunities to process payment reconciliation automatically, reducing the current need for manual intervention to match a payment with its remittance advice.

The proposed Enhanced Data payment journey

The chart below illustrates how the payment is made, together with the routing of data crucial to the settlement and reconciliation of the payment.

Source: Payments UK

Payment formats are currently limited in the amount of data they can attach to the payment, which can mean that reconciliation has to be done manually and accounts receivable has to match up an incoming payment with a separately sent remittance information form, often by email.

Tim Yudin, Payments UK’s director of design and delivery, said: “We have spent the last two years listening to what customers and users of payments ideally would like from their payment experience. One of these is to get more information with their payments – known as Enhanced Data. Our evidence shows that this innovation would yield significant benefits to all customers but particularly for businesses and government who need to reconcile payments.”