Smarter Week

How to automate it

How to automate “apply customer payments to open invoices”

Here are 2 ways to spend less time on this, best first. Each comes with steps you can follow today.

45 min
typically, every day
70%
of the time can be automated
Some setup
to set up

Fix 1 of 2

Software featureBest fix

Let the system match payments to invoices

Bank-feed matching and cash application tools match most payments by amount and reference, leaving you the short-pays and lumped payments.

Typically saves about 55% of the time1 h to set up
  1. 1Turn on auto-matching for the bank feed in QuickBooks, Xero, NetSuite or Sage Intacct.
  2. 2Ask customers to put the invoice number in the payment reference, and push card or ACH pay links.
  3. 3For high volumes, look at HighRadius, Versapay or Billtrust cash application.
  4. 4Work only the unmatched list each day.

Tools: QuickBooks Online · Xero · NetSuite · Sage Intacct · HighRadius · Versapay · Billtrust

Fix 2 of 2

Software feature

Set up bank rules so repeat transactions code themselves

Rules in QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite recognize repeat payees and amounts and post them to the right account automatically.

Typically saves about 50% of the time45 min to set up
  1. 1Export last quarter's bank lines and sort by payee to find the top 30 repeats.
  2. 2Create a bank rule for each one (QuickBooks bank rules, Xero bank rules, NetSuite matching rules).
  3. 3Set rules to suggest, not auto-post, for the first month.
  4. 4Review and switch the reliable ones to auto-add.

Tools: QuickBooks Online bank rules · Xero bank rules · NetSuite bank matching rules · Sage Intacct

Who does this task

Roles in our library that list this as one of their common tasks. Each guide covers the rest of that role’s week.

AP / AR specialist

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Other common tasks for AP / AR specialists