Payment request workflow

Sage Intacct creates a payment request when you select a bill or a group of bills for payment. The Payment status field, which appears as a column on the Payment requests page and Posted payments page, shows where a payment request is within the payment workflow.

How a payment request moves through the workflow depends on the following:

• Your payment approvals configuration
• The payment method that you selected

Creating a payment request

Intacct creates payment requests when you take any of the following actions:

• Select bills on the Pay bills page and select Pay now or Add to outbox.

• Select Pay next to a bill on the Bills list and complete the payment options.

  The Pay option on the Bills list is available for some configurations, with restrictions. Learn more about how to pay a bill from the Bills list.

• Create an AP advance from the Advances page.

When you add a payment request to the outbox or create a draft advance, the Payment requests page shows the request with a payment status of Draft. For payment requests in the outbox that you want move out of draft status, you need to process the draft payment request from the outbox. For draft advances, go to the AP advances page, edit the advance, and submit or post.

After you select Pay or Pay now, the payment request status changes to Submit or Approved, depending on your approval configuration. The same is also true after you submit or post an advance.

At any time, you can view the details of a payment request from the Payment request page. Drill down to see line items or view details of included bills.

Approvals and the payment request workflow

Payment requests enter the payment approval workflow when you take any of the following actions: 

• Select bills in Pay bills and select Pay now

• Pay a bill from the Bills list

• Select a payment request in the outbox and select Pay

• Submit or post an advance.

If you do not use payment approvals, or if the total payment amount is less than the minimum amount required for approval, Intacct automatically sets the payment status to Approved. The payment is ready for the next step, appropriate to the payment method.

For payments with amounts that require approval, Intacct sets the payment status to Submitted and adds the request to the approval queue. The request appears on the Approve payments page for users with the corresponding approval permissions for the amount.

As the payment moves through the approval process, the Payment status might be set to any of the following:

• Partially approved: At least one approver has approved the payment request. Additional approvers are required based on your approval process.

• Unapproved: An approver declined the payment request. Depending on the reason it was declined, you might be able to edit and resubmit the payment request.

• Approved: The payment request was approved by all required approvers and is ready to be paid.

Payment methods and the payment workflow

After a payment is approved, or in cases where approval is not required, what happens next depends on the payment method. For some payment methods, the Payment status changes to Complete when the payment is approved. Others require further action to complete the payment.

For all payment methods, as soon as the payment status is Complete, the payment request moves to the Posted payments page. The bill state for all associated bills changes to Paid.

Payments managed outside of Sage Intacct

Record transfer (EFT and manual checks), cash, Vendor Payments powered by CSI, and credit card payments are all payment methods where the transfer of funds is managed outside of Intacct When payment requests are approved, the payments are posted and the payment status changes Complete. You do not need to take further action within Intacct complete the payment.

Payments managed within Sage Intacct

In the payment workflow, checks, ACH payments, and Bank file payments require action on your part before the payment is posted.

After the payment request is approved, it must be delivered and then completed. In this case, delivery means printing the check or generating the file. To post the payment, you need to confirm the check or file and, in the case of ACH and bank files, post or upload the file.

The following table shows the step required to move payment requests of each payment method through this workflow.

Steps to change the payment status based on the payment method

Workflow step	Check or Joint check payments	ACH payment	Bank file payment
To move the payment status from Approved to Delivered	Print the check from the Print checks page.	Generate the ACH file in the Cash Management application. If you're using a NACHA-compliant bank file, follow the procedures for bank files.	Generate and download the bank file in the Cash Management application.
To move the payment status from Delivered to Complete	Confirm the check on the Print checks page.	Confirm and post the ACH file.	Upload the file to the bank portal and confirm it.

Canceling a payment request that has not posted

Depending on your permissions, you can cancel a payment request that has not yet posted. For example, you might want to suspend a payment while you resolve an issue with the vendor.

When you cancel a payment request, it deletes the payment request and changes the state of all associated bills from Selected to Posted. The bills are again available for you to select on the Pay bills page.

If you need to cancel payment for one or only some of the bills associated with payment request, edit the payment request to remove those bills. The edited payment request is sent back through the approval process after you change it.

If the Payment status is Delivered, the payment is underway but is not yet posted. You need to void the unconfirmed payment before you can cancel the request.

Voiding a posted payment

After a payment request is complete, it moves to the Posted payments page. You can void a posted payment from this page, provided the payment is in an open period. Learn more in Void a posted payment.