Reviewed by Mayer Hyman, Payments Specialist | Reviewed for accuracy July 2026
Key Takeaways
- The embedded B2B payments market is projected to hit $15.6 trillion by 2030, nearly four times its $4.1 trillion size in 2024, growing at a 25% CAGR (Edgar, Dunn & Company).
- Visa's Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP) began validating Level 3 data on October 17, 2025, and will fully retire Level 2 processing by April 2026, making complete invoice-level data the only path to reduced interchange (Finix).
- 84% of businesses say they're open to receiving embedded financial services, including payments, directly from their technology vendors (Unit research, via Edgar, Dunn & Company).
- Direct payment gateway connectors for ERPs like Microsoft Dynamics 365 let enterprises authorize, capture, and reconcile card payments inside the ERP itself, without duplicate data entry across separate systems.
- Choosing the right payment connector affects more than workflow. Level 3 data quality directly determines whether a B2B transaction qualifies for lower interchange rates.
Why ERP-Embedded Payments Matter More Than Ever
ERP-embedded payments matter because payments left outside the ERP, in separate gateways, portals, or manual reconciliation spreadsheets, create a growth constraint most finance teams haven't closed. Enterprise finance teams have spent the last decade migrating off legacy, on-premise systems and into cloud ERP platforms, a shift that improved visibility, reporting, and scaling, but exposed this gap in the process.
That gap isn't just an inconvenience. It's a growth constraint. The embedded B2B payments market is on track to reach $15.6 trillion by 2030, up from $4.1 trillion in 2024, a nearly fourfold increase at a 25% compound annual growth rate (Edgar, Dunn & Company). Enterprises that keep payments bolted on as a separate step, rather than built into the ERP workflow, are increasingly the exception rather than the rule.
What changed? Mainly expectations. Finance leaders no longer want to log into a second (or third) system to collect a payment, apply it to an invoice, and reconcile the balance. They want it to happen inside the ERP they already use for everything else.
How Microsoft Dynamics 365 Fits Into the Picture
Microsoft Dynamics 365 (D365) consolidates CRM, ERP, and AI-driven tools into a modular suite used by organizations ranging from mid-market distributors to global manufacturers. Because D365 is built on a single underlying platform, businesses add modules such as Finance, Supply Chain, Commerce, and Sales as they grow, rather than stitching together disconnected point solutions.
D365's AppSource marketplace extends that flexibility further, letting businesses layer in software-as-a-service integrations for specific functions, including payments. That matters because Microsoft itself stepped back from owning payment processing directly.
What Happened to Native Payment Processing in Dynamics?
Microsoft discontinued built-in credit card processing in its legacy Dynamics applications (AX, NAV, and CRM) in 2018 as part of its move to cloud-based Dynamics 365. That decision strengthened the platform's integration capabilities overall, but it also left many enterprises without a native way to process card payments, relying instead on separate payment service providers or manual workarounds.
The result: a substantial share of Dynamics 365 Finance users still aren't running fully integrated payments for customer collections, vendor invoices, and accounts receivable. They're using D365 for financial management, and something else entirely for actually getting paid.
How Embedded Payment Connectors Bridge the Gap
The category of solution that fills this gap is generally called an embedded payment connector, or payment gateway integration, built specifically for a given ERP platform. On the Dynamics 365 AppSource marketplace, several vendors offer this kind of connector, including CenPOS, an Elavon cloud-based payment gateway built for supply chain, distribution, manufacturing, and automotive verticals. Enterprises running D365 Finance can authorize and capture card payments through connectors like this without leaving the platform.
A well-built connector functions as the connective layer between an organization's ERP instance and card-issuing banks. That single integration typically covers a wide range of accounts receivable functions: payment acceptance, contactless and tokenized payments, digital invoicing, email and text-to-pay, incremental authorizations, AVS and CVV verification, and digital receipts, all of which reconcile automatically back into the ERP's account balance. Connectors in this category also generally maintain PCI-DSS compliance on the gateway side, which keeps merchants out of direct PCI scope while protecting customer card data.
Direct vs. Indirect Payment Integration: What's the Difference?
Not all "integrated" payment options are integrated the same way, and the distinction matters for how much manual work your team ends up doing.
Broadly, there are two connection paths into an ERP like Microsoft Dynamics 365:
- Direct integration: A payment gateway connects natively to the ERP's finance module, authorizing and capturing payments inside the platform itself. The CenPOS payment gateway is one example of this approach for Dynamics 365 Finance.
- Indirect integration: A connector routes payments through an intermediary gateway layer before reconciling back into the ERP. Max Pay Global by Retail Realm, which connects to Elavon's Converge or Fusebox gateways for Dynamics 365 Commerce and Finance, illustrates this pattern.
Both paths can eliminate duplicate data entry and reduce the number of systems staff need to touch to close out a transaction. Direct integration usually means fewer hops for data to travel and less latency between authorization and reconciliation, since there's no intermediary layer translating between systems. Indirect integration can make sense when an enterprise already has an established relationship with a specific gateway provider, or when the ERP module in use doesn't have a mature direct-connect option yet. The right choice usually comes down to which ERP modules a business runs, how its existing gateway relationships are structured, and how much control the finance team wants over the reconciliation process.
Cartis Payments works with the CenPOS gateway to deliver this kind of direct, embedded integration for Dynamics 365 Finance customers.
How Level 3 Processing Affects B2B Interchange Costs
Level 3 processing lowers B2B interchange costs by sending enhanced line-item data, tax amounts, item descriptions, quantities, with every transaction, which is what qualifies corporate and purchasing card transactions for preferential rates. Choosing a payment connector isn't just a workflow decision; it directly affects what a business pays in card processing fees, and that's becoming more consequential in 2026, not less.
Level 3 processing sends enhanced line-item data with every transaction: tax amounts, item descriptions, quantities, and more. For B2B enterprises running corporate and purchasing cards, that additional data is what qualifies a transaction for preferential interchange rates. A well-built ERP payment connector is designed to capture and submit that data automatically as part of the normal payment flow, rather than requiring finance staff to assemble it manually after the fact.
The stakes just went up. Visa's Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP) began validating Level 3 data on October 17, 2025, and by April 2026 it will fully retire the older Level 2 program, leaving complete, accurate invoice-level data as the only route to reduced interchange (Finix). Under CEDP, merchants start as "Non-Verified" and only qualify for lower rates once Visa confirms their data accuracy. Generic line items or placeholder values no longer pass. Enterprises whose payment connector isn't built to submit clean, complete Level 3 data risk being downgraded to standard commercial rates on every transaction going forward.
This is exactly why the payment connector choice matters as much as the ERP choice itself. A gateway that already handles full Level 3 data submission, rather than one retrofitted after the fact, is what keeps B2B enterprises on the right side of the April 2026 cutover.
Beyond Dynamics 365: The Broader ERP Landscape
Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a major player in enterprise ERP, but it isn't the only platform facing this same payments gap. Infor CloudSuite and Infor M3, widely used across manufacturing, distribution, and industrial sectors, follow a similar pattern to Dynamics 365: the ERP itself handles finance, inventory, and operations, while payment acceptance is typically delivered through a separate embedded connector layer rather than built natively into the core platform. The same is true across most major cloud ERP suites, including NetSuite, SAP Business One, and Acumatica, each of which relies on a marketplace of third-party payment connectors rather than a single native processor.
This pattern matters because it means the payment connector decision is rarely a one-time setup task. As ERP vendors add modules, retire legacy add-ons, or shift cloud architecture, the connector layer often needs to evolve too. Enterprises that treat their payment integration as a standalone piece of infrastructure, evaluated on its own data quality, compliance posture, and reconciliation accuracy, tend to have an easier time adapting than those that treat it as an afterthought bundled into the ERP purchase.
Whether an organization already has an ERP in place or is still evaluating one, the underlying principle holds: payments that live inside the ERP workflow, backed by accurate Level 3 data, save both time and processing costs compared to payments bolted on as a separate step.
Enterprises evaluating their options for a specific ERP, including Dynamics 365, Infor CloudSuite, or Infor M3, can talk to a payments provider like Cartis Payments about which direct or indirect connector fits their existing gateway relationships and Level 3 requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between direct and indirect payment integration in Dynamics 365?
Direct integration connects a payment gateway natively to Dynamics 365 Finance so payments are authorized and captured inside the ERP itself. Indirect integration routes payments through an intermediary gateway layer, such as a connector that relays transactions to a separate processing platform, before reconciling back into D365.
Why did Microsoft Dynamics stop offering built-in payment processing?
Microsoft discontinued native credit card processing in its legacy Dynamics applications (AX, NAV, CRM) in 2018 as part of its shift to cloud-based Dynamics 365. That left many enterprises needing a third-party payment gateway to process card transactions inside their ERP.
How does Level 3 processing lower B2B interchange rates?
Level 3 processing submits enhanced transaction data, including tax amounts, item-level detail, and quantities, with every charge. Card networks use that data to qualify B2B transactions on corporate and purchasing cards for reduced interchange rates. As of Visa's CEDP rollout, that data must be accurate and complete, or transactions default to standard rates.
What happens to Level 2 processing in April 2026?
Visa's Commercial Enhanced Data Program fully retires Level 2 data submission by April 2026, making complete Level 3 (invoice-quality) data the only remaining path to interchange savings on commercial card transactions (Finix).
Do other ERP systems face the same payment integration gap as Dynamics 365?
Yes. Infor CloudSuite, Infor M3, NetSuite, SAP Business One, and Acumatica all follow a similar model: the ERP manages finance and operations, while payment acceptance runs through a separate embedded connector rather than a built-in processor. The same direct-versus-indirect integration tradeoffs apply across these platforms.
