Permission required: Users with the Admin Profile, Payment Initiator and Custom Profile can access this feature.
Regional Availability: Australia, India, Indonesia, Singapore, United States
Overview
Bill payments on Volopay streamline the process of managing and settling vendor invoices efficiently. Once bills are uploaded and approved, they can be paid either automatically on predefined dates or manually by designated payment initiators, ensuring prompt and accurate financial transactions.
Payment Status
Status | Description |
Scheduled | Scheduled payments are triggered automatically at a specific time on the set date. Users can see this status in the payments tab and have the option to change a scheduled payment to unscheduled, or vice versa. |
Unscheduled | Users can create a bill without selecting a date for payment initiation. Approvers can then approve these bills, even in the absence of a specified payment date. The payment stays in the payments tab until a payment date is determined or the payment is initiated manually.
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Awaiting Funds
| This status means there's not enough money in your account to make the payment. The payment waits in the "Payments" tab until there are enough funds to go through.
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Processing | The payment is on its way to the recipient. The money has been taken out of your account, and the payment's progress can be tracked in the "Payments" tab until it's marked as "Paid."
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Outside Volopay
| Payments approved in Volopay but made outside the platform. This way, you keep track of approvals in Volopay while handling the actual payment differently.
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Failed | Something went wrong, and the payment didn't go through. This could be an issue on the sending or receiving end. You can find and review failed payments in the Payments tab.
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Paid | Successfully completed payments where the beneficiary has received the funds. These transactions are found under the Paid tab.
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Pay Once Approved
You can set payments to be processed automatically once the approval policy is completed. To ensure this, make sure to tick the 'Pay once approved' option when creating the bill.
Note: When this feature is enabled, ensure that the last approver is a person authorized to decide if the payment should be released. Once they approve, the payment will be automatically released.
Automated Payments (Schedule Payments)
Scheduled payments are triggered automatically at a specific time on the set date post approval. Users can see this status in the payments tab and have the option to change a scheduled payment to unscheduled, or vice versa.
Enabling Automated Payments
Access the Bill Pay section from your Volopay dashboard.
Proceed to 'Settings'
Toggle on "Automated payments"
Note: If automated payments are disabled, the payment will not be processed on the scheduled date, and manual intervention will be required to complete the payment.
Paying bills manually
If you need to clear payments before their scheduled date, or if you need to pay an unscheduled bill, admins and payment initiators can easily handle this from the Bill Pay module.
Access the Bill Pay section from your Volopay dashboard.
Proceed to go to 'Payments'
Here you can view all scheduled and unscheduled payments.
Click the “Pay Now” button next to any bill to instantly process the payment. The payment status will update to 'processing', and once the beneficiary receives the funds, the status will change to 'paid'.
Adding or removing a payment initiator
By default admins have the authority to initiate payments, however to give our customers flexibility in assigning specific users to initiate payments
click on "Bill Pay", then navigate to "Settings." Here, you will find the option to payment initiator
Select 'Add payment initiator' then click on Edit.
Add or remove users as needed.
Save to apply the updates.
Manual payments by payment initiators/admins
Payment initiators or admins have the authorization to manually initiate payments for all approved bills. This capability is crucial when payments need to be expedited prior to the scheduled auto-payment date.
Available payment methods for manual payment:
Pay Now
Direct payments from the company's main account ensure streamlined financial operations and are reconciled within the Volopay system.
Pay Outside Volopay
Conduct payments outside the Volopay platform as needed. Although these transactions are processed externally, they are still recorded on the Volopay platform and can be synced with your accounting software. You can process this payment by marking them as paid
Add Payment Date When Marking Invoices as Paid Outside Volopay
Managing invoices paid outside of Volopay is now more efficient! When selecting "Mark as Paid" for invoices processed externally, you can now add a payment date.
This ensures:
Better tracking of external payments
Accurate reconciliation in financial records
Improved reporting and audit trail
Handling failed payments
If a bill payment fails for any reason, it can be swiftly retried:
Start by accessing the Bill Pay section from your Volopay dashboard.
Click on the 'Payments' tab to view all transactions.
Click 'Failed' tab to see all failed payments
Next to each failed payment, you'll find the 'Retry Payment' option. Clicking this will initiate the process to resend the funds.
Once you you retry the payment will then go back to 'Processing' stage
Impact of budgets on payments
The processing of payments is influenced by the allocated budgets for bill payments, whether set for the entire company or specific departments/projects.
Flexible Budget: Allows payments to proceed even if the budget is exceeded.
Non-Flexible Budget: Issues a warning and prevents the payment if the budget limit is surpassed.
Note: For auto payments, transactions under a flexible budget are processed automatically, while those that exceed a non-flexible budget limit are halted.