Paying a stack of bills and telling suppliers what it covered

On a Friday afternoon the bank pays a pile of bills in one go. A payment run records that in one step: one payment, against every bill it covered, each settled for its whole outstanding balance. It gives whoever keys the bank payments a schedule to work from, and each supplier a note saying which of their invoices the money was for.

Maliru moves no money and holds no bank details. A run records what your bank has already paid — or is about to — and produces the paperwork around it.

Payment runs need Manage bills & expenses, and the Payment runs feature switched on for the workspace. They're on the Crew plan and above; runs already recorded stay readable on any plan. It is on unless someone has turned it off under Global settings › Modules, in Commercial & billing.

Recording a run

1. On Commercial › Bills, choose Select and tick the bills the bank settled together. The bar at the foot totals what they still owe.
2. Choose Record payment.

Record payment stays greyed out, and says why when you point at it, unless the ticked bills can go in one run:

• every bill is approved and still owes something — drafts, bills awaiting approval and disputed bills cannot be paid;
• they are all in one currency;
• there are no more than 200.

The Record payment run dialog lists the bills and the total, and asks for:

• Paid on — the date the bank paid.
• Method — Bank transfer, Direct debit, Card, Cash, Cheque, Offset against a credit or Other.
• Reference — "What the bank statement will call it." For example the name your bank gives the batch.
• Note (optional).

Choose Record payment. Every bill is marked paid for its full balance. If any one of them cannot be paid — it has since been disputed, say — Maliru refuses the whole run and names that bill, rather than settling half the stack.

To pay part of a single bill, record the payment on that bill instead — see Bills and suppliers.

The Payment runs tab

Bills › Payment runs lists every run with Paid on, Reference, Method, the number of Bills, the Total and who Recorded by. View: at the head of the toolbar saves a search and sort as a view — see Saved views.

Schedule downloads a CSV of the run — Supplier, Our reference, Their invoice number, Amount and Currency — for whoever keys the payments into the bank.

Open a run to see the Bills covered, with each bill's supplier, our number, their invoice number, amount and what the bill says now. If a bill was corrected after the run — a payment removed or recorded again elsewhere — the run notes it, and still records what went out on the day.

Remittance advice

A supplier's accounts clerk has to work out which of their invoices a transfer settled. A remittance note tells them — listing their own invoice numbers, not yours.

"Nothing is sent when a run is recorded." Open the run and choose Send remittances when you are ready. Each supplier on the run is emailed a note of what the payment covered.

The run then lists each supplier:

• Sent to their address, with how many bills it covered.
• Has asked not to be sent remittance advice.
• No email address on their record. — with Add an address, which opens the supplier. Save an address and the note goes straight away.
• Already told, when this run was sent before.
• The note did not go. Sending again is reasonable.

Send again is safe: suppliers already told are not told twice.

Who receives it

On each supplier (Bills › Suppliers), under Remittance advice:

• Remittance email — where the note goes. "Blank sends to the contact email above."
• Send them remittance advice — switch it off for a supplier who reconciles from their own bank feed and would rather not have them. The run then says they asked not to be sent one, rather than reporting them as missed.

Being told

Alert rules can react to A payment run is recorded and Remittance advice is sent.