Stale Payments for Payment Assistant

A payment becomes stale when a vendor doesn't cash a check or use a virtual card, or when a check or ACH payment is returned. What happens next, and how quickly funds return to your organization, depends on your payment provider, REPAY or BILL.

Stale Payments with REPAY

Payment Assistant monitors virtual card and check payments for stale activity. It waits 7 business days to confirm whether a balance remains on virtual card payments, and 30 days to confirm check receipt. After that time, a REPAY payment specialist helps the vendor accept the funds, reissue the check, or (for virtual cards) offer another payment method.

REPAY follows up with vendors by phone or email to ensure the invoice is paid. For virtual cards, if the vendor doesn't respond after 3 attempts, the virtual card is reissued as a check. Stale checks are automatically refunded after 180 days.

If the payment can't be completed, the funds are returned to the organization. You can void and reprocess the payment using another method.

Tip: If a stale payment is refunded, you are notified in two ways. In the product, the payment status updates to Canceled, and you receive an email from Blackbaud explaining the reason for the refund. To ensure you receive these notifications, add svc-pmnts-coe-1@blackbaud.com, svc-pmnts-coe-2@blackbaud.me, and svc-pay_coem_a@blackbaud.me to your email allow list.

If you see returned funds for Payment Assistant, you can reprocess the payment as needed. We recommend confirming the vendor's contact information before including them in a new payment run.

Stale Payments with BILL

Note: Don’t see this yet? The ability to use BILL with Payment Assistant is currently in an Early Adopter Program (EAP) for some of our customers. Look for full support and general availability in a future release.

BILL handles stale Payment Assistant payments in the following ways.

Unused Virtual Cards After 20 Days

BILL emails the vendor a reminder before the virtual card expires and, in rare cases, calls the vendor. If the vendor doesn't run the card within 20 days, BILL voids it and reissues the payment as an ACH payment when the vendor has bank information, or as a check when the vendor doesn't. BILL emails your organization and the vendor when it reissues the payment. Learn more about virtual card payments with BILL.

Partially Used Virtual Cards

A vendor can use a virtual card across several charges, up to the total payment amount, before the card expires. After 20 days, BILL automatically refunds the unused amount to your funding bank account and emails your organization the original, processed, and refunded amounts. The bank draft record shows Amount available and Amount refunded, and the Payments tab shows Available amount and Refunded amount.

What Happens to a Check That a Vendor Doesn't Cash?

Checks that BILL prints include the text "Void after 90 days". If the vendor doesn't cash the check within 90 days, BILL voids it and credits the funds back to your funding bank account.

What Happens If USPS Returns a Check?

When the postal service returns a check to BILL, BILL voids it, credits the funds back, and emails your organization to correct the vendor's address and reissue the payment. BILL sends a reissued check to the address on file, so update the address in Financial Edge NXT before you reissue.

ACH Payments Returned by the Vendor's Bank

BILL doesn't retry a returned ACH payment. Instead, you void the payment and credit the funds back, or correct the vendor's bank information and then void and reissue the payment. The payment appears on the Payments tab as Errored, with details that explain the next steps.

Time for Refunded Funds to Return

After a void, BILL returns the funds to your funding bank account within two to five business days.

BILL Emails About Voided, Refunded, and Reissued Payments

BILL emails the users in your organization who manage payments whenever it voids, refunds, or reissues a payment. The emails come from BILL, not from Blackbaud.