Creating your First Payment Run Tutorial

In this guide, we'll prepare you for and walk you through your first payment run with Payment Assistant.

Some of the following steps you may have completed previously, but it doesn't hurt to verify that you have them configured correctly before your first payment run.

Verify bank account allows bank drafts

Treasury > Bank accounts

When Payment Assistant pays an invoice it creates a bank draft record in Financial Edge NXT. In order to withdraw funds from the bank account to pay vendors, your bank account needs to allow bank drafts.

  1. From Treasury, Bank accounts, open the bank account record you set up with Payment Assistant. If you aren't sure which one you set up, in the list of bank accounts look for "Payment Assistant enabled" in the Account column.

  2. Select Edit.

  3. Scroll down to the Subledger settings, Transaction types section.

  4. For Bank draft, select either "Start numbering with" or "Start numbering as Computer check". The only thing it can't be is "Not used."

  5. Select Save.

Create roles

Control panel > Security > Role management

The person in your organization who is a solution admin can set up the roles required for Payment Assistant, or they can create an additional Payment Assistant admin role to help manage it.

Create roles for the Payment Assistant admin, payment run creator, and payment run approver and decide who will perform each task. Most organizations will have one person create the payment runs and different people approve based on payment amounts. Keep track of the roles names as you need them in the next step.

Tip: If a user already has a role assigned, such as a Shared components or Accounts payable role, you'll want to edit that role instead of creating a new one. A user can only have one role assigned per feature area.

If a solution admin is not setting up Payment Assistant, including configuring the roles necessary for Payment Assistant, at a minimum we recommend the following permissions for the Payment Assistant admin.

  • Payment Assistant role

    • For Payment runs tasks, select View payment runs.

    • For Configuration tasks, select Payment Assistant setup and optionally, any of the other available tasks you want them to be able to perform.

  • Shared components role

    • For Bank accounts tasks, select Bank account information and Accounts payable.

  • Accounts payable role

    • For Record tasks, select Invoices, Credit memos, and Vendors.

For creators, at a minimum we recommend the following permissions.

  • Payment Assistant role

    • For Payment runs tasks, select View payment runs and Manage payment runs.

  • Shared components role

    • For Bank accounts tasks, select Bank account information and Accounts payable.

  • Accounts payable role

    • For Record tasks, select Invoices, Credit memos, and Vendors.

For approvers, at a minimum we recommend the following permissions. 

  • Payment Assistant role

    • For Payment runs tasks, select View payment runs and Approve payment runs.

  • Shared components role

    • For Bank accounts tasks, select Bank account information and Accounts payable.

  • Accounts payable role

    • For Record tasks, select Invoices, Credit memos, and Vendors.

Assign roles

Control panel > Security > User management

From Security, User management, open each user you have designated as an admin, payment run creator, or payment run approver and make sure they have the correct roles assigned. Each person should have a Payment Assistant, Shared components, and Accounts payable roles.

You can assign only one role per feature area, so if a user already has a role assigned you can choose to:

  • Edit the existing role and assign the permissions from the previous step.

  • Create a new role that encompasses the previous permissions already assigned to the user and add the new ones for Payment Assistant.

Set up approval tiers

Payables > Settings > Payment Assistant

If you haven't done so already, set up your approval tiers for Payment Assistant. Every payment run requires at least one approver before the funds are withdrawn from your account to pay vendors. However, you can define up to 5 approval tiers.

You'll need to make sure the user has the payment run approver role you assigned in the previous step, before you can add them to an approval tier.

Enable EFT sharing – Optional

When you onboard to Payment Assistant, you can opt-in to sharing your EFT vendor bank account details with Payment Assistant. From the Getting Started with Payment Assistant page or from Payables, Settings, under Payment Assistant you can Allow EFT sharing .

Tip: EFT details are shared only one time for the set up of the vendor's Payment Assistant payment method.

Payment Assistant always reaches out to the vendor and allows the vendor to choose their preferred payment method. If the vendor chooses ACH, the EFT details you shared are used for the one-time setup.

Note: If the vendor is an individual person and you elect to share EFT information, they will be automatically enrolled in ACH without contact.

For more information on EFT sharing, see EFT Sharing with Payment Assistant .

Identify vendors to pay

Payables > Invoices

Your first payment run is a learning process, so we recommend choosing vendors who don't have a payment due in the next 10 business days. Try to find vendors with a due date further away so you can give yourself time to learn and practice Payment Assistant. This is not the time to stress yourself out by attempting to pay something that's due very soon.

Also, it's important for you to choose real vendors with real invoices to pay, instead of fake ones or a small amount. Small payment amounts, such as .50¢, may be flagged as not important and not treated with the same level of priority as a real payment run.

  1. To help you identify vendors to include, from Payables, select Invoices.

  2. On the Invoices page, select Filter.

  3. Select the Payment tab.

  4. In the Payment date field, select "This calendar year" or a "Specific range". If you select "Specific range," choose dates.

  5. Select Apply filters.

  6. Browse the invoices and select a handful that you would be comfortable paying. Take note of which vendors and invoices you are choosing to pay. You'll need them for when you create the payment run.

    Tip: You can sort the list of invoices by the Due date column to help you see those who have a payment date further away.

Verify invoice records

Now that you've chosen your invoices, let's double-check that they are ready to be paid. For the ones you identified in the previous step, open the invoice record one at a time and review that it has the following information.

Invoice records

Payables > Invoices

While you can update invoice information when you create a payment run, it's important to have invoice records that can process with Payment Assistant. Processing requires completing all the required fields on the invoice and making sure they are up-to-date, including:

  • Vendor address, including city, state, and zip code

    Note: Currently, only invoices with a United States remittance address can be processed with Payment Assistant.

  • Invoice number

  • Vendor customer number

  • Vendor contact information, including phone number (with correct phone number type)

  • Payment method

    Tip: While you have to select a payment method on the invoice, Payment Assistant will use the preferred payment method chosen by the vendor and may differ from what you select.

Vendor records

Optional – In addition to the vendor contact information on the invoice record, we recommend you open the vendor record from the invoice and verify the record has the following:

  • Vendor email address (with correct phone number type)

  • Payee name, and

  • Primary contact first and last name

For payment runs, phone numbers and email addresses on vendor records need to be formatted correctly. First, we recommend you update your phone type defaults.

  1. From Control Panel, select Fields and tables.

  2. Select Tables tab.

  3. Find and select the Phone Type.

  4. For each phone number type you want to use with Payment Assistant, edit the type and select Telephone number for the Phone number type.

  5. For each email address type you want to use with Payment Assistant, edit the type and select Email address for the Phone number type.

Then, ensure the contact info phone number is formatted correctly. These are the currently allowed phone number formats.

  • XXXXXXXXXXX i.e., 15555555555

  • X-XXX-XXX-XXXX i.e., 1-555-555-5555

  • X XXX XXX XXXX i.e., 1 555 555 5555

  • X.XXX.XXX.XXXX i.e., 1.555.555.5555

  • X (XXX) XXX-XXXX i.e., 1 (555) 555-5555

The country code is optional, but will default to 1 if not included.

If you have vendors with multiple customer numbers, we recommend that you create a separate vendor record for each customer number. If this is not possible, you could also put something generic in the customer number field, such as "MANY." Then, add the account number to the invoice description.

Inform vendors in advance

Now that you know which vendors you want to pay with Payment Assistant, it is recommended you notify them in advance that someone from REPAY is going to reach out to them. This can help prevent delays caused by miscommunication.

Use the following template to customize to your organization.

Download template

Create a payment run and submit for approval

Payables > Payment Assistant

Now that you did the setup and preparation, you are ready to create the payment run.

  1. From Payables, select Payment Assistant.

  2. From the Payment runs page, select New.

  3. Select the invoices you identified earlier as ready to be paid. If an invoice is still missing any required info, a status appears in the Action needed column. Select the link in the Action needed column to review and provide the missing information.

  4. Select Pre-payment report to verify there are no distribution errors. If there are errors, you'll want to adjust the invoice before submitting the payment run for approval.

  5. Select Submit for approval. An email is sent to the user(s) who were identified as approvers on the Approval tiers setup. We also display an in-product notification for the approvers when they log in to Financial Edge NXT.

  6. You can now keep track of the payment run progress from the Payment run record.

Approval process overview

When you set up approval tiers, you are also defining email and in-product notification settings. The approvers you define are all notified, unless you adjust their settings on Approver Notifications for Payment Assistant. Once you submit a payment run for approval, the approval tiers process is kicked off.

Notification Order

Email and in-product notifications are sent based on the order of the approval tiers.

  1. When you select Submit for approval, the first set of emails and notifications are sent for the first tier.

  2. After the final Approve is selected for the first tier, the next set of emails and notifications are sent for the approvers in the second tier.

  3. After all the approval requirements are met for each tier, the person who submitted the payment run is notified and the payment run status is updated to Approved - Awaiting funds.

  4. After the payment run status is updated to approved, REPAY contacts the vendors to determine their preferred payment method.

    Once a vendor is enrolled with REPAY, payments are issued automatically according to their selected payment method — no further communication is required.

    Based on their chosen payment method, REPAY customizes the payment notification message. For more information, see Vendor Payment Communications for Payment Assistant.

Summary

Congratulations! You've created a payment run, it's approved, and sent to REPAY for payment processing. Now what?! Here's some tips on how you can track your payment run.

Payment run record

From Payables, Payment Assistant, select the link in the ID column to open the payment run record.

  • On the Overview tab, see the status for the entire run, including how much is outstanding and how many payments have been paid. You can also see who did the approving for the payment run and a brief history.

  • On the Payments tab, you can track the status of each payment in the Payment status column. You can also customize the information that shows for each payment. Select Columns to choose which to show. For details on the different columns and the info they provide, see the Payment run record help.

Bank draft record

From the payment run record, Payments tab, select the link in the ID column open the bank draft record. On the Bank draft record, look for the Payment Assistant tile. In addition to seeing the status of the payment, once it's paid you can also download payment confirmation documentation and see which payment method the vendor chose. For more details about the info on this tile, see the Bank Draft Records for Payment Assistant.

Next steps for getting to know Payment Assistant

If you're looking to further your learning about Payment Assistant, we recommend the following help topics.