How do payment remittance notifications work?
Remittance emails (also called 'payment notifications') are automatically generated and sent to the supplier or payee when you confirm that a payment has been made by bank transfer on the Payments Screen within ExpensePlus.
The remittance email includes:
- details of the payment;
- the last 3 digits of the bank account into which the payment was made;
- for invoice payments, the invoice reference number is included if this was specified when the invoice was entered in ExpensePlus.
An example of a remittance email is shown here:
The Supplier/Payee must have an email address set up in order for you to be able to send a remittance notification email. If an email address hasn't been added then this can be added at the bottom of the payment confirmation popup by the person setting up the payment.
The payment notification email is based on a template and can't be amended. However, you can choose not to send a remittance email by unticking the 'send payment notification' box in the confirm payment popup.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Why do some payments have my church / charity name as the reference?
When sending you an invoice to pay suppliers typically include an invoice number that they want you to use when paying the invoice. Therefore, ExpensePlus automatically makes the invoice reference the payment reference rather than generating a unique payment reference e.g. P1234.
If no invoice reference is entered, ExpensePlus will use your church / charity name instead as the payment reference. However, it's better that you update the purchase and add in the missing invoice reference.
Can I customise the payment reference?
Currently, it's not possible to amend the payment reference within ExpensePlus (except for invoice payments, where the payment reference is set based on the invoice number that has been entered).
Furthermore, we recommend you don't change the payment reference, as the automatically generated payment reference (e.g. P1234) is unique, and it allows an easy way to identify payments within ExpensePlus. It also gets automatically included in payment notification emails so the person or organisation being paid can easily identify the payment and what it relates to. This reduces payment queries.
Do I not need to include my church / charity name in the payment reference?
There is no need to include your church or charity name in the payment reference field. Your organisation name will typically show up automatically in the bank statement description of the person / company / organisation you are paying.
The bank description combines [Account Name] + [Payment reference]. For example, if your organisation name is 'Kings Hope Church' and you enter the payment reference as 'P1234' this will show up on the recipient's bank statement as 'Kings Hope Church P1234'. So it includes your organisation name in the payment reference already.
If you try to include your organisation name in the reference field then the unique payment reference (which is the key detail payees will find helpful to identify payments could get cut off on the bank statement description.
To help you better understand the Payments module as a whole, please visit the module overview page here.