Request and approve a vendor deposit payment
While the Vendor deposits approval policy is on, nobody can record a payment against a deposit until it's approved. The buyer sends the deposit as a payment request, an approver signs off, and then the payment is recorded, either straight away with Approve & Mark Paid or later with Record Payment.
In the example used throughout this chapter, Dana Reyes raises a $645 deposit for Little Threads, and either Priya Shah or Sam Turner can approve it. For how tiers and steps decide who that is, see How approvals work.
Before you begin
- The Vendor deposits policy must be on. See Set up deposit and bill payment approvals.
- To approve, you must be an approver on the deposit's current step. The policy decides this. No role permission lets anyone approve.
- If the deposit is for a purchase order and the Purchase orders policy is on, that purchase order must be approved first. See Deposits wait for an approved purchase order.
- Approvers should turn on email for approval alerts, because the in-app alert is easy to miss. See Get approval requests by email.
Send a deposit for approval
These are the steps Dana takes. You can also create the deposit from its purchase order. See Manage vendor deposits.
- Go to Orders → Vendor Deposits.
- Open the draft deposit, or click New Deposit to create one.
- Read the line under Draft. at the top of the page. It names the approvers, for example "Submitting sends the payment request to Priya Shah or Sam Turner (All amounts)."
- Click Request Payment. The Send Payment Request? dialog shows the amount and says "Goes to Priya Shah or Sam Turner (All amounts). No money moves until it is approved."
- Click Send Request.
The deposit's status changes to Payment Requested, and Priya and Sam get an Approval Requested alert. The Approval card on the deposit's Overview tab now shows who it's waiting on.
When you create a new deposit, Save & Request Payment in the New Vendor Deposit dialog saves it and sends the request in one go. If you can approve it yourself, the button reads Save & Approve instead, and the deposit is approved as soon as it's saved.
When you can approve it yourself
The button and dialog change when sending the request would approve the deposit at once:
| What you see | Why |
|---|---|
| Approve Deposit button, and "You can approve this amount under your deposit approval policy — submitting approves the deposit in one click." | You can approve every step yourself, so your click raises the request and approves it. |
| Approve Deposit button, and "Your deposit approval policy doesn't require approval for this amount — submitting approves the deposit." | The amount falls in an Auto-approve band, so nobody needs to sign off. |
In both cases the dialog is titled Approve Deposit?, and the deposit is Approved as soon as you confirm.
Approve or reject the deposit
These are the steps Priya takes.
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Open the deposit. In Orders → Approvals, click the deposit's number in its row under Waiting on me, or go to Orders → Vendor Deposits and set the My approvals filter to Awaiting my approval.
Click the number itself: clicking elsewhere on the row opens the review drawer, which can approve the deposit but can't record a payment.
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On the deposit's Overview tab, check the Approval card. It shows the tier, the amount and who it's waiting on, for example "Waiting on you (or Sam Turner)".
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Choose what to do:
- To approve without recording any money, click Approve Only. The deposit becomes Approved and waits for someone to record the payment once the funds are sent.
- To approve and record that you've sent the money, click Approve & Mark Paid. The Approve and Mark Paid dialog opens.
- To turn it down, click Reject, enter a reason and click Reject. The deposit returns to Draft, and Dana is told why.
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If you chose Approve & Mark Paid, check the Payment Amount. It's the full remaining deposit amount.
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Set the Paid Date, and the FX Rate if the deposit isn't in your base currency.
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Optionally, enter the wire or SWIFT Reference, attach the payment confirmation, and tick Email a remittance advice to the supplier.
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Click Approve and Mark Paid.
SKU.io shows "Deposit approved and marked paid", and the deposit moves to Paid. Dana, and the default payer set under Settings → Purchasing → Payment Approvals, get an Approval Decision alert.
The Approve and Reject buttons on the Approval card do the same as Approve Only and Reject. Approve lets you add an optional note, which Dana sees on the card.
On a phone, the same decisions appear in a row at the top of the deposit.
When the policy has more than one step
If someone else still has to approve after you, Approve & Mark Paid records only your step. Its tooltip says, for example, "Records your approval for Step 1. Step 2 still needs approval, so the payment is recorded once the last step approves." After you click it, SKU.io shows "Approved your step — waiting on Step 2. No payment was recorded." Record the payment after the last approver signs off.
Record the payment later
If you approved with Approve Only, the deposit says Approved. "Record a payment when funds have been sent to the supplier." When the money has gone, click Record Payment on the deposit. You can record it in parts, and each payment adds to Amount Paid. For the rest of the deposit's life, such as applying it to a bill, see Apply a vendor deposit to a bill.
Payments wait for approval
While the policy is on, every way of recording a deposit payment checks the approval first:
| The deposit is… | What you see when you try to record a payment |
|---|---|
| Waiting for approval | "VD-396540 is awaiting approval — the payment can be recorded once it is approved." |
| Still a draft | "VD-396540 must be approved before a payment can be recorded — submit a payment request first." |
This applies to payments made in the past, too. On a draft deposit, Record Payment is greyed out, in the header and on the Payments tab. Its tooltip says, for example, "Your deposit approval policy requires this deposit to be approved before a payment can be recorded. Click "Request Payment" to request approval first." Send the deposit for approval, and record the payment once it's approved. If you can approve it yourself, the button the tooltip names is Approve Deposit.
Check changed bank details first
A deposit can carry its own Payee Bank Details. If they differ from the supplier's profile, someone must confirm them through a channel you already trust, such as a phone call to a known number, before anyone can request or approve the payment. This protects you from fraudulent bank details sent by email.
- In the New Vendor Deposit dialog, when the details differ, SKU.io warns that they differ from the supplier's profile and asks you to verify them through a known channel.
- Confirm the details with the supplier by phone or another trusted channel.
- Tick I verified these details out-of-band.
Until that box is ticked, Save & Request Payment is unavailable, with the tooltip "Verify the bank details out-of-band and tick the acknowledgment before requesting payment". On the deposit, the Payee Bank Details card shows UNVERIFIED — differs from supplier profile, and approving shows "Bank details differ from the supplier profile and must be verified out-of-band before this deposit can be approved."
Change or verify bank details on a saved deposit
While a deposit is a Draft or Payment Requested, you can also change or verify its bank details on the deposit itself:
- On the deposit's Overview tab, click Edit in the Details card. On a phone, use Edit Details.
- Change Payee Bank Details if you need to. A warning appears when they differ from the supplier's profile.
- After confirming the details through a trusted channel, tick I verified these details out-of-band.
- Click Save Changes.
Typing in Payee Bank Details clears the tick, so verify again after any change. While a payment request is waiting, the details can't be changed, and the field says "Bank details can't be changed while a payment request is pending — withdraw the request first, then edit and resubmit." You can still tick I verified these details out-of-band, which marks the details verified without sending the deposit for approval again. Once the deposit is approved, its bank details are locked, like the amount.
Deposits wait for an approved purchase order
While the Purchase orders policy is on, you can't request a new deposit against a purchase order that isn't approved. On the purchase order's More menu, Record Proforma Invoice / Request Payment is unavailable, and so are Record PI / Add Deposit and each milestone's Create Deposit on its Deposits tab. Their tooltips explain why:
| The purchase order is… | What the menu says |
|---|---|
| A draft that isn't approved yet | "PO-0064 must be approved before a deposit can be requested." |
| Open, with changes waiting for re-approval | "Re-approval needed — new deposits are blocked until the changes are approved." |
For every other message, see Purchase orders that can't be sent or take deposits.
The same check applies when you create a deposit some other way and link it to that purchase order, for example with New Deposit, Change on a deposit's Purchase Order, or by duplicating a deposit. Add Third-Party Deposit isn't blocked, because a third-party deposit pays a different supplier. SKU.io refuses with a message such as "Purchase order PO-0064 is awaiting approval — it can't have a vendor deposit created against it until it's approved."
Deposits from payment terms
A purchase order whose payment terms schedule a deposit, such as a deposit due on order, still gets that deposit drafted automatically while the purchase order waits for approval. With the Vendor deposits policy on, the scheduled deposit then needs its own approval like any other before anyone can pay it.
If the deposit changes
You can change a deposit's amount, supplier and currency only while it's a Draft or Payment Requested, and its bank details only while it's a Draft. While it's Payment Requested, a new supplier, a new currency or any increase in the amount replaces the waiting request with a new one, and approvals already given are cleared. Deposits have no tolerance, so any increase counts.
Once a deposit is approved, those details are locked. The deposit says "This deposit has been approved — the amount and its links are locked. You can still edit the deposit date, due date, supplier invoice number and date, external reference, notes, and the application settings." To adjust an approved amount, record a refund or a write-off. See How re-approval works.