Many manufacturing companies pay vendors with ACH payments. This process often involves entering the vendor bill and payment information in the accounting software package and then entering the payment at the bank. Finally, the vendors are notified which bills were paid and the amount of the payment. If there is a considerable volume of these payments each week, the process can be very time consuming for the employees who are entering the same information three times.

How can this process be simplified?

Some accounting software such as Sage Intacct and Acumatica create an ACH file to be sent to the bank from within their software. The accounting software can also create the email notifications complete with all the payment information automatically included.

For other accounting software, such as QuickBooks, Sage50 and any software that can export the payment information to an Excel or CSV file, a software product called ACH Universal can help simplify the process.

How does it work?

With QuickBooks, there is a direct integration that brings the vendor payment information into ACH Universal so that the ACH file can be generated.  Once the ACH file is generated, it is uploaded to the bank.  Then it is either processed or a second employee can approve the file depending on the bank’s process.  ACH Universal can then generate the vendor notification emails, which include the individual bill payment information.

With other accounting software, an excel file with the payment information is uploaded into ACH Universal and then the ACH file is generated. The rest of the steps are the same.

Don’t have time to explore these options or want some help to implement? Contact Nancy Orben at 513-834-6906 or norben@blueandco.com.