I have been approached by a retail business who wish me to take on their bookkeeping. Generally consists of VAT returns, payroll etc but they have also asked if I will pay suppliers.
This is not something I have ever been asked to do and I wondered how others approached it. I currently use moneysoft software which I hoping to continue with this client.
Any help would be appreciated
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Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Depends on what they mean by "paying" suppliers. I have a couple of clients where I have their cheque book. Each month I'll write out cheques for each of the suppliers. If they have a statement I'll include that with the payment. If not I'll print out a remittance advice or supplier activity statement for the month. I'll print the labels for the envelopes. Then just bung everything in the envelope and it's up to the clients to sign the cheques and post them off. Maybe that's all they're meaning. Of course, they may also mean paying them directly via online banking. I'll leave that to others.
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Never buy black socks from a normal shop. They shaft you every time.
I pay suppliers as a part time employee for 3 clients and payments are usually made by BACS payment, sometimes by cheque, which means you will either need access to their online banking arrangements or to be authorised with their bank as a signatory on their bank account. This is also something that you will need to update your ML Supervisor about.
In terms of workload, it varies according to the number of invoices to be paid per month and you will now want to do a monthly bank reconciliation (you may already have been doing this for your client). BACs payments can be processed in a matter of minutes.
I do lots of these. Never ever ever use someone else's logins, get your own by adding yourself to the Bank mandate, if they are wanting you to do this on your own. Client needs to protect themselves but so do you. If you don't feel comfortable doing it then don't.
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
I would also want to ensure that you have approval to pay the invoices in question. A signature on the invoice or a detailed email, stating who and the amount. Wouldn't want them to come back you and say 'why did you pay that?'
As JRA says - at least, depending on the payment mechanism.
A couple of examples for illustration...
Example 1:
I largely handle supplier payments online via my own bank log-in for one of my clients. This is largely autonomously, in that I review what is outstanding and decide what is due to be paid, and then set up the payments.
However, this is with Natwest Bankline, for which a 2FA device is used by one of the directors to authorise the payments - so it's not 100% autonomous; it's his responsibility to check what payments I've set up, and he can override me and disallow any payments he chooses (not that he ever has). In other words, the use of that 2FA device to authorise payments is, in effect, like him having to sign the cheques - which is what we used to do before we moved online.
Example 2:
In the second example, my online access does allow me to set up payments, and no authorisation is needed; if I pay something, it is paid. However, it's only relatively recently that my access rights have been elevated to make payments, and I'm not at all comfortable with it for a number of reasons (which I won't go into here). Instead, I've said I only want to pay specific invoices when instructed to do so.
The director wants things to be as easy as possible, so I've set up a system whereby I export a list of unpaid invoices as a CSV file, and use a home-brewed program to generate a matching web form (which sits behind a log-in). The director can access the form, and tick the items he wants me to pay. When he clicks submit on the form, I receive a neatly formatted email telling me what items to pay. However (ironically?) so far the guy hasn't used it and still either pays things himself, or sends me an individual email asking me to do so.
Example 1 is the ideal situation: You can set up payments, but someone else has to approve/authorise them.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
It is interesting to see that like myself, some people would be concerned with actually doing this. I would be happy to write out cheques as suggested and then allow client to sign but I don't feel I would like to take on online banking for a client who I have not even yet met.
I think I will suggest this and see how things go
Thanks again
__________________
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
As JRA says - at least, depending on the payment mechanism.
A couple of examples for illustration...
Example 1:
I largely handle supplier payments online via my own bank log-in for one of my clients. This is largely autonomously, in that I review what is outstanding and decide what is due to be paid, and then set up the payments.
However, this is with Natwest Bankline, for which a 2FA device is used by one of the directors to authorise the payments - so it's not 100% autonomous; it's his responsibility to check what payments I've set up, and he can override me and disallow any payments he chooses (not that he ever has). In other words, the use of that 2FA device to authorise payments is, in effect, like him having to sign the cheques - which is what we used to do before we moved online.
Example 2:
In the second example, my online access does allow me to set up payments, and no authorisation is needed; if I pay something, it is paid. However, it's only relatively recently that my access rights have been elevated to make payments, and I'm not at all comfortable with it for a number of reasons (which I won't go into here). Instead, I've said I only want to pay specific invoices when instructed to do so.
The director wants things to be as easy as possible, so I've set up a system whereby I export a list of unpaid invoices as a CSV file, and use a home-brewed program to generate a matching web form (which sits behind a log-in). The director can access the form, and tick the items he wants me to pay. When he clicks submit on the form, I receive a neatly formatted email telling me what items to pay. However (ironically?) so far the guy hasn't used it and still either pays things himself, or sends me an individual email asking me to do so.
Example 1 is the ideal situation: You can set up payments, but someone else has to approve/authorise them.
Bankline is absolutely great for this and lots of layers can be built in for various people, inputting info only to levels of authorisations with differing limits, even meaning a Director up a mountainside on a Ski trip can authorise if required, although i find the biggest problem with it to most of my clients is cost. The up the mountainside version is top end Corporate level, but as you rightly say the other options are there for smaller businesses - just means they need to Bank with a certain bank!
I use a variety of methods - liking the sound of your home-brewed but I wouldnt have a clue where to start to set something like that up and most of my clients probably wouldnt use it as they shy away from such things (until it goes pear shaped of course!)
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
It is interesting to see that like myself, some people would be concerned with actually doing this. I would be happy to write out cheques as suggested and then allow client to sign but I don't feel I would like to take on online banking for a client who I have not even yet met.
I think I will suggest this and see how things go
Thanks again
It is strange to be asked by a brand new client - have you been recommended to them, just out of interest?
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Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
