Overview

AP Automation lets you pay your Vendors directly from Accounting Seed using Repay, our integrated payment processor. Repay supports the following payment methods:

• Virtual Card: a one-time-use virtual credit card emailed to the Vendor for payment, on the Visa or Mastercard network.
• ACH: an electronic payment emailed to Vendors who prefer this method.
• Check: a physical check mailed to the Vendor, along with a remittance email confirming it was sent.

Once Repay receives your payment information, they contact the Vendor to confirm their preferred method, then disburse the payment accordingly. Vendors can contact Repay directly afterward if they need to change their method. If you'd rather manage ACH payments yourself by entering Vendors' ACH information directly in Salesforce, Repay may still contact the Vendor to confirm the information is accurate - see AP Automation ACH Vendor Upload Setup for that related, self-managed workflow.

Payment Automation is available to all US and Canadian customers. To activate Payment Automation, send an email to licensing@accountingseed.com.

In this article:

• Key Payment Fields
• Supported Payee Types
• Payments Workflow
• Making Payments
• Remittance Email Examples
• Electronic Payment Advice PDF on Cash Disbursement
• Request a Stop Payment
• Failed and Canceled Payments

Key Payment Fields

The following Cash Disbursement fields are related to Payment Automation:

• Type: you must set this to Payment Services in order to pay your Vendors using Repay.
• Payment Service ID: Repay updates this field with an identification number to use as a reference for this payment.
• Payment Service Status: the statuses in this drop-down list are automatically updated by Repay as the payment progresses through their workflow.  See the Failed, Needs Attention, and Canceled Payments section below for how to track such payments.
  • Pending - default status
  • Awaiting Funds - payment created
  • Open - payment is processed
  • Paid - payment has cleared (the check is cashed or virtual card is used)
  • Other values are Needs Attention, Errored, Reissued, Returned, and Cancelled.
• Payment Service Status Note
• Vendor Payment Type (AS_Pay_Type__c)
• Payment Service Error
• Payment Proposal and Payment Proposal Line: if this Cash Disbursement is related to a Payable that was a part of a Payment Proposal, these two fields automatically populate. Both fields display as hyperlinks back to the record, along with the line including a link to the related Payable record.
• Last Payment Service Sync Date: this field is updated with the last date and time the Payment Services information section on the Cash Disbursement was updated by the payment processor.
• Bank Disbursement: this field has the associated bank disbursement that is created when payment information is sent to the payment processor.

The following Account fields are related to Payment Automation:

• Primary Contact /Billing Contact - must have name, email and phone
• Billing Address
• AP Remittance Email

The Repay Onboarding article has detail on the fields that need to be entered and their formatting requirements before paying a vendor.

Supported Payee Types

Payment Proposals and Payment Automation currently support the paying of Payables for Vendors. Payables with the Payee set to a Contact or Employee cannot be paid through AP Automation.

Payments Workflow

When Repay receives information about your payment (Cash Disbursement is posted), Repay takes the following steps:

• Updates the Cash Disbursement's Payment Service ID with an ID and Payment Service Status with "Awaiting Funds".
• Debits the Cash Disbursement Amount from your Bank Account and moves it into your FBO (for benefit of) account.  This provides a time within which any cancellations can be performed quickly if necessary.   
• Repay contacts the Vendor by phone and email to ask how they want to be paid. If the Vendor doesn't respond within 3 days, Repay issues and mails them a Check.
• Once the required FBO time-frame has passed:
  • The payment is issued to the Vendor in their preferred method.  Note: Repay issues and mails them a Check if the Vendor does not respond to their email/phone calls.
  • Payment Service Status is updated with "Open".
  • Vendor Payment Type is updated with the method used to pay the Vendor.
  • If the Vendor chose to be paid by Virtual Card, then a Payment Method is created with the card details and linked to the Cash Disbursement's Payment Method field.
  • A remittance email is sent to the Vendor (see remittance examples below)
  • An electronic payment advice PDF (see samples below) is attached to the Cash Disbursement with payment details.
• After the payment has cleared (the check is cashed or virtual card is used), the Payment Service Status is updated with "Paid".

 

Making Payments

In general, you are ready to pay your Vendors once onboarding has completed.  If you chose to upload your Vendors' ACH payment methods, then there are a few more prerequisites to be completed before you can pay them.

Prerequisites for Repay default workflow:

1. Ensure all Repay Onboarding steps are completed.

Prerequisites for ACH Upload workflow: 

1. Ensure Repay Onboarding steps 1 through 5 are completed.
2. The One-time Configurations are completed.
3. In Salesforce, all the Vendors you intend to pay have the necessary information updated.
4. Vendor Information has been sent to Repay.
5. The "Payment Services Enrollment Status" field on the Vendor is "Enrolled".

Once prerequisites are completed, you can pay your Vendors through Repay.  Here are some different ways to pay your Vendors:

• Pay an individual Payable 

The Pay button on the Payable record lets you pay one at a time.

1. 1. Once your Payable is posted, click Pay.
   2. On the intermediate screen, make sure you select Payment Services as the Type.
   3. Click Pay and Post to have the system immediately create the Cash Disbursement, apply it to the Payable and send payment information to Repay for processing.

• Pay Multiple Payables with Pay Batch 

  1. To pay multiple payables, select them on the Payables List view and then click Pay Batch.
  2. On the intermediate screen, make sure you select Payment Services as the Type.
  3. Optional: you can aggregate by vendors.
  4. Click Create and Post to immediately create the Cash Disbursements, apply them to the respective Payables and send payment information to Repay for processing.

• Use Payment Proposals

Use case: If you typically have several payables and credit memos then you can add them to a Payment Proposal.

1. 1. Create a Payment Proposal with the Type set Payment Services.
   2. Optional: you can aggregate by vendors; to do this select the Aggregate by Payee checkbox. Note: If you want to add credit memos to your Payment Proposal, you must select Aggregate by Payee.
   3. Use the Basic or Advanced search to find the payables you want to include in the Payment Proposal.
   4. Send for approval
   5. Once the Status is Approved, you can either click the Pay button on the Payment Proposal or schedule the Pay Payment Proposals automated job to create and apply the Cash Disbursements (and apply any Credit Memos).
   6. Important: review your Cash Disbursements and then post them/batch post them so the information is sent to Repay.

• Prepaid Cash Disbursements

Use case: You have a Cash Disbursement for a Prepayment to a vendor and need to pay this via Repay. 

• 1. Create the Cash Disbursement and make sure it has its Type set to Payment Services.
  2. BEFORE you post the Cash Disbursement, apply it to its Payable so that the Cash Disbursement's Balance is 0.00.
  3. Then post it so the information is sent to Repay for processing.

⚠️Important: for a payment to be sent to Repay to process the following must be true:

1. Cash Disbursement Type must be set to Payment Services; Cash Disbursements with the Type set to Check or Electronic will not be sent to Repay.
2. The Balance should be equal to 0.00 on the Cash Disbursement.
3. The Posting Status of Cash Disbursement should be Posted.  

Alternate Payee Name

If you need to issue the payment to the Vendor using a different name than what is on the Vendor Account record, you can enter the required name in the Alternate Payee Name field on the Cash Disbursement.  When a Cash Disbursement with Type = Payment Services is posted, the system checks to see if the Alternate Payee Name field has a value; if it does this is set as the Payee field on the transaction. Otherwise, the Vendor's name is used.

Scheduling Automated Jobs

Optional: Since it is the posting of the Cash Disbursement that sends the payment information to the payment processor, it may be beneficial to schedule automated jobs. We recommend scheduling them in the following order:

1. Schedule the Pay Payment Proposal job in the Automated Jobs (to create the Cash Disbursements and applications)
2. Schedule the Cash Disbursement Scheduled Post job.
3. If your AP Disbursements are not set to auto-post, add the AP Disbursement Scheduled Post job.
4. Schedule the Scheduled Bank Download job to run after the Cash Disbursement Scheduled Post job so that it can bring in your bank transactions from your bank. You can set up auto-matching to help reconcile on your Bank Reconciliation.

 

Remittance Email Examples

Below are examples of remittance emails that users get when using Repay:

Vendor Payment Remittance – Virtual Card

Vendor Payment Remittance – ACH

Vendor Payment Remittance – Check

 

Electronic Payment Advice PDF on Cash Disbursement Examples 

An electronic payment advice is attached to the Cash Disbursement once the payment has been sent to your vendor. Examples of this are below:

ACH

 

Check

Virtual Card

Request a Stop Payment

To void and request a return of funds (Check, Virtual Card or ACH), contact your AP Product Consultant or create a case with Accounting Seed Support.

Important: Stop payment requests are time-sensitive. Contact Support immediately and have your Payment Service ID and Cash Disbursement record number available.

 

Failed and Canceled Payments

If a payment enters a Needs Attention, Errored, or Canceled/Cancelled status, the system automatically creates a Task and assigns it to the Cash Disbursement owner. The Task's Comments field includes troubleshooting details for the specific error. See the Repay FAQ & Troubleshooting Guide for steps to resolve the issue.

Related articles:

• Repay FAQ & Troubleshooting Guide
• Payment Proposals
• AP Automation ACH Vendor Upload Setup
• AP Automation Overview
• Repay Payment Automation Onboarding
• Invoice Automation Overview
• Email to Payable Configurations

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