Unlocking financial success
Payment method capture up 30%, the product decision that made automation work
Notch Financial had automation in place, but suppliers were still getting paid late. The issue was not usability or feature coverage. It was a product decision that allowed customers to avoid providing payment information.
The Real Constraint
Notch Financial is an AP and AR automation platform used by suppliers to invoice and collect payments from their customers.
On paper, the system worked. Invoices were sent on time. Reminders were automated. Payments could be processed digitally.
In reality, cash flow was unpredictable.
Most suppliers did not have credit card or banking information on file for their customers. That meant payments depended on follow ups, checks, and manual workarounds. Automation existed, but it could not be enforced.
Late payments were not caused by broken flows or missing features. They were caused by a decision the product allowed. Customers could access invoices without committing a payment method.
As long as that remained true, suppliers would continue to chase payments instead of collecting them.
This was not an execution problem.
It was a decision problem.
Ownership
I owned the product decision behind Notch Financial’s customer portal.
My responsibility was to identify why cash flow remained broken despite existing automation and design a solution that changed customer behavior at scale. This included defining the access model, enforcing payment method capture, and aligning the portal experience with supplier outcomes.
I worked across product, engineering, and go to market to ensure the decision was implemented consistently and rolled out without introducing additional operational burden for suppliers.
The goal was not to ship a portal.
The goal was to make getting paid predictable.
Success metrics
+30%Increase in Payment Method Collection
+25%Boost in Cash Flow Efficiency
-20%Reduction in Transaction Costs
Research & Discovery
We interviewed suppliers and reviewed support tickets to understand why payments were consistently late despite automation being in place. Three patterns emerged:
What we found
Not a UX problem.
All three root causes pointed to the same gap — customers could access the product without committing to pay. No gate. No incentive. No capture.
Supplier side
Most customers had only ever paid by check — suppliers had no digital payment method to charge.
Product side
Automation handled invoicing — but nothing enforced commitment from the customer side.
The Key Decision
The fix wasn’t a new feature. It was a product access decision: customers could no longer view their invoices without first registering a payment method. Automation already existed — we just needed to close the gap that let customers opt out of it.
The Solution: Customer Portal
We designed a white-labeled customer portal that suppliers could send to customers via a branded invite. The key constraint: customers had to register a payment method before they could access their invoices. Every feature in the portal was built around that single decision.
Portal Invite
Suppliers trigger a branded invite from their dashboard · customers enter a controlled onboarding flow, not a raw product signup.
Welcome Email
The email framed registration as access to their invoices, not a payment request · lowering the barrier before the constraint hit.
Registration Page
Before accessing any invoice, customers landed here · add a payment method to continue. The constraint was absolute.
Payment Method Capture
A modal blocked invoice access until a card was on file. No workarounds, no partial access · the constraint was absolute.
Wallet
Customers managing multiple suppliers could store and organize all payment methods in one place · reducing friction on the second and third capture.
Autopay
Once a payment method was captured, suppliers could enable autopay with one toggle. The portal didn’t just collect payment information · it turned a one-time setup into a standing collection mechanism.
From Chaos to Cash Flow
Payment method capture increased by 30% following the portal launch. Suppliers saw a 25% improvement in cash flow predictability, with fewer outstanding invoices and fewer manual follow-ups. Switching payment infrastructure from Stripe to Adyen during the same cycle reduced transaction costs by 10-20%, compounding the financial impact.
Increase in Payment Method Collection
Measured from pre-portal baseline across active supplier accounts.
Boost in Cash Flow Efficiency
Fewer outstanding invoices and fewer manual follow-ups for suppliers each month.
Reduction in Transaction Costs
From migrating payment infrastructure from Stripe to Adyen in the same release cycle.
What I Learned
The most impactful fix wasn't a new feature · it was changing who controlled the condition for access. Automation without commitment is incomplete. Once we closed the loop on payment method capture, the automation Notch had already built could actually do its job.