Business Challenge

Billtrust payment team processes tens of thousands of B2B card-based transactions every day, representing hundreds of millions of dollars in daily settlement value. At this scale, even small shifts in settlement and interchange rates can materially impact customer outcomes.

The Payments Programs team faced several challenges:

• Settlement Rate Variability
  Settlement and interchange rates vary across card networks, transaction attributes, and data completeness, making consistent optimization increasingly complex.
  
  
• Limited Real-Time Analytical Visibility
  Changes in merchant configurations, new accounts, or evolving card-network rules could lead to less-than-optimal settlement rates before issues were clearly understood.
  
  
• Operational Scale and Complexity
  With tens of thousands of transactions per day, analytically identifying which merchants or settlement patterns required attention—and why—became difficult.
  
  
• Need for Proactive Oversight
  The team needed a way to analyze settlement behavior continuously, surface emerging issues early, and prioritize actions based on financial impact.
  
  

Billtrust sought a solution purpose-built to analyze payment settlement performance in real time, without disrupting existing payment systems.

Solution and Implementation

Billtrust deployed Bicycle AI to continuously analyze payment settlement data and deliver actionable intelligence to the Payments Programs team.

Key capabilities included:

• Real-Time Settlement Analysis
  Bicycle AI analyzes every transaction daily to detect anomalies in settlement and interchange rates as soon as they emerge.
  
  
• Merchant-Level Intelligence
  Identifies which merchants are experiencing non-optimal settlement rates and quantifies the associated financial impact.
  
  
• Anomaly Detection with Business Context
  Highlights unusual settlement patterns—such as unexpected rate increases or undesirable interchange codes—and explains what changed and why.
  
  
• Proactive Intelligence and Alerts
  Automated alerts surface prioritized settlement issues, enabling teams to act quickly and confidently.
  
  
• Seamless Integration
  Implemented in just a few weeks using existing payment data, with insights delivered through customized email alerts and supporting dashboards.
  
  

Rather than requiring teams to sift through static reports, Bicycle AI continuously analyzes settlement behavior and delivers the right insights at the right time.

Business Impact and Outcomes

With Bicycle AI, Billtrust payments team transformed how it manages payment settlement performance:

• Revenue Leakage Prevention
  Early detection of sub-optimal settlement rates helps prevent avoidable costs before they accumulate.
  
  
• Faster Time to Insight
  Settlement data is continuously analyzed and contextualized, dramatically reducing the time required to identify and understand issues.
  
  
• Operational Efficiency
  Automated anomaly detection and intelligent prioritization reduce repetitive analysis and allow teams to focus on the highest-impact problems.
  
  
• Improved Customer Conversations
  Payments teams can proactively engage customers with clear explanations and guidance, strengthening trust and credibility.
  
  
• Intelligent Prioritization
  Bicycle AI assesses the scale and financial impact of each settlement issue, helping teams focus on opportunities that will move the needle.
  
  

Bicycle AI enables Billtrust to stay ahead of settlement issues—turning payment complexity into clarity, control, and confidence.