Theresa Rago is the Finance Systems Manager at Starr Companies. Her AP department was processing the same client invoices again and again in the most repetitive and manual way. It was painful and a total waste of time. 

Without setting up Recurring Payments for businesses to run automatically, you create a bottleneck. The finance function can’t scale alongside the rest of the company and is constantly fighting to catch up with company growth. 

Plus, suppliers are left frustrated as long payment cycles can leave them without working capital. The manual nature of traditional payment processing means that supposed ‘recurring revenue’ becomes unstable and unpredictable. It can lead to poor vendor relationships and leave your business struggling without key inventory.  

We get it – setting up recurring payments through the bank exposes your company to third-party problems, like duplicate payments or missing a payment altogether. So instead, we’ll show you a way to set up recurring payments for business that won’t risk any missed or duplicate payments. Let’s dig in.

PSA: For the majority of this piece, we’re talking about how your business can set up to pay suppliers on a recurring basis. But if you’re looking to accept recurring payments as a business, skip to this section.

Setting up a recurring payment through the bank

It’s important to note that when you want to set up fixed recurring payments through the bank, it usually has to be the same amount every time. This is useful if you’re a small business on a payment plan or your suppliers follow a regular billing cycle.  

If you only need to pay the same amount to the same supplier every month, here’s the step-by-step guide, as per the Bank of America.

1. Log in to your online account
2. Head to the Bill Pay section
3. Add a Company or Person to pay
4. Choose how much you need to pay and how often

And voila, your automatic payment is set up! This would be particularly helpful when you’re paying for office rent, where the price doesn’t typically change from month to month. But any usage-based subscriptions for software or utilities would not suit this type of recurring payment set up.

Step-by-step guide to recurring payments with invoice software

So you need to set up recurring billing for a variable payment? That’s where CoreIntegrator comes in. 

Now, this process is based on a key assumption: your recurring payments are known ahead of time and have been approved through the procurement process. It’s not just random billing every month, these payments originate from a purchase order. 

The key benefit to working with payment software is that your organization has total visibility over each phase of the process. It means that your people can check the status of each payment within seconds, and work with a virtually touchless system.

Using AI to automate recurring payments

Our revolutionary technology, SmartMatch, runs on a complex mathematical algorithm that computes millions of different possibilities at just the click of a button. But sometimes, you need to exercise a little judgment too. Enter: artificial intelligence. 

Partially received orders also get processed, with SmartMatch determining which lines match up mathematically with the prices and quantities listed. 

“But what if you have two products, both with the same price and quantity but only one has been delivered?”

SmartMatch never guesses. Instead, it prompts you with the different potential outcomes, and all you have to do is click on the right one. Simplifying the process.

How to process recurring payments with SmartMatch

1. Create a new supplier profile in SmartMatch, enter the payment details, frequency and payment method. Submit
2. When you receive an invoice, email it to your CoreIntegrator email address
3. CoreIntegrator automatically captures the data, matching the invoices with the purchase order down to the line total 
4. Once confirmed a match, the payment moves to your workflow within 1 working day and your supplier is automatically paid

If you’re a visual learner, we also have this information in a video:

Create a profile in SmartMatch

Start by logging into your CoreIntegrator software and head to SmartMatch. In order to end up with payment success, you’ll need to set up a new supplier profile in the program. It gives SmartMatch all of the information that you’ll later use for a recurring transaction. 

So, enter the likes of the payment info and bank details. Will you link up the company credit card or do you want to use our payment processing portal? Then choose the frequency. Most of the time, you’ll receive a monthly invoice from subscription, so you’ll need to set up monthly payments too.

Email the received invoice to CoreIntegrator

Next time you receive an invoice from your supplier, forward it onto CoreIntegrator. 

When you sign up with us, you’ll get your own dedicated email account to send all your documents into. So you never even need to learn a new system.

Automatic data capture and three-way matching

Here’s where the magic happens. 

We automatically record the information on your invoice using a verified data capture technology. Then, SmartMatch compares this information to your original purchase order (PO). By applying a complex algorithm and AI, it has the power to compute subtotals and totals. But this goes down to every single line on your invoice and PO in order to find the match. 

Then, one of three things happens:

It means that even if two items on a PO are the same price and the same quantity, you’ll never pay for goods you haven’t received and leave your customers high and dry.  

The other thing? You won’t find this anywhere else. SmartMatch is proprietary technology which means you can only find it here at CoreIntegrator. 

Supplier payment via OnPay

Once confirmed as a match, your supplier can get paid automatically. There’s no need to waste time entering the payment details again or checking how much you owe – integration between SmartMatch and OnPay makes that automatic.

You can choose to pay in one of four ways:

1. E-payment via check
2. ACH
3. E-payment wire transfer
4. E-payment via virtual credit card

It’ll ensure your vendors aren’t clamoring for cash flow as there’s no chance of missed payments. Plus, since your business’ subscription payments are on time, every time, you’ll never leave your people without the tools to operate with success. 

Set up recurring payments with ease

Getting started with SmartMatch is simple. To get up-and-running within a matter of days, just contact one of our CoreIntegrator team members. If you’d like to see how it can impact your organization, schedule a demo now.

Recurring payments FAQs

If you still have some questions about invoice processing, payment gateway software and recurring payments, we’re here to help.

How to prevent duplicate payments?

CoreIntegrator’s technology can help prevent duplicate payments by using integrated payment information to ensure that no two payments are the same. The system allows users to set up rules to detect and prevent duplicate payments hitting the same bank account.

What’s the difference between recurring payments and a direct debit?

Recurring payments are automated payments set up on a bill pay schedule – paid to a vendor or supplier on a regular basis. 

Instead, a direct debit is an agreement between a customer and a merchant – authorizing the payment processor to take payments from the customer’s account directly. The customer must provide their bank details for a direct debit to work.

How to accept recurring payments from customers?

You might want to accept recurring payments from customers if you run a subscription-based pricing model. Since the monthly payments aren’t variable, it’s easy for both your business and your clients to set up a recurring invoice. 

You will need a payment processor to accept recurring payments. Fortunately, OnPay allows you to accept payments as a merchant as well as pay suppliers through the same system. So your accounts payable can benefit from the same automation benefits as the rest of your procurement team.

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