Argent Payments Team · August 26, 2026
Quick Answer
Manufacturing payments are usually B2B, high-ticket, and net-terms based rather than swipe-and-go, so the biggest lever isn’t your card rate — it’s whether large invoices move through ACH instead of cards, and whether your processor supports Level 2/3 data that can lower interchange on the commercial card transactions you do accept. Reach out to our team at Argent Payments if you’re not sure which applies to you.
A manufacturer collecting payment on a $40,000 purchase order faces a very different math problem than a retail counter collecting $40. Card processing fees are largely percentage-based, so a large invoice run through a card can cost meaningfully more in fees than the same invoice paid by ACH, which is typically a flat fee regardless of the amount. Getting this mix right matters more to a manufacturer’s effective processing cost than any rate negotiation.
Key Takeaways
Card processing fees scale with the size of the transaction; ACH fees generally don’t. That difference barely matters on a small purchase, but it compounds fast on the invoice sizes manufacturers actually deal with. A processor that only talks about your “rate” without asking how much of your volume could move to ACH instead is leaving the bigger lever on the table.
| Payment Method | Typical Cost Structure | Best Fit |
|---|---|---|
| ACH | Flat fee per transaction | Large invoices, recurring B2B orders |
| Commercial/purchasing card | Percentage + interchange, lower with Level 2/3 data | Customers who require card payment or want rewards |
| Consumer/standard card | Percentage + interchange at the standard rate | Smaller or one-off orders |
See ACH vs. credit card processing: cost and speed for a deeper comparison of how the two actually differ.
What Argent Looks For
We check how much of a manufacturer’s card volume comes from customers who could just as easily pay by ACH, since shifting even a portion of that volume changes the effective processing cost more than negotiating a slightly better card rate would.
When a customer does pay by commercial or purchasing card, submitting Level 2 data (tax amount, customer code) or Level 3 data (full line-item detail, purchase order number) with the transaction qualifies it for a lower interchange rate than a bare-bones consumer swipe. Not every processor supports this by default — confirm yours does if a meaningful share of your card volume comes from corporate purchasing cards.
Electronic invoicing ties directly into this, since it’s what lets purchase order numbers and line-item detail flow through automatically instead of being keyed in by hand. For manufacturers financing equipment or inventory alongside payment collection, see flexible funding as well.
Want to see how this fits your operation specifically? Contact Argent Payments.
We set manufacturers up with ACH collection for standing accounts, confirm Level 2/3 data is actually being submitted on the commercial card transactions you keep, and pair both with electronic invoicing so purchase orders and payments reconcile automatically.
See our manufacturing payment processing page for the full picture of how we work with manufacturers, or contact Argent Payments today for a free review of your current setup.
Level 2 data adds fields like tax amount and customer code to a card transaction; Level 3 adds full line-item detail and a purchase order number. Card networks reward that extra detail on commercial and purchasing cards with a lower interchange rate than a bare consumer swipe gets.
Generally yes — ACH settlement typically takes one to a few business days versus a card’s near-instant authorization, though funds availability to you as the merchant depends on your processor’s funding schedule either way.
An ACH return works similarly to a bounced check: you’re notified, the funds are reversed, and you’ll need to follow up with the customer for a corrected payment. This is a real trade-off against ACH’s lower cost, and worth planning for on large orders.
It depends on your risk tolerance. A card or bank account on file can automate collection once terms are up, but for large recurring B2B accounts, ACH on file is usually the lower-cost equivalent.
Most modern electronic invoicing tools support common accounting and ERP integrations, but the specifics depend on which systems you already run — worth confirming compatibility before switching providers.
The gap between paying card fees on every large invoice and routing most of them through ACH adds up fast for a manufacturer. Connect with an Argent Payments specialist to see what that gap actually looks like for your business.