The Modern Bill Pay Playbook for Ops Leaders | ForteBill Pay Operations
The Modern Bill Pay Playbook for Operational Leaders
CSG Forte TeamAuthor
Key Takeaways
Outdated bill pay systems create friction, late payments, and operational drag that show up in cash flow, customer satisfaction, and staff workload.
Modern bill pay is now a core operational capability —not just a finance or IT project—and requires cross-functional ownership from operations, billing, customer service, and finance.
CSG Forte BillPay gives organizations a plug-and-play, cloud-based way to deliver omnichannel bill payment experiences, branded portals, and a centralized management hub (Dex) without a heavy development lift or rip-and-replace project.
Operational leaders can drive measurable improvements by aligning teams around a shared roadmap, nudging payers toward self-service, and tracking real-time metrics like on-time payment rates and self-service adoption.
Why bill pay needs dedicated operational focus
Modern bill pay is no longer a back-office utility you can “set and forget.” It directly influences how quickly revenue comes in, how many calls hit your contact center and how customers feel every time they pay you. For operational leaders in government, utilities, property management , healthcare, and beyond, that makes bill pay a frontline experience , not just a finance workflow.
The hidden costs of outdated systems
Legacy bill pay systems do more than frustrate IT—they create real business risk and operational waste . Common symptoms include:
Increased late payments and cash-flow uncertainty. When customers must remember due dates, find paper statements or call to pay, it’s easy for bills to slip.
Higher call volumes and repetitive work. Agents spend time answering “Did my payment go through?” or taking card numbers over the phone instead of handling higher-value interactions.
Manual reconciliation and brittle reporting. Finance teams stitch together spreadsheets, bank files, and system reports, slowing close processes and limiting visibility into trends.
Operational risk and compliance pressure. When payment data is scattered across systems or handled manually, it’s harder to maintain PCI alignment, Nacha rules, and internal controls.
Industry research shows just how much room there is to improve: —often due to forgetfulness rather than inability to pay—and . If your experience is clunky or limited, you’re leaving money and goodwill on the table.
54% of consumers pay at least one bill late in a given year
77% of online payments are now made directly on biller websites
Modern consumer expectations
Your customers compare your bill pay experience to their bank, streaming services and mobile carriers—not to your peers. They expect:
Self-service first. Payers want to view balances, update details, and pay from any device without calling in.
Choice and flexibility. ACH, cards, and digital wallets; pay-now and registered flows; the ability to schedule, split, or pre-pay when cash flow is tight.
Speed and reassurance. Clear confirmations, receipts, and a simple way to see payment history across channels.
When bill pay doesn’t feel as intuitive as the rest of their digital life, they notice—and delinquency, disputes, and call volumes tend to rise alongside frustration.
Core components of modern bill pay
A truly modern bill pay platform goes beyond accepting card payments online. It brings together omnichannel payments, branded experiences, and centralized operations in one place.
Omnichannel payment acceptance
Modern bill pay meets customers where they are instead of forcing them into a single channel. With CSG Forte BillPay, organizations can accept:
Online and mobile payments through a responsive, branded portal
Phone and IVR payments with secure capture behind the scenes
In-person and kiosk payments that share the same processing backbone
Text-to-pay and digital wallets for fast, link-driven checkouts on the go
Because these channels all run on a unified platform, operations teams gain a single view of activity instead of managing multiple, disconnected tools.
Branded, customizable portals
A generic third-party payment page can undermine trust and increase abandonment. A branded, configurable portal reinforces your identity while giving customers a familiar, self-service experience.
CSG Forte BillPay supports:
Guest “Pay Now” flows for one-time or infrequent payers
Registered accounts for recurring users who want saved payment methods and history
Multilingual support and mobile-first design to reach broader populations
Configurable payment options —including schedule-pay, autopay, partial, over-pay, and pre-pay—aligned to your policies
Behind the scenes, you can customize portal URLs, landing page text, and messaging so the experience feels like a seamless extension of your website, not a hand-off to an unknown vendor.
Security and compliance by design
Payment security and compliance can’t be bolt-ons. A modern bill pay solution must capture sensitive data through PCI-compliant forms , tokenized card, and account details, and store them on secure servers, reducing the scope of your own environment.
CSG Forte BillPay is built to support PCI-aligned processing and evolving regulatory needs across card and ACH, helping you limit staff exposure to raw payment data while maintaining audit-ready records.
Designing payment options and channels strategically
Offering “everything, everywhere” isn’t enough. Operational leaders need to intentionally design payment rails and options to balance cost, risk, and customer preference.
Choosing the right mix
Each payment method carries trade-offs:
ACH/eCheck often offers lower processing costs and is ideal for larger or recurring payments.
Debit and credit cards give customers flexibility but can increase fees if not managed thoughtfully.
Digital wallets (like Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal) can boost conversion on mobile but may be best targeted to specific segments or use cases.
With CSG Forte BillPay, you can configure which rails are available by program, customer type or vertical—steering high-value recurring payments toward ACH while still meeting customer expectations for card and wallet support.
Flexible payment options
Modern bill pay makes on-time payment the default by giving payers options that fit real-world cash flow:
Autopay enrollment tied to due dates
Scheduled payments aligned with pay cycles
Partial, over-pay, and pre-pay options within policy bounds
Payment plans for at-risk accounts where appropriate
In many recurring billing environments, these capabilities have helped organizations reduce late payments, smooth cash flow, and cut down on exceptions work for staff.
Removing barriers to self-service
Self-service is one of the fastest levers operational leaders can pull to reduce call volume and manual work. To accelerate adoption:
Remove unnecessary friction (like mandatory registration for a one-time payment).
Promote digital channels in statements, reminders, and frontline scripts.
Pair reminders with direct links to secure payment pages or text-to-pay flows, so customers can complete payment in a few taps.
When self-service is intuitive and clearly promoted, operational teams see fewer “Where do I pay?” calls and more predictable daily payment volume.
Coordinating billing, customer service, and finance around payments
Modern bill payment solutions are as much about alignment as it is about technology. Fragmented tools and siloed processes make it impossible to deliver a consistent payer experience or understand what’s really happening across channels.
Breaking down silos
To make bill pay work harder for the organization, operational leaders should:
Establish shared KPIs across billing, customer service, and finance—such as on-time payment rate, self-service adoption, call volume, and reversal rates.
Standardize workflows for refunds, disputes, and adjustments so customers get consistent answers regardless of channel.
Consolidate systems wherever possible so staff aren’t logging into different portals for each bill type, department or location.
This is where a centralized management hub becomes critical.
Centralized management with Dex
CSG Forte’s Dex platform gives operational teams a single pane of glass into payments across channels, programs and locations. With Dex, teams can:
View near real-time transaction activity and settlement status.
Access standardized reporting and exports that feed existing finance and policy systems.
Manage disputes, refunds, and research through consistent workflows.
Surface operational insights (like rising declines or channel-specific issues) without waiting on ad hoc reports.
Instead of stitching together spreadsheets, leaders get a trustworthy source of truth they can use to make decisions quickly.
Building a roadmap and measuring progress
Modernizing bill pay doesn’t have to be a single “big bang” project. The most successful operational leaders treat it as a repeatable roadmap with clear phases, milestones, and KPIs.
Steps to modernization
Use this playbook as a practical starting point:
Ongoing enhancements
Modernization isn’t a one-and-done launch. Customer behavior, regulatory requirements, and channel preferences will continue to evolve. To stay ahead:
Monitor key metrics like on-time payment rate, self-service adoption, channel mix and reversal rates.
Gather feedback from both customers and frontline teams to understand where friction remains.
Experiment with new features —such as Text to Pay, Account Updater, or recovery services—as your needs grow.
Organizations using CSG Forte’s capabilities have leveraged this kind of incremental approach to recover revenue, reduce manual work and create payment experiences that match what customers expect from modern digital brands.
Why CSG Forte BillPay is built for operational leaders
CSG Forte BillPay is designed specifically to help operational leaders modernize bill payments without taking on a multi-year, high-risk system overhaul.
Plug-and-play, cloud-based deployment that layers on top of your existing systems instead of replacing them.
Omnichannel acceptance across web, mobile, IVR, text-to-pay, in-person, and kiosk channels.
Branded, customizable portals with guest and registered checkout, multilingual support, and flexible payment options that match your policies.
Centralized management through Dex , giving teams real-time visibility, reporting and reconciliation tools in one operational hub.
Security and compliance at scale , with PCI-aligned hosted forms, tokenization and controls that help limit internal exposure to sensitive payment data.
In 2024 alone, organizations processed approximately $1.49 billion in bill payments through CSG Forte BillPay, underscoring its role as a proven platform for high-volume, high-stakes payment operations.
Ready to modernize your bill pay experience?
If your bill pay operations still rely on fragmented portals, manual reconciliation, or one-size-fits-all options, now is the time to build a modern playbook that works for your teams and your customers.
To see what’s possible in your environment—and how peers across government, utilities, property management, healthcare, insurance, and financial services are modernizing bill pay— request a demo .
