Scheduling Payments

Audience: Accounting Manager and MineralTree Administrator

Summary: This guide explains how to set up payment schedules and automate invoice payments either across the whole company or for specific vendors.

The article covers the following topics: 

• Overview of Payment Scheduling
• Setting up scheduling rules (Accounting Manager or Admin)
• Company-wide Payment Scheduling (Admin)
• Payment Scheduling by Vendor (Accounting Manager)

Overview of Payment Scheduling

Auto-scheduling lets you choose a date for invoices to be paid automatically. You can set this up for the entire company or for individual vendors. Even when a payment is auto-scheduled, it still needs to follow your company’s invoice approval and payment authorization rules. Payments will only be processed after all required approvals are completed.

Once the scheduled date arrives:

• If the invoice is approved, the payment goes to your Payment Approvers for final authorization.
• If the invoice is not approved by the scheduled date, the payment must be submitted manually.

If all invoice approvals are completed before the auto-scheduled date, the payment will be submitted in one of two states:

• Awaiting Approval – if payment approvals are required
• Scheduled - if payment approvals are not required

MineralTree does not recommend using the Auto-Scheduling Payments feature if payment authorization is turned off and/or only required over a dollar threshold. 

Auto-scheduled payments will not be submitted if MineralTree detects that the required payment information is missing (e.g. invalid address for check payments, missing vendor information).

Setting Up Scheduling Rules

To start scheduling payments, you first need to create the schedules you want to use. Here’s how:

1. Click your initials in the top-right corner of the navigation bar.
2. Select Company Profile.
3. Go to the Settings tab.
4. Review existing schedules or click Add New Schedule to create a new one.

From there, you can choose different scheduling options that let you set payments to happen either before or after the invoice date, due date, or discount date.

1. Number of days
2. Day of the Week 
3. Day of the Month 

To pay on the due date, set the rule to “0” days Before or After the Due Date.

To pay on the discount date, set the rule to “0” days Before or After the Discount Date.

This tells the system to process the payment exactly on the selected date.

Example: Paying the Monday Before the Discount Date

To schedule payments for the Monday before the discount date, use the “Days of the” option. This lets you set payments based on a specific weekday relative to the discount date.

The Day of the Month setting allows you to choose up to two payment dates each month. Since many companies process payments twice a month, this feature helps automate that routine.

Example: Paying on the 1st and 15th of the Month 

To schedule payments for either the 1st or 15th of the month, whichever comes before the invoice due date, use the Day of the Month option. Select both the 1st and 15th as payment dates. The system will automatically choose the earlier of the two that falls before the invoice due date.

Company-wide Payment Scheduling

Once you’ve created payment schedules, they can be applied at the company level. Only a MineralTree Administrator can set this up. When company-wide scheduling is enabled, all payments up to a specified dollar amount will follow the selected schedule.

To set up company-level payment scheduling:

1. Go to Settings > Manage Company Settings to open the Administrator Application.
2. In the Payment Approval tab, scroll to the Auto-Scheduling Payments section (this feature is off by default).
3. Click Payment Schedule. You’ll see options to set a payment threshold and choose an existing schedule.

4. You can select a previously created vendor schedule and define which payment amounts should follow it.

   Note: Payments over $250,000 should not be auto-scheduled due to limitations with some banks.

Auto Schedule allows for an automation of payments while Manual Schedule will not force a payment, but rather allow the selected schedule to appear to Accounting Managers and Payment Authorizers throughout their workflows as a reminder of the ideal schedule for that particular payment. 

Once the relevant invoice approvals are complete, the invoice will be submitted for payment and it is posted back to your accounting system by your Accounting Manager. The payment date will be determined by the schedule you set.

Vendor Level Payment Scheduling

To set up auto-scheduling at the vendor level, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Search > Vendors to open the Vendor Details page.
2. Click on the vendor you want to set a payment schedule for.
3. Scroll down to the Payment Preferences section.
4. Click Payment Schedule. You will see options to set a payment threshold and select an existing schedule.

Auto Schedule automates the payment process by submitting payments based on the selected schedule. Manual Schedule does not submit payments. Instead, it displays the preferred schedule to Accounting Managers and Payment Authorizers as a guide during their workflow.

Once the relevant invoice approvals are complete, the invoice will be submitted for payment and it is posted back to your accounting system by your Accounting Manager. The payment date will be determined by the schedule you set.