Making and Monitoring Payments

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
  • Explain the tasks of monitoring and releasing payments throught Invoice Provider ACH.
  • Identify each area of the Payment Manager.

Payment Making and Monitoring

A funding account is in place, vendor banking details have been added, and the system is creating batches as invoices get approved. You must now make, monitor, and track your payments to ensure that vendors are getting paid in a timely manner.

Necessary Permissions

There are two tasks that can be performed for payments made through Invoice Provider ACH: monitoring payments and releasing payments. Each of these tasks requires different permissions to allow users to perform it.

Invoice Payment Manager
This is the same role you used earlier to create your funding account. In fact, this is the primary role used when administering the Invoice Provider ACH tools.Invoice Payment Manager role is highlighted. Information about Invoice Payment Manager role is provided in the above paragraph.
Payment Release Manager
You have previously learned in this course that you can choose if your payments are released automatically, or manually by an administrator. If you choose to have your batches released by an administrator, you must assign at least one user to the Payment Release Manager role. Users with that role can manually release batches for payment as your company sees fit.Payment Release Manager role is highlighted. Information about Payment Release Manager role is provided in the above paragraph.

Batches Monitoring

The tool used to monitor batches in Invoice Provider ACH is called the Payment Manager.

Payment Manager

The Payment Manager is used by all versions of Invoice Pay, including Invoice Provider ACH. This training focuses solely on the aspects related to Invoice Provider ACH.

Users with the proper permissions access the Payment Manager by selecting the Invoice tab from the top of the page, and then selecting Payment Manager from the Payment menu.

Payment Manager Tools

The Payment Manager area has five subareas listed as menus on the left side of the screen. The following image shows an example. You can select the image to zoom in.

Each area provides different tools to help process payments to vendors. Those areas are:

  • Monitor Payments
  • Invoices Requiring Action
  • Failed Payments
  • Payment Confirmation Import
  • Extract Reconciliation
Payment Manager area is highlighted. Each area provides different tools to help process payments to vendors, including Monitor Payments, Invoices Requiring Action, Failed Payments, Payment Confirmation Import, and Extract Reconciliation.

You do not have to use all the tools if you don't want to.

Monitor Payments

This is the primary tool used to monitor payments to vendors. Upon accessing the screen, you see all the open batches for all of your funding accounts, with each account having its own collapsible section. You can filter to show data for a specific funding account and batches that are open, on hold, closed, sent, pending release or in any of those statuses. You can also filter your data by Close Date and Send Date.

Each row represents an individual batch. Each batch shows the Batch ID, Close Date, Send Date, Status, Count, Failed Count, and Total Amount.

You can select a batch and then view the payment details by selecting Actions.

Monitor Payments page is displayed. Information about Monitor Payments is provided in above paragraph.
Invoices Requiring Action

This tool allows you to view all invoices that could not be placed into a valid payment demand, effectively orphaning them. An example of this is the system not being able to determine a valid funding account. You are encouraged to review this area regularly to prevent issues from piling up.

For each invoice with issues, you can use the Actions button to reprocess the invoice, mark it as client paid, open it, add a due date, or view the payee details.

The two most common options Mark as Client Pay and Reprocess Invoice have their own buttons on the right side of the screen.

  • Mark as Client Pay: This button is used to remove the invoice from any batches and pay the vendor outside of the Invoice Pay process. This option may be used if a payment deadline is approaching and paying the vendor outside of the normal process is the best way to avoid late payment fees. This option must also be used if vendor banking information was added to the vendor record after the invoice was fully approved.
  • Reprocess Invoice: This button is used to put the invoice in the next open batch, so it can be processed by the system in the next schedule. As long as payments remain on schedule, this is the most commonly used option.Invoices Requiring Action page is displayed. Information about Invoices Requiring Action is provided in preceding paragraph.
Failed Payments

This page is designed to show all payment demands that have failed. Reasons for the failure, such as invalid vendor bank accounts or insufficient funds, appear in red in the payment demand row. The screen will automatically show all failed invoices, there is no need to search for problems. If the screen is blank, there is nothing to address. Review this area regularly to prevent issues from piling up.

For each invoice with issues, you can use the Actions button to view invoices, change the issue date or payment date, mark as client paid, change the funding account, place it on hold, release the payment, or view the payee details.

The three most common options Mark as Client Pay, Change Dates, and Schedule in Next Available Batch have their own buttons on the right side of the screen.

  • Mark as Client Pay: This button is used to remove the invoice from any batches and pay the vendor outside of the Invoice Pay process. This option may be used if a payment deadline is approaching and paying the vendor outside of the normal process is the best way to avoid late payment fees.
  • Change Dates: This button gives you options to change the issue date or payment date for the invoice.
  • Schedule in Next Available Batch: This button is used to put the invoice in the next open batch, so it can be processed by the system in the next schedule. As long as payments remain on schedule, this is the most commonly used option.Failed Payments page is displayed. Information about Failed Payments is provided in preceding paragraph.
Payment Confirmation Import

This option allows you to import a file to confirm the final details of paid invoices.

Like many imports in Concur Invoice, there are Excel-based and CSV versions of this payment confirmation import.

If you opt to use the Excel-based version of this file, the Import Payment Confirmations area lets you download the file template and then import the completed file as needed. See the following image.

If you opt to use the CSV version of the file, that file is imported in the separate Import/Extract Monitor tools.

Payment Confirmation Import page is displayed. Information about Payment Confirmation Import is provided in preceding paragraph.

Note

This tool is not used with Invoice Provider ACH, as the payments are all processed within Concur Invoice.
Extract Reconciliation

This page allows you to compare all payment amounts extracted from your system to actual payments made using Invoice Provider ACH. You can reconcile all payments made from outside of the Invoice Provider ACH system alongside those made within it, all in one location. The Payment Manager can search for and view each extract, then drill down into an invoice to view specific information.

Select the links on the right to see the details of the invoices contained within that group.

Extract Reconciliation page is displayed. Information about Extract Reconciliation is provided in preceding paragraph.

Releasing Payments

If you are using the Require Batches to be Released feature for any of your batches, those batches can have a status of Pending Release. Batches with this status must be manually released for payment by a user assigned to the Payment Release Manager role. Batches in this status can be released by selecting Release Payment from the Actions button.

In the next, and final lesson, we'll wrap things up and look at some additional useful resources.

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