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Help › Bookkeeping

Schedule a bill payment

Updated

Open this in Talisk HQ

A scheduled payment is a note of what you plan to pay: this bill, this amount, from this account, around this date. It posts nothing to your books and leaves the bill owing. The bill is paid the same way every bill is paid in HQ, when the bank line that settled it is matched to it, and the scheduled payment then reads Paid on its own.

Scheduling one

On Ledger › Expenses › Bill Pay, click Schedule a Payment and choose:

  • the bill. Only approved bills that still owe something are listed;
  • the account it will be paid from. Bank accounts, credit cards and prepaid balances all work, as long as they are in the bill's currency and active;
  • the date you plan to pay, the amount and the method (e-Transfer, cheque, EFT, wire or other), and a memo if you want one. For a cheque, put its number in the memo ("Cheque 518"): that is how HQ recognises it when it clears.

The amount starts at what the bill still owes. You can schedule less and add more payments later, for example to pay a large bill in instalments, but all the open payments on one bill together can't come to more than it owes.

A bill that someone paid out of their own pocket, a receipt, a credit note and a bill in another currency can't be scheduled: none of them is paid by a bank line through Accounts Payable. Nor can a bill dated before your conversion date, unless it was still owed on that day (imported from QuickBooks with a balance, or marked Still owed at my start date); every other one was paid in your old system.

When a supplier's bank details have changed

If a supplier's payment details changed and nobody has confirmed the change (see "Keep a supplier's bank details and spot a changed account"), Bill Pay says so: in a box above the list while any of that supplier's payments is open, under the supplier's name on each of those payments, and under the bill you choose in Schedule a Payment. The advice is the same everywhere: before you pay, call the supplier on a number you already had, not one from the email or invoice that told you about the change.

It is a reminder and nothing more. You can still schedule, mark a payment sent and pay it, and HQ does not check anything when you do. See what changed opens the supplier's panel in Vendors, where someone with full access confirms the change after calling. The box goes away once they have.

Sent, if you want to say so

When the payment actually leaves (you mail the cheque, or send the transfer), click Mark sent. It records the day and nothing else. If you marked it too early, Unsend puts it back. Marking it sent is optional: an automatic payment that simply happens on the day needs nothing from you.

How it becomes Paid

When the payment's bank line arrives, match it to the bill as you would any payment: see "Match a bill to a bank transaction". HQ then links the scheduled payment to that match, and it moves to Paid, showing the bank line that settled it: its description, date, amount and account. It does not matter whether you marked it sent first.

Run Matching on Ledger › Expenses can do the matching for you, but a scheduled payment books itself only when its bank line names the supplier or carries the cheque number you recorded. Otherwise HQ suggests the line and you confirm it with one tap: an e-Transfer that shows a person's name is suggested, never booked. The line must also be on the account you scheduled the payment from, within five cents of the scheduled amount, and dated from three days before the day you marked it sent (or the day you scheduled it for) to ten days after, or thirty days after for a cheque. That includes one instalment of a larger bill, and the rest stays owing. If anything else could be the same payment, such as a second line, another bill of that amount, or a line on another account that names the supplier, or if the line already has a category, it is suggested rather than booked. This happens only in a book whose home currency is the Canadian dollar, and new bank lines arriving never record a payment this way on their own; see "Match a bill to a bank transaction" for the full rule.

If the money actually left from a different account than you planned, the books follow the bank line, not the plan. The payment is recorded against the account it really came from, and Bill Pay shows both.

Taking the match back (unmatching it) takes the payment back too, so the scheduled payment reads Scheduled or Sent again and waits for the right line.

When a bill ends up fully paid some other way, for example by one payment that covered two of its instalments, a scheduled payment that nothing linked to says Bill already paid. Remove it.

When a sent payment doesn't reach the bank

If your bank data for the account runs more than ten days past the day you marked a payment sent, and no line on it settles the payment, Bill Pay marks the row Not in the bank yet and Books Health lists it under sent payments not in the bank. HQ waits for the account's own data rather than the calendar, so an account whose statement you upload once a month is not flagged before that statement arrives.

The card lists any bank line of exactly the payment's amount near the day it was sent. Look at those first, but a matching amount is not proof: check whether each one is really this payment before you do anything with it. One may have been given a category rather than matched to a bill, or sit on a different account, which may mean the money left from there. If the payment never went out, Unsend it or Cancel it.

A payment from a prepaid balance has no statement to wait for, so it is flagged once more than ten days have passed since you marked it sent, and the answer is Record payment.

Nothing about this changes your books: the bill stays owed in Accounts Payable until the payment is matched or recorded.

Paying from a prepaid balance

Some payments come out of a prepaid balance that never has a statement: a customs or CARM balance, or a sales-tax balance. No bank line will ever arrive to match, so a payment scheduled from one of those offers Record payment. HQ adds the payment to that balance and records it against the bill in one step, relieving Accounts Payable, and the scheduled payment reads Paid. It uses the scheduled amount. You choose the date the money left: it starts at the day you marked the payment sent, or today if you didn't. A payment can't be recorded in the future, or in a period you have closed.

Record payment is never offered on a bank or card account, even one you haven't imported a statement for yet. The payment will show up on that account's statement, and recording it by hand as well would count it twice once the statement comes in. Pay it, then match the statement line to the bill when it arrives.

Cancelling and removing

Cancel says a payment won't be made. Remove deletes it. Neither changes your books, because a scheduled payment never posted anything. A Paid payment can't be cancelled, changed or removed: unmatch its bank line first. Cancelling or discarding a bill cancels the payments still scheduled for it.

An account can't be deleted while scheduled payments are drawn on it, or archived while any are still waiting to be paid from it. Cancel those payments first, and schedule them again from the right account if they are still owed.

On the dashboard

The Ledger dashboard's Upcoming payments list shows what is scheduled or sent. A scheduled payment whose date has passed is marked overdue; one you marked sent is not, because the money has left and only its bank line is outstanding. Above the list, a line counts the payments you marked sent that are not in the bank yet, with their total, and says how many should have cleared by now.

Good to know: A scheduled payment is a plan, and it posts nothing to your books. The bill is paid only when a bank line settles it: by matching the line when it arrives, or, for a prepaid balance that never has a statement, with Record payment. Record payment is never offered on a bank or card account. Foreign-currency bills and accounts can't be scheduled; match those bills to their bank line. HQ does not send the payment for you, and it does not remind you on the day. A note that a supplier's bank details are unconfirmed is a reminder on your screen: it never stops or holds a payment, and HQ makes no check on it when you pay. Books Health asks about a payment you marked sent once your bank data runs more than ten days past it with no line settling it, or, for a prepaid balance, once more than ten days have passed since you marked it sent. A bank line of the same amount is listed to check, never as proof. A scheduled payment books itself on Run Matching only when its bank line names the supplier or carries the cheque number recorded in its memo, and only in a Canadian-dollar book; otherwise HQ suggests it. New bank lines arriving never book one.

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