Shows all bills that are due, current bank balance, automation rules are set based on user actions, Pay Now and Pay When Due possible. Notifications when OCR bills are ready to be reviewed.
Bill details shows the past 4 bills from that supplier, the actual pdf, payment details, a history of actions and the accounting system details (contact, expense account) and payment options.
Automation
Rules can be set to auto approve or by supplier and amount.
Once you have created your Promis account, you’ll be taken through each step.
Promis automates the accounts payable process by pulling supplier bills directly from their accounting package. After approval or rules based handling, it books all details in your accounting system.
Payments are possible directly from bank accounts without the need to log into a bank portal. Both, supplier and client benefit by automated reconciliation entries for any payments made.
Accounts Receivable
If you are sending invoices to your clients, Promis automates the reconciliation process for you. No more manual payment assignments to invoices, we book it in real-time as your clients pay.
Promis Setup
In the following pages, you find an overview of the Promis user interface and how to get started. It is necessary to use our website for this initial setup. After that, you can use the mobile app for most tasks.
Just enter your email address and confirm that you are a human being on the Promis register page.
To maximise your automation, it is best to connect your accounting system straight away. Just select the logo to connect or choose it from the dropdown menu. If we do not have your system integrated yet, we will be notified and start working on it when there are enough requests.
If you don’t have an accounting system, you can still use Promis to pay your bills in a single place. Just choose None or “Not a business”. For a detailed explanation of how to prepare your accounting system and connect to it, see Promis integration with Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks.
To activate your account, you need to enter (or confirm) some details and choose a password. Make sure it is secure to protect your data.
You will also have to confirm your email address to make sure you have entered it correctly. You’ll have an email from us in your inbox. Just click on the link to confirm.
In the last step enter (or confirm if you have connected to your accounting system) you address details. It is best to keep them up to date, as we will share them with your connected contacts and update their accounting systems with them.
To get the most out of Promis, you want to integrate with you accounting package.
Most steps are intuitive, the only thing is that you require a couple of additional accounts and it is useful to create them before going through the rest of the setup in Promis.
Clearing Account
The clearing account is used to aggregate payments into bank transfers. The result: more automation during your reconciliation process.
When you create it in Xero (Settings – Chart of Accounts – Add Account), it is essential that you choose Current Asset as the account type and Enable payments to this account. Name and Code are up to you, but we recommend including Clearing Account in the name.
You can specify a single clearing account or one for
The main bank accounts your clients pay you into
The credit card payments you receive
Each of the credit cards that you use to make payments
Unless you have special requirements, we recommend using a single clearing account.
Stripe Fee Account
The other account that might need to be set up is an Expense Account that we use to automatically book credit card fees to.
If you do not have an accounting system connected, you can jump straight to Pay With. Or if you have not completed your integration steps, see Promis integration with Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks.
Otherwise, you can authorise Promis to receive credit card payments and payments directly from bank accounts.
First, under Manage Organisation select the bank account that you want to receive all payments into.
The clearing account is used to group payments (e.g. multiple clients pay you on a single day via credit card. These will be booked as single payments towards your invoices. When the money is transferred into your bank account, it arrives as a single amount. We create that for you, so reconciliation is really simple. Please review how to set up the clearing accounts in your accounting system integration).
Once the bank account is entered, you have the option to offer credit card payments for your clients. We suggest always setting that up, as it leads to faster payments. Many clients like paying with a credit card to collect points. If you already have an account with Stripe, you can just connect to it, otherwise, we’ll pre-fill your application and it will be created instantly.
Maximum Transaction Fee
You might be sending out large invoices that you do not want your clients to pay with a credit card to avoid the large merchant fees. To manage that, you can enter the maximum amount you are willing to pay in merchant fees. If a payment would lead to higher fees, your client can choose to pay them or use the bank transfer.
Here is an example: You have entered $17.80 as you maximum transaction fee. That means your clients can pay any invoice up to $1,000 with a credit card without any additional fees.
For a $1,500 invoice, the merchant fees are $26.55. As you are willing to pay $17.80, your client would see that paying with a credit card costs them $8.75 ($26.55-$17.80).
Stripe Fee Account
The payments to your bank account exclude any merchant fees. To further automate your bookkeeping, Promis creates a monthly invoice with these fees. We use the Stripe Fee Account you specify. It can either be a new account or you can use an existing merchant fees or bank fees account.
Again, we are using a clearing account to aggregate payments and transfers to your bank account.
Authorise Promis to make payments straight from your bank account and display your current bank balance in Promis.
Storing Credit Cards
Credit cards are added in the dashboard when making the first credit card payment.
Once you have added the credit card, the details are securely (PCI compliant) stored with our partner Stripe.
You will not have to enter the details again and can use it for all future payments.
After the credit card is added, you receive a notification to define relevant accounts.
It is useful to select the following accounts as soon as possible under Manage Organisation in the Pay With tab. That way, you maximise the automatic reconciliation processes:
Credit Card Fees – if you choose to accept to make a credit card payment where your supplier does not cover the merchant fees.
Credit Card Account – the account that represents this credit card in your accounting system
Clearing Account – which we use in case you accept to pay the credit card fees for a bill payment.
You can use Promis with your team. Your bookkeeper, your accountant or any managers and other team member.
Currently, we offer 3 roles.
Subscriber – owns the organisation (there can only be one)
Manager – can approve bills and make payments
User – can approve bills only and has no access to banking information
Once you invite them under the User tab in Manage Organisation, they will receive an email and can accept the invite by setting up a free Promis account or adding the organisation to their existing login details.
Verified Emails
Verified emails are used to find any bills in the Promis network that are addressed to you. So if your suppliers send bills to multiple email addresses, you should verify each one in the Emails tab in Manage Organisation.
Any bill sent to that email address by a connected supplier will arrive in the Promis dashboard of the organisation you have specified as a default.
If you receive bills for various organisations to the same email address, you need to manually assign them to the correct organisation. If that happens a lot, we suggest using different emails addresses for the various organisations.
You can achieve the best automation if you suppliers are connected to Promis as well. It means their invoices to you flow straight into Promis and potentially into your accounting system with all details and completely error free.
We suggest that you only start with your 3-5 most important suppliers. That way you can communicate with them directly about Promis and both of you will get the benefit.
You’ll see a list of your supplier contacts (according to your accounting system) under Automation – Invite Suppliers or Invite Clients. You might need to add their email address, then you can choose which ones you want us to send an invitation to.
Please add a personal note to the prepared email for the best success. And if you speak with them, prepare them for the invitation to come.
You can also add contacts that are not showing in the list.
The ultimate aim is to have bookkeeping and payments fully automated. You just want to be notified when something out of the ordinary happens so you can decide how to deal with that.
Our first implementation of that are the automation rules.
For any suppliers that you trust, you can create rules that authorise
their bills to be pushed into your accounting system
the payment of their bills on the due date.
The auto payment is like a reverse direct debit. Instead of authorising your supplier to debit your account, you keep control over it, but it still happens automatically.
Rules on the Fly
To make sure that both bills and payments are within an acceptable range, you can specify and minimum and maximum amount. Outside of these, the rules will not apply. To minimise your work, these rules can be authorised on the fly and while you approve and pay normal bills. If no rule exists for a bill that you authorise or pay, you’ll be asked whether you want to auto approve or auto pay in the future.
Click Yes, if you want to, No if you want to process the next bill manually as well and x if you never want to be asked again and always process the bill manually from this supplier.
Under Automation – Rules you can view and edit all rules.
Next: Once all this is set up, remember that this initial additional work will lead to more free time in the future. Go and do something fun.
To minimise your work, these rules can be authorised on the fly and while you approve and pay normal bills. If no rule exists for a bill that you authorise or pay, you’ll be asked whether you want to auto approve or auto pay in the future.