Accounts Payable: Enabling Vendor ACH Payments With Sage Intacct

If you’ve ever had to void a check that vanished in the mail or had a check remain uncashed/uncleared for an incredibly long time, you will be happy to know that as part of Sage Intacct’s core functionality, you can generate a NACHA payment file to send payments electronically.

Learn the steps to transition from check payments to ACH payments in Sage Intacct, including what information you need from your bank, what to collect from vendors, and how to generate your first ACH payment file.

Step 1: Sage Intacct bank account setup 

1. Contact your bank

Prior to setting up your ACH bank configurations in Intacct, you’ll want to contact your bank to let them know you would like to issue payments via ACH. In turn, they will send you an ACH specification sheet. It will include the following information which you’ll populate in Sage Intacct:

2. Set up the ACH bank configurations

Go To: Cash Management > Setup > + ACH Bank Configurations

Fill out the fields collected above:

Below is an explanation of each of the fields from Intacct’s Online Help Guide:

3. Link the ACH bank configuration to an existing bank account

Go To: Cash Management > Setup > Checking Accounts > Edit the checking account

On the bank file tab:

• Select the enable ACH radio button
• Select the ACH Bank ID you just set up and the field below will autofill
• Under Payment Numbering Setup, leave the “Use Recommended Setup” checkbox enabled. After saving the bank account, you can come back to make changes based on your bank’s requirements.

Step 2: Contact vendors

Provide them with a form (or use the new Forms and Operational Workflows) to fill out the following:

• Bank Account Number
• Routing Number
• Account Type

Step 3: Updating vendor ACH information

Once you start receiving vendors’ bank information, you might ask what’s the most efficient way to add to Sage Intacct?

Option 1: Manually enter the vendor’s bank information

• Go To: Accounts Payable > Vendors > Find the vendor you would like to add ACH information for and click Edit
• On the Payment Information tab, select the preferred payment method as ACH so that future payments to this vendor default to pay by ACH

• On the Bank Information tab, select to Enable ACH payments and enter the additional ACH information fields

Option 2: Import using the “Update Vendors for ACH” template and filling out the below highlighted columns

Helpful tips for importing vendor ACH information:

• Be careful of leading zeros as is often the case in routing or account numbers. Excel will automatically remove these. Adding an apostrophe before the leading zero or converting the column to text is recommended.
• Checking the notification box on the vendor will send an automated email notification to the vendor when you submit payment. Enable more details in the payment notification in AP configuration.
• Worried about the security of this information? Vendor payment information is a separate permission and can be given to specific users. Also, consider enabling vendor approvals (more about that in this blog post) for an added layer of security.

Step 4: Begin paying vendors by ACH

1. Select bills to pay

• Go To: Accounts Payable > Pay bills
• Selecting the payment method of ACH or bank file will filter the list of bills to only those that have ACH information on their vendor profile
• Filter to view only the bills you would like to pay, then click Apply Filter
• Select the bills to pay, then click Pay Now

2. Generate the ACH file

Go to: Accounts Payable > Payment files > ACH file generation

• Select the checkbox next to the payments to include in the ACH file
• Click to Generate File

3. Send the ACH Payment file to your bank

• Go To: Accounts Payable > Payment files > ACH payment file
• Before downloading the file and sending to your bank, clicking the name of the file allows you to void a payment in the file if needed.
• When ready, clicking the download button generates the file in .ach format.

4. Confirm the ACH file

• Once the file is sent to the bank, and the bank accepts the file, we’ll need to confirm the payment. Just like when printing checks, this step will post the payment to the GL in Intacct.
• Go To: Accounts Payable > Payment files > ACH payment file
• Click the Confirm button next to the payment file

What’s next?

If you need any assistance with setting up ACH in Sage Intacct or other consulting or support, reach out to your CLA Sage Intacct team!