What is Remittance Advice & How Do You Use Them?

Introduction to Remittance Advice

A remittance advice is a document that a customer sends to a supplier to notify them of a payment made. It includes details such as the payment amount, date, and invoice number, and helps the supplier match the payment to the correct invoice and keep accurate accounting records.

Suppliers use remittance advice to match their invoices with incoming payments easily. If a customer doesn’t send a remittance, the supplier must ask for one to avoid confusion.

What is a Remittance?

A remittance is a document that explains why a customer made a specific payment. While its usage originated when checks were widely in practice, it’s still in use because several global businesses transact via check and send their check remittance advice along with the payment for suppliers to maintain a record. 

Even though digital payment is now commonly practiced, if you’re dealing with multiple remittance emails daily, these remittances will help organize and match open invoices with payments.

Generally, the Customer remittance advice contains the invoice number, items bought, and their corresponding payment information. If your business receives payments and remittances in large amounts, it can be difficult for the cash application team to handle remittances manually. Read this article to learn the best practices of remittance processing.

Remittance Advice Formats:

1. Paper-Based Remittance: These remittances are usually paper-based documents that are either hand-written or printed. They contain information such as an invoice number and the payment amount.

2. Email Remittance: Customers usually send the remittance information through email. The remittance is either present in the body of the email or as an attachment.

3. EDI-Based Remittance: Large enterprises usually send remittances through EDI machines. These remittances are a combination of alphanumeric characters.

4. Web-Based Remittance: In the case of retail giants like Amazon and Walmart, their A/P teams upload the remittance on a website portal. The supplier cash application teams would log into those portals and download the web remittance advice.

There are various commonly used remittance formats across the industry; you can explore the 13 most commonly-used remittance formats here.

Why is Remittance Advice Important for Your Business?

While remittance isn’t mandatory for a business, here are some reasons why you should consider it:

• With remittance advice, it’s easier to map the payments against the order or customer name.
• If check payments are involved, it helps the analysts understand which customers’ checks are cleared. Learn how Artificial Intelligence can help cash application teams to capture remittance data from check stubs.
• It proves beneficial for businesses to compare the actual payment vs the outstanding payment. Plus, if you have customers that prefer paying in installments, remittance advice aids in monitoring them.
• Businesses tracking electronic payments can maintain records by simply scanning the remittance data.

What Should a Remittance Slip Include?

A remittance slip is declared on a document with company letterhead. It should include the contact details of the POC along with the following information:

• Date
• Name and address of the customer/supplier
• Name and address of the business
• Payment amount against each order
• Mode of payment
• Invoice number
• Transaction ID
• Tentative date of payment expectation

If the remittance is sent by email, your accounts team can monitor the payment or communicate with the POC in case of discrepancies.

What is an example of a Remittance?

Let us consider a buyer-supplier ecosystem where the buyer is PentaCorp, and the supplier is ABCCorp. As PentaCorp releases the payment corresponding to the goods supplied by ABCCorp, they also send remittance advice that indicates the order number, invoice number, payment amount, and line-item level details.

The following images include a check remittance advice example:

Best practice to Send Remittance information

Customers send remittances through various modes. They could send it along with the check or via emails, EDIs, or as web remittances. Here are a few best practices while sending out remittance information:

1. When sending it via email, ensure you deliver it to the correct department.

2. We would recommend confirming the email credentials with the cash application team before sending it in to avoid miscommunication.

3. If you’re sending the remittance advice along with the check, it means you’re also clearing the invoice simultaneously.

Quick tip to manage and process remittance advice

Each day, the cash application teams have to handle multiple remittance formats and sometimes even missing remittance scenarios. Manually processing remittances from checks, emails, EDIs, paper-based documents or even web portals can turn out to be difficult and error-prone. The majority of resources in the cash application team are burdened with low-value manual tasks such as re-keying remittances, reconciling and fetching data, and matching invoices. In this era of digital payment, learn how companies have achieved 95% straight-through cash posting rates with reduced operating costs.

FAQs

1. What are the 3 types of remittance advice?

• Basic remittance advice: A physical note or letter which includes an invoice number and the payment amount.
• Removable invoice advice: An invoice that comes with a removable remittance slip that customers are encouraged to fill in.
• Scannable remittance advice: A digital note or letter with necessary details that can be scanned for electronic records.

2. What is the remittance number on a check?

As per the Research data assistance center (ResDAC), the Remittance Advice number is a sequential number to identify the current advice produced for a supplier. Each time a new remittance advice generates, the remittance advice number is incremented by one.

3. What is the purpose of sending a remittance?

Remittance advice simplifies record maintenance of payment per line item.

4. Is remittance advice proof of payment?

Remittance advice is not proof of payment. It only confirms the payment transaction.

5. How do you write a remittance email?

There’s no ideal way to write one, just make sure you add the payment amount, invoice number, payment date, and mode of payment.

6. Do I keep the remittance copy?

Yes, you must document the remittance advice as it’s a confirmation from the customer about the payment transaction.

7. What is remittance information?

Remittance information is the details provided by a customer when making a payment, including the amount paid, the invoice number, and any additional information required by the payer. It is used by the payee to reconcile the payment and allocate it to the appropriate account or invoice.