# Supplier Payment Agent
source: https://developer.mastercard.com/mastercard-supplier-payment-agent/documentation/index.md

## Overview {#overview}

Today's business-to-business (B2B) payment landscape involves a growing number of solutions with various product offerings that rarely interoperate, leading to complex buyer and supplier onboarding processes, closed networks with limited reach and scalability, varying data formats, and lack of payment control enforcement that cause reconciliation issues and increase in payment times.

Through the Supplier Payment Agent (SPA) service, Mastercard simplifies and automates the payments between the world's suppliers and buyers. This API service saves time in reconciliation by standardizing, automating, and optimizing business payments.

Buyer Payment Agents and Supplier Payment Agents connect through this service to allow their clients to initiate and receive funds for B2B transactions easily and efficiently.

Supplier Payment Agents can use the buyer search API to discover new buyers active in the buyer directory. To help streamline the procurement process, a Supplier Payment Agent can use this API to receive payment instructions, update payment status, view payment status, deliver reconciliation data and verify Buyer details.

## How it works {#how-it-works}

![alt text](https://static.developer.mastercard.com/content/mastercard-supplier-payment-agent/uploads/overview-02.png)

1. **Payment Initiation**: Issuer/Service Provider initiates the payment request to the supplier through the payment API, Email Connect Service, File Transfer Service or ICCP.
2. **Payment Routing**: Commercial Direct Payments sends the payment request to the Mastercard Gateway, Acquiring Partner's Gateway, or directly to the supplier for processing based on their preferred delivery method in the Supplier Directory.
3. **Remittance data**: Commercial Direct Payments delivers the remittance advice for reconciliation to suppliers based on their preferred delivery method.

## Before you start {#before-you-start}

* **User responsibilities:** Prospective users must complete an API evaluation or commercial agreement before they are able to integrate with the Buyer Payment Agent . Once the agreement is signed, a delivery and implementation manager will be assigned to assist with onboarding. The user must set up a unique an [event notification URL](https://developer.mastercard.com/mastercard-supplier-payment-agent/documentation/use_cases/commercial-direct-payments/event-notifications/index.md) to receive notifications from this API service.
* **Key mapping:** The assigned delivery and integration manager will assist in mapping the customer IDs (keys).
* **Batch processing:** This API service does not support batch processing.
* **Backwards-compatibility:** This API service is backwards-compatible.
* **Pre-release information:** Release notes are published around three weeks before the production deployment date.
* **Region availability:** This API service is available globally, however, certain [use cases](https://developer.mastercard.com/mastercard-supplier-payment-agent/documentation/use_cases/index.md) are restricted to specific regions and will continue to expand globally.

Once you are ready to go live, follow the [Moving to production](https://developer.mastercard.com/mastercard-supplier-payment-agent/documentation/tutorials_guides/guide-1/index.md) tutorial.

## Good to know {#good-to-know}

### Roles in Supplier Payment Service {#roles-in-supplier-payment-service}

The various roles associated for the APIs under the Supplier Payment Agent service landscape are:  

|                 Term                  |                                                                                                            Description                                                                                                             |
|---------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Buyer Payment Agent/Debtor Agent      | The entity acting on behalf of a Buyer to submit payment instructions. Buyer Payment Agents include procure-to-pay networks, banks, and other specialty players, such as accounts payable automation companies.                    |
| Supplier Payment Agent/Creditor Agent | The entity acting on behalf of a Supplier to retrieve and process payment instructions. Supplier Payment Agents include procure-to-pay networks, banks, and other specialty players like accounts receivable automation companies. |
| Buyer/Debtor                          | The entity making payments to a Supplier to procure goods or services.                                                                                                                                                             |
| Supplier/Creditor                     | The entity receiving payments from a Buyer for selling goods or services.                                                                                                                                                          |
| Customer Service Provider             | A person (entity) that performs Program Service that is an agent of the customer, receives or otherwise benefits from Program service, whether directly or indirectly, performed by such service provider.                         |

## Next steps {#next-steps}

For information on new and upcoming features, refer to the [Release Information](https://developer.mastercard.com/mastercard-supplier-payment-agent/documentation/release-information/index.md) section.

For information on how to onboard with Supplier Payment Agent, refer to the [Getting Started](https://developer.mastercard.com/mastercard-supplier-payment-agent/documentation/getting-started/onboarding-with-cdp/index.md) section.

For more information on the Supplier Payment Agent service, refer to the [API reference](https://developer.mastercard.com/mastercard-supplier-payment-agent/documentation/api-reference/index.md) section.

For more information on Supplier Payment Agent use cases, refer to the [Use Case](https://developer.mastercard.com/mastercard-supplier-payment-agent/documentation/use_cases/index.md) section.