Paying vendors is a routine part of accounts payable, but the way those payments are handled can have a big impact on efficiency, visibility, and control.
Acumatica provides several flexible options for managing vendor payments, whether you’re paying a single bill, combining multiple bills for one vendor, or processing payments in bulk across multiple vendors.
In this walkthrough, we’ll look at how the payment application process works in Acumatica for accounts payable, using both check and ACH payment methods.
Let’s begin with a simple example: paying one outstanding bill for a services vendor.
In Acumatica, you can open a specific AP bill and pay it directly from the bill screen. Once you drill into the bill, you’ll see the option to click Pay. This creates a payment automatically in the Checks and Payments screen.
Acumatica pulls in the details from the bill, including the vendor information and payment amount. It also uses defaults from the vendor record, such as the preferred payment method. For example, the vendor may be set up to default to check payments, while also having other payment options available, such as ACH or Fedwire.
From there, you can save the payment, review the applied amount, and decide whether to pay the bill in full or apply a partial payment if your vendor setup allows it.
After removing the hold, the next step is to print and process the payment.
When processing a check payment, Acumatica takes you to a processing screen where the selected payment is ready to be processed.
Once processed, Acumatica generates the check form. The out-of-the-box check layout is available, and companies can also customize check forms based on their business needs.
Acumatica also supports positive pay functionality. With positive pay, a file can be created and uploaded to the bank, helping businesses add another layer of protection to their check payment process.
After the check is generated, the payment can be released manually. This release step can also be scheduled, depending on how the organization wants to manage payment processing.
A slightly more advanced option is paying multiple bills for the same vendor with a single payment.
This can be done from the Checks and Payments screen by creating a new payment and selecting the vendor. Once the vendor is selected, you can use the Load Documents button to pull in open bills for that vendor.
For example, if there were originally four open bills and one was already paid individually, Acumatica will pull in the remaining open bills. You can then apply a payment amount to those bills, either in full or partially, based on your payment needs.
This approach creates one payment that is applied across multiple bills for the same vendor. It's a helpful option when you want to consolidate payments rather than issue separate payments for each bill.
The most common way many companies process vendor payments in Acumatica is through the Prepare Payments and Process Payments screens.
The Prepare Payments screen allows you to manage payments in bulk. From this screen, you can select multiple bills that are ready to be paid and process them together. This can include multiple bills for one vendor or bills across several vendors.
You can also use filters to narrow down the list of bills. For example, you may want to process payments for a specific vendor, a specific payment method, or bills due within a certain time period.
This screen also supports scheduled processing. You could configure Acumatica to process bills that are due within the next seven days and run that process daily, weekly, or on another schedule that fits your business process.
Payment methods play an important role in how bills appear for processing. In Acumatica, vendors can be set up with different payment methods, including check, ACH, and Fedwire.
When you select a payment method on the Prepare Payments screen, Acumatica displays the bills that match that payment method. If ACH is selected, the screen will show vendors and bills set up for ACH payments. If you switch the payment method to check, you will see a different group of open bills based on vendors using check payments.
When processing ACH payments, Acumatica batches the selected bills into a payment based on the vendor and payment details. Once the payment is processed, Acumatica generates a NACHA file. That NACHA file can then be uploaded to the bank to complete the ACH payment process.
This is one of the major benefits of using ACH payments in Acumatica. Instead of manually preparing bank files outside the system, Acumatica can generate the file directly as part of the payment workflow.
Once the ACH payment has been processed and released, the payment status is updated, giving the AP team visibility into where the payment stands.
If your team is looking for a more efficient way to manage vendor payments in Acumatica, it may be worth taking a closer look at how payment methods, processing screens, and scheduling options can support your accounts payable workflow.
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