The changeover from national to SEPA payment instruments will also involve changes in your organisation’s working practices and information technology systems.

Companies will be affected in different ways, depending on their structure, the scope and nature of their business, and their organisational model. Many are likely to see SEPA as an opportunity to streamline their back-office organisation and financial strategy.

A number of areas need to be considered:

• It may be worth re-assessing your payment and collection processes. Protocol standardisation will lead to uniform payments and will impact on accounting systems throughout Europe, making them easier to set up and maintain.
   
• In addition to any adjustments that need to be made to your enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, other IT changes may have to be introduced in your back-offices in order to implement the new protocols.
   
• A discussion with your trading partners might be appropriate to decide whether it is better to use SEPA payment instruments or alternatives.
   
• SEPA could be a good opportunity for your business to extend automation to the entire payment process, from ordering through invoicing to collection. You might decide to streamline not only your account structure but also your cash management and treasury activities.
   
• At present, companies operating in several markets incur sizeable costs from having to adapt their processes to a host of domestic banking environments. SEPA may put an end to that. Standardised payment instruments will offer room for improvements in accounts receivables processing through centralisation, hence improving transparency and control.
   
• If your company currently maintains accounts in several countries, you could also consider whether or not to keep them all. Your decision will depend on local rules and regulations, the availability of non-SEPA payment instruments, and other factors.