A payment run pays many vendor bills at once. The screen lists every bill still owing; you tick the ones to pay this week, choose how you are paying, and pay them together. Paying by cheque writes one cheque per vendor — a vendor with three bills in the run gets one cheque covering all three — numbered in order from the first cheque number you give, and the cheques can be printed straight away or reprinted later.
For paying one vendor at a time, choosing exactly which bills and credits to apply, use Pay Bills. A payment run always pays each ticked bill in full.
Pay a batch of bills, step by step
- Open Banking ▸ Payment Runs. The heading shows how many bills are payable and their total.
- Tick the bills to pay. Sort by Due or Overdue to find what is due first.
- Choose Pay by: Cheque, Bank transfer or Cash.
- Check the Payment Account — the bank or credit card account the money comes from. It starts on the account you paid from last.
- For cheques, type the First cheque no. — the number on the first blank cheque you will print on.
- Choose Pay $… (the button shows the total ticked).
- SeroBooks asks Pay n bill(s)?, showing the total and the method, and reminding you that each vendor gets one cheque and no bill is ever paid more than it owes. If you have unused vendor credits it says so here too. Choose Pay.
- SeroBooks confirms the run with its reference (for example PR-20260925-001 recorded.). If you paid by cheque, it goes straight on to printing: choose the cheque stock layout and print the PDF. See Print Cheques for the layouts.
The screen
| Control | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pay by | How the bills are paid: Cheque, Bank transfer or Cash. |
| Payment Account | The bank or credit card account the run is paid from. Changing Pay by before you touch this field moves it to the account that method normally pays from. |
| First cheque no. | Shown for cheques. The number of the first cheque; each vendor's cheque takes the next number. Leave it blank to record the payments without cheque numbers. |
| Refresh | Reloads the bills. |
| Pay selected / Pay $… | Pays the ticked bills. |
The bills payable
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Tick box | Include this bill in the run. |
| Supplier | The vendor. |
| Bill | The bill's number, or Opening balance for an amount owed when your books started. |
| Dated | The bill date. |
| Due | The due date. |
| Overdue | How many days overdue, in red. A dash if not overdue. |
| Outstanding | What is still owed on the bill. This is the amount the run pays. |
Double-click a bill to open it. The list holds up to 500 bills; if there are more, an amber note says the list is not everything you owe.
Unused vendor credits
If any vendor has a credit you have not used, an amber note says how many and their total: Apply them before paying cash, or the credit sits unused while the money goes out. A payment run does not apply credits. Apply them to the bills first in Pay Bills, then run the rest.
Runs already made
Under the bills, Runs already made lists past runs:
| Column | What it means |
|---|---|
| Run | The run's reference. |
| Date | The date it was paid. |
| Paid by | Cheque, Bank transfer or Cash. |
| Bills | How many bills it paid. |
| Suppliers | How many vendors. |
| Total | The total paid. |
| Print cheques | For a cheque run, prints its cheques again, with the same numbers. |
A run cannot be run twice. If the printer jams or the stock goes in the wrong way, use Print cheques here to get the paper again.
What happens in the books
Each ticked bill gets a payment for its outstanding amount, dated today, on the payment account you chose, with the vendor's cheque number when paying by cheque. As with any bill payment: Accounts Payable is debited and the payment account is credited. The bills are marked paid, and the vendors' balances go down.
Permissions
The role needs Execute Payment Run to pay a run and to print its cheques.
Messages you may see
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| Choose at least one bill to pay. | Tick a bill. |
| Bill … only owes … | The bill has been partly paid since the list was loaded. Choose Refresh and try again. |
| Nothing to pay — every bill chosen is already settled. | Someone paid them meanwhile. Refresh. |
| Cheque … already been written. Nothing was paid — start the run at a number that has not been used. | One of the cheque numbers the run would use is taken. Change First cheque no. |
| This run wrote no cheques — it was paid another way, so there is nothing to print. | The run was paid by transfer or cash. |
If today is on or before the closing date, the run is refused.
Tips
- Run it the same day each week, sorted by Due, so nothing is paid late and nothing is paid twice.
- Load exactly as many blank cheques as vendors in the run, starting at the First cheque no. you typed.