Reimburse an employee using bank file and ACH payments

If you're using Expenses, you can use bank files to reimburse employees for expenses, which allows you to effectively deposit expense payments directly in employees' bank accounts.

In practice, paying through bank file is similar to the process used to reimburse employees by cheque, except that you generate a bank payment file that you send to the bank.

Learn more about setting up bank files.

Select expenses you want to reimburse with bank files

When you reimburse employees for expenses in Expenses, you can choose ACH or bank file as your payment method.

1. Go to Expenses > All > Reimbursements > Select expenses to reimburse.

2. Filter the list of expense reports or select View.

   If you've selected ACH or bank file as the preferred payment method for selected employees, you can use the Payment method dropdown list to filter for only expense reports that should be reimbursed with bank file.

3. On the Pay method dropdown list select ACH.

   The list filters to show expense reports only from employees for which you've enabled bank files.

   If you already filtered the list of expense reports for only bank file payments, this payment method will be prefilled for you.

4. Select the expense reports that you want to pay and the payment amounts.

   By default, multiple expense reports from a single employee will result in one bank payment file. If you want separate payment files for every expense report, set the Payment requests option to One per expense report.

5. Select Save.

   • The payments are saved as payment requests.
   • If the payments don't require approval first, the payments are also immediately available to be generated in a bank file.

   Payments aren't posted until you generate the bank file and confirm that the payments were processed by your bank.

Generate the bank file

1. Go to Expenses > All > Payment files > Bank file generation.

   If you don't see options for bank files:

   To generate bank files, you need additional permissions in Expenses.

   Required permissions for applications

   Application	Required permissions
   Expenses	Find the permissions for Bank file generator, and add permissions to Run. Find the permissions for Bank file and add permissions to List, View, Export, Confirm, Void, and Delete.

2. Optionally, select Customize list to filter the list of payments by current account, supplier, employee, or date.

   If you processed supplier payments using standard ACH, these payments appear along with the expense reimbursements. To generate a separate standard ACH summary for just employee payments, select Customize List and deselect the option to Select All Suppliers.

3. Select the payments that you want to include in the bank file.

4. Select Generate file.

   The payment appears on the Bank payment file page. You can also find this page later by going to Expenses > All > Payment files > Bank payment files.

Send the bank file to your bank

You can download the bank file and send it to your bank.

1. From the Expenses menu, select Bank files.

   A list of payment files that you've generated appears.

2. Optionally, examine the contents of the payment file.

3. Select Download next the payment file.

   Select the name of the payment file that was created and examine the payments that were created.

4. Payment files are saved in the bank account file format.

Confirm and post bank files

Payments aren't posted until you confirm the bank file. If the bank wasn't able to process any of the payments, you can void individual payments and confirm the rest of the file. If there are multiple errors, you may find it easier to delete the bank file and start over.

Directions for confirming or correcting payments

Options for confirming or correcting payments	Directions
If all payments cleared	Follow these steps to confirm the payment file: Select Confirm next to the payment file. This posts the payments to Accounts Payable.
If the bank isn't able to process one or more payments	Follow these steps to void the payments that didn't clear and confirm the rest. Return to the Bank Payment File page. (Go to Expenses > All > Payment files > Bank payment files.) Select the name of the payment file that was created and examine the payments that were created. Select Void for any payment that wasn't processed by the bank. This will remove the payment from the bank file and return it to the Generate bank file page. If you want to start over with the payment, go to Accounts Payable > All > Payments > Payment requests or Expenses > All > Reimbursements > Pending and delete the payment request. This will make the AP purchase invoice or expense available to be paid again, allowing you to correct the payment information. Once you've removed any payments that didn't clear, select Confirm next to the payment file. This posts the payments to Accounts Payable.
If you want to void all the bank file payments and start over	Follow these steps to delete the bank file payment file and start over: Return to the Bank Payment File page. (Go to Expenses > All > Payment files > Bank payment files.) Find the payment file in the list, and select Delete to the right of the payment file. This voids all the payments in the file. Do one of the following: For AP purchase invoices: Go to Accounts Payable > All > Payments > Payment requests. For expenses: Go to Expenses > All > Reimbursements > Pending. Delete the payment request. This makes the AP purchase invoices or expenses available to be paid again, allowing you to correct the payment information.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

What determines the payment date for posted payments?

The estimated payment date that you enter on the Pay AP purchase invoices or Reimburse Expenses page as the payment date. The actual payment date depends on when the bank receives and processes the payment.

Can I void a bank file payment that I already sent to the bank?

Yes, but you also need to contact your bank to cancel the payment. Voiding a payment in Sage Intacct doesn't affect the bank's payment process. If you don't contact your bank, it will proceed to issue the payment regardless of whether you void the payment here.

Learn more about voiding a bank file payment.