Selecting the right B2B financing solution can determine whether your business thrives or struggles with cash flow constraints. While Credit Key offers checkout financing for buyers and OnDeck provides direct business loans, Resolve Pay delivers a comprehensive platform that combines non-recourse invoice financing with full AR automation for suppliers. Understanding these fundamental differences between supplier-side net terms financing, buyer-side checkout credit, and direct lending helps manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers select the approach that matches their operational needs, cash flow goals, and growth objectives.
The U.S. Small Business Administration emphasizes proper financial management, including tracking available cash and cash flow projections, as an important part of keeping a business running smoothly. When suppliers evaluate financing options, the choice between supplier-side net terms platforms, buyer-focused checkout financing, and direct business lending becomes critical. Three distinct approaches represent fundamentally different philosophies toward B2B commerce financing.
The B2B financing market encompasses three distinct categories, each serving different operational models and business objectives. Understanding these fundamental differences helps finance leaders select tools aligned with their growth stage and execution capacity.
Direct business lenders like OnDeck serve as capital providers for businesses needing working capital for any purpose. These lenders evaluate the borrowing business's creditworthiness and provide term loans or lines of credit. OnDeck has funded businesses across North America and delivered capital since 2006. The value proposition centers on fast access to capital, often same-day funding. However, these solutions address general working capital needs rather than trade credit management. The borrower remains responsible for repayment regardless of their customers' payment behavior.
Checkout financing platforms like Credit Key represent buyer-side financing solutions that help merchants offer instant credit decisions at checkout. These platforms evaluate buyer creditworthiness in approximately 5 seconds, enabling purchases with extended payment terms. Credit Key offers terms up to 24 months and credit lines for qualified buyers. The merchant receives payment quickly while Credit Key handles buyer collections. However, these tools focus primarily on the checkout experience rather than comprehensive AR management.
Supplier net terms platforms like Resolve Pay represent an integrated approach that solves multiple problems simultaneously. Rather than just financing invoices or providing checkout credit, Resolve Pay combines net terms financing, AI-powered credit decisioning, accounts receivable automation, and agentic collections in a unified platform.
Key capabilities include:
The fundamental distinction lies in who benefits and how: OnDeck helps businesses borrow money for any purpose, Credit Key helps buyers finance purchases at checkout, and Resolve Pay helps suppliers offer terms while getting paid fast and automating their entire AR operation.
The spectrum of B2B financing solutions spans from simple capital access to comprehensive operational transformation, with profound implications for cash flow, risk management, and administrative burden. Federal Reserve small business research shows that businesses regularly seek financing to support operations and face challenges related to credit access and uneven cash flow.
Direct lending models operate on a borrower-lender relationship. The business applies, is evaluated, receives capital if approved, and repays according to the financing agreement. OnDeck's term loans provide working capital that can be used for a range of business purposes. The borrowing business remains responsible for repayment regardless of how quickly its own customers pay. The funds can be used for any business purpose, providing flexibility. However, the business bears full repayment responsibility regardless of their own customers' payment patterns. This creates a disconnect between the financing and the underlying trade activity it might support.
Checkout financing models shift the borrower-lender relationship to the buyer side. Credit Key evaluates buyers at the point of purchase, makes instant credit decisions, and handles collections from buyers. Merchants receive payment without waiting for buyer terms to mature. This approach works well for increasing conversion rates and average order values at checkout. However, it focuses narrowly on the transaction moment rather than the broader accounts receivable lifecycle.
Integrated supplier platforms like Resolve Pay address the complete revenue cycle. The platform starts by evaluating buyer creditworthiness through an AI credit engine that analyzes thousands of data points for real-time decisions. Once buyers are approved, suppliers can confidently extend Net 30/60/90 terms knowing that Resolve Pay will advance eligible invoice value within 1-2 business days. The non-recourse structure shifts covered buyer default risk on those advanced invoices to Resolve Pay.
Beyond financing, Resolve Pay automates the entire AR workflow:
This automation delivers measurable operational benefits. Trenchless Supply reduced AR workload by 90% after implementing Resolve Pay. Credit approvals that previously took days now complete in under 24 hours.
The integration advantage compounds across multiple dimensions:
Resolve Pay operates as a comprehensive B2B payments platform purpose-built for manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers who want to offer net payment terms while maintaining healthy cash flow. The platform combines net terms financing, credit decisioning, AR automation, and collections management in a single integrated solution.
The non-recourse financing model distinguishes Resolve Pay from many traditional financing arrangements. For eligible approved invoices, suppliers can receive advances of up to 100% depending on the transaction and program structure, with funding available within approximately 1-2 business days. The non-recourse structure shifts covered buyer default risk on those advanced invoices to Resolve Pay.
The AI Credit Engine evaluates buyer creditworthiness by analyzing thousands of data points including cash flow trends, payment history, and behavioral signals. Credit decisions typically complete in under 24 hours, with instant approvals available for some purchases. This replaces manual trade reference calls and spreadsheet tracking that burden traditional credit departments. Archipelago Lighting reduced approval time from 10 days to 24 hours while offering 20x higher credit lines after implementing Resolve Pay.
The AR automation capabilities extend beyond financing to transform daily operations:
The agentic collections feature uses multi-channel automated sequences including email, SMS, and voice AI to follow up on outstanding invoices. The system intelligently escalates based on buyer response and payment history, pausing automatically when payments or disputes are received. This preserves customer relationships while reducing DSO.
Resolve Pay provides native integrations with major ecommerce and accounting platforms:
The BigCommerce integration earned the 2025 Innovative Integration Award, recognizing the platform's deep technical capabilities. Two-way sync ensures invoice and payment data flows automatically between systems, eliminating manual entry and reconciliation errors.
Resolve Pay states that it is SOC 2 Type II attested, providing an independently assessed control framework for its platform.
Resolve Pay serves mid-market B2B sellers, typically with USD $1M+ annual revenue, in manufacturing, wholesale distribution, and supply industries. The platform works particularly well for:
Credit Key positions itself as a B2B checkout financing platform that provides instant credit decisions to help merchants increase conversion rates and average order values. The platform evaluates buyer creditworthiness in approximately 5 seconds at the point of purchase, enabling buyers to complete transactions with extended payment terms.
The platform offers several capabilities designed for checkout optimization:
Credit Key shifts repayment risk away from merchants, who receive payment within 48 hours. The platform handles collections from buyers directly.
Credit Key centers on buyer financing across ecommerce, in-store, phone, and field-sales transactions. Its model provides business buyers with payment-term options while merchants receive payment from Credit Key. The platform also provides API options for custom ecommerce, ERP, CRM, and internal ordering integrations.
Resolve Pay differentiates itself by combining net terms financing with broader AR automation, accounting synchronization, credit workflows, and collections in one supplier-focused platform.
OnDeck's heritage reflects its origins as a direct business lender focused on providing working capital to small and mid-sized businesses. The platform has operated since 2006, building significant scale and market presence.
OnDeck provides two primary lending products:
The platform emphasizes speed and accessibility. Same-day funding is available for qualified borrowers, making OnDeck attractive for businesses needing urgent capital access. The online application process is straightforward, helping businesses that may not qualify for traditional bank financing.
OnDeck requires specific qualifications from borrowers:
These requirements position OnDeck for established businesses rather than startups or pre-revenue companies.
OnDeck serves businesses needing unrestricted working capital for any purpose, including inventory, equipment, payroll, or expansion. The platform works well for:
However, OnDeck operates in a fundamentally different category than supplier net terms platforms. The business borrows money and must repay regardless of their own customers' payment behavior.
Resolve Pay serves suppliers with net terms financing where the supplier receives invoice advances in 1-2 business days. Risk transfers to Resolve Pay on eligible approved invoices through non-recourse advances. The platform provides full AR workflow automation, AI-powered buyer credit evaluation, Net 30/60/90 payment terms to buyers, 1-2 business day funding to suppliers, and AI-powered automated collections support.
Credit Key serves merchants with buyer checkout financing where the merchant receives payment in 48 hours. Risk shifts to Credit Key for buyer repayment. The platform focuses on checkout experience optimization, instant buyer credit decisions, Net 30 to 24 month payment options for buyers, and Credit Key handles collections from buyers.
OnDeck serves businesses seeking direct business loans where the business is the borrower. Risk remains with the borrowing business for full loan repayment. The platform provides general working capital lending, borrower underwriting evaluation, repayment terms up to 24 months, and same-day funding available with borrower responsibility for collections management.
Resolve Pay offers accounting and ERP connectivity with QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Intacct, NetSuite plus API options. Ecommerce platform integrations include Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, WooCommerce. The platform provides comprehensive API access and integrated invoice, payment, reconciliation, and AR synchronization.
Credit Key provides custom ERP and CRM integrations supported through the Merchant API, ecommerce and custom checkout integrations, and API options are available for custom integrations.
OnDeck focuses on lending operations, with integration capabilities not central to the lending use case.
Resolve Pay states that it is SOC 2 Type II attested. Security requirements should be evaluated based on each organization's specific policies and regulatory obligations.
Resolve Pay fits B2B suppliers who need to offer competitive net terms without cash flow strain. Manufacturing, distribution, and wholesale businesses often compete on payment flexibility. Resolve Pay enables suppliers to offer Net 30/60/90 terms while receiving payment in 1-2 business days. Shields Childcare Supplies won new business by offering Net 90 terms they previously couldn't extend independently.
Additional use cases include:
Credit Key is centered on buyer financing across ecommerce, in-store, phone, and field-sales transactions. Its model provides business buyers with payment-term options while merchants receive payment from Credit Key.
Resolve Pay addresses a broader supplier-side credit-to-cash workflow by combining buyer credit decisioning, non-recourse invoice advances, AR automation, payments, accounting and ERP connectivity, and collections management.
OnDeck provides business financing that the borrowing company can use for needs such as inventory, equipment, payroll, or expansion. Repayment is an obligation of the borrowing business rather than being tied to payment of a particular customer invoice.
Resolve Pay is designed around a different B2B supplier workflow: extending payment terms to customers while accelerating eligible receivables and managing credit, AR, payments, and collections through one platform.
Customer results demonstrate the measurable business impact of Resolve Pay's integrated approach:
The fundamental value proposition centers on cash flow transformation. Instead of waiting 30-90 days for customer payments, suppliers receive advances within 1-2 business days. This accelerated cash flow enables:
For manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers managing trade credit, Resolve Pay combines key functions in one platform:
The integrated approach can deliver measurable operational and growth benefits. Trenchless Supply reduced AR workload by 90%, while Archipelago Lighting tripled revenue and reduced approval times from 10 days to 24 hours.
By combining cash flow acceleration, risk protection on approved invoices, automation, and system integration, Resolve Pay helps B2B sellers turn competitive net terms from an administrative burden into a strategic growth lever.
Traditional factoring typically operates on a recourse basis, meaning if customers don't pay, the supplier must buy back the invoice or cover the loss. Resolve Pay's non-recourse model shifts covered buyer default risk entirely to Resolve Pay on eligible approved invoices that receive advances. Additionally, Resolve Pay provides a white-labeled experience where customers see the supplier's brand throughout the payment process.
Yes, Resolve Pay provides native integrations with multiple accounting and ERP platforms including QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage Intacct, and Oracle NetSuite. The two-way sync ensures invoice and payment data flows automatically between systems, eliminating manual entry and reconciliation errors. The platform also integrates with major ecommerce platforms including Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento 2, and WooCommerce.
Resolve Pay focuses on B2B product distribution and manufacturing, with particular strength in HVAC parts distribution, electrical and plumbing supplies, industrial equipment manufacturing, construction materials, and janitorial supplies. The platform serves over 15,000 businesses across these industries, with typical customers having USD $1M+ in annual revenue.
Most teams launch within one week. The platform connects to existing accounting and ecommerce systems through native integrations, allowing rapid deployment without extensive technical implementation. Credit decisions on buyers typically complete in under 24 hours, with some purchases qualifying for instant approval.
Resolve Pay's agentic collections system uses multi-channel automated sequences through email, SMS, and voice AI with a professional, friendly tone. The system intelligently escalates based on buyer response and payment history, pausing automatically when payments or disputes are received. All interactions are logged to invoice records automatically, reducing DSO while preserving the supplier-customer relationship.
This post is to be used for informational purposes only and does not constitute formal legal, business, or tax advice. Each person should consult his or her own attorney, business advisor, or tax advisor with respect to matters referenced in this post. Resolve assumes no liability for actions taken in reliance upon the information contained herein.