What is the difference between a supplier and a payee?

Suppliers are companies

Suppliers may issue you an invoice that you pay, usually via cheque, online transfer, direct debit, or by standing order, using the Invoice or Direct Debit purchase type.

Examples are Tesco, Amazon, BT, ExpensePlus, ChurchSuite, etc.

Equally, you may pay your supplier using a credit or debit card registered to your organisation, using the Business Card purchase type.

If someone paid the supplier using a personal credit or debit card, the company or website from which the order was made is the supplier. The individual person (whose personal card was used) is the payee, who then reclaims the cost via the Expense Claim purchase type.

For example, the supplier is Sainsbury's, and your volunteer helper Jane is the payee.

Payees are usually people

Payees may be people that you pay back, to reimburse them for purchases made using a personal form of payment (personal debit or credit card).

Most payees will claim their expense reimbursements using the Expense Claim purchase type.

Payments made via the Gift Request purchase type are also paid to payees. So in this instance, payees can sometimes be organisations as well.

Supplier and Payee Settings

You can manage your suppliers and payees, including deactivating out-of-date suppliers and payees and merging duplicates in Settings.

To help you better understand the Purchasing module, please visit the module overview page here.