Payments

Written by Uday Kumar Updated September 17, 2026 05:09

Who this is for. AP Helpdesk Analysts and Managers. See the Roles and Access.

The Payments tab lists payments made to vendors. The columns are built around the question vendors actually ask, which is rarely “did you pay?” and usually “why does the amount not match?”

A non-zero Amount Unapplied is what a vendor is really asking about when they say a payment does not match their invoice.

The Payments tab, showing the seven columns, the currency toggle and the toolbar.

Figure 1. The Payments tab. Amount Unapplied is the column most questions turn on.

Open the Payments tab

In the navigation rail, point to SmartVendor, then select SmartVendor from the menu that opens.
Select the Payments tab.

The heading reports the count, for example Payments (62).

Payment list fields

Table 1. Columns in the payment list

Column	What it holds
Payment No	The payment reference from your system of record.
Vendor Name	Who was paid.
Status	For example Complete, Awaiting Settlement or Canceled.
Amount	The payment total.
Amount Applied	How much has been applied to bills.
Amount Unapplied	How much is sitting unallocated.
Payment Date	When the payment was made.

A Payment No of None means the system of record has issued neither a payment reference nor a transaction reference yet, which is usual while a payment is Awaiting Settlement.

Sort and page through the list

All seven columns can be sorted. Select a heading to sort by it, and again to reverse the order.

The footer reports the range and the total, for example 1-20 of 62, with the page number beside it. Rows per page offers 10, 20, 50 and 100.

Read Status

Only Complete means the money has settled. The status has five values; the others explain why a vendor has not received it.

Table 2. Common statuses

Status	Means
Complete	The payment has settled.
Awaiting Settlement	Issued but not yet settled. Payment No may read None until it is.
Canceled	The payment was withdrawn. The bill it would have settled is still outstanding.

A vendor chasing a payment that shows Awaiting Settlement has been paid from your side but has nothing to see at their bank yet. Say so explicitly, because “paid” without that qualification is what produces the second chase.

Toolbar actions

A search box sits at the left of the toolbar, followed by Filter Records, Edit Columns and Export Payments, with the currency toggle to their left. This tab carries no bulk actions, so nothing here changes a record.

Table 3. The Payments toolbar

Control	What it does
Search	Free-text search over Vendor Name and Payment No only.
Filter Records	Adds a filter row beneath the column headers.
Edit Columns	Opens the column chooser.
Export Payments	Queues the list as it is currently searched, sorted, filtered and columned. The file arrives under Downloads in the Notification Center. Needs export rights.
Base / Foreign	Switches the amount columns between the base currency and the payment’s own transaction currency.

1. Search payments

Search reads two columns only: Vendor Name and Payment No. Status, the amounts and Payment Date are reached with Filter Records instead, so a payment wanted by value or date will never be found by searching.

The Payments list narrowed by text typed into the search box.

Figure 2. Searching narrows the list as you type.

2. Filter payment records

Filter Records puts a filter row under the column headers. Each column offers the operators its data type allows.

Text columns, Payment No and Vendor Name, offer contains with a text box.
The Status column offers in with a picker showing the values present in the data.
The Payment Date column offers on or after, on or before and between with a date picker.
Amount columns, Amount, Amount Applied and Amount Unapplied, offer less than, equals and greater than, compared numerically rather than as text.

Filters combine across columns with AND, and they apply to exports. Clear them from Clear All Filters.

Filtering Amount Unapplied with greater than zero is the fastest way to find every payment a vendor could be querying.

The Payments filter row open, with an operator dropdown under each column header.

Figure 3. The filter row, with the operator each column allows.

3. Customize table columns

Edit Columns opens the column chooser. On this tab it holds nothing beyond what the grid already shows: the same seven columns, with a search box to find one by name.

Payment No, Vendor Name, Status and Amount are locked and always shown, marked with a padlock.
Amount Applied, Amount Unapplied and Payment Date can be switched off.

Select Apply to commit the change, or Restore Default to put the original set back.

The Payments column chooser, showing four padlocked columns and three with checkboxes.

Figure 4. The column chooser. Only the last three can be switched off.

4. Export payments

Export Payments downloads the list exactly as you are looking at it. The search text, the sort order, every active filter, the columns you have chosen and the currency you have selected all carry into the file.

The button appears only if your role holds the export permission, and it is unavailable while the list is empty. Depending on your company settings the file either downloads straight away, or the export is queued and you are notified when it is ready.

5. Currency toggle

Base and Foreign switch Amount, Amount Applied and Amount Unapplied between your organization’s reporting currency and the currency the payment was made in. Set it before exporting, because the exported amounts follow the selection.

The payments list with Foreign selected on the currency toggle.

Figure 5. The currency toggle, with Foreign selected.

The payment record

The payment record shows the settlement detail and, in its line items, exactly which bills the money went to. It is the record that answers most payment-status questions outright.

The breadcrumb reads Payments > and the payment number, or Payments > Payment Details where the payment has no reference yet.

A payment record showing the settlement fields and the bills the payment was applied to.

Figure 6. A payment record and the bills it settled.

Quick links

A row of quick links sits above the detail, each opening another tab already filtered to this payment.

Table 4. Quick links on a payment record

Link	Opens	Present when
Vendor	The vendor record the payment was made to.	Always.
Bills	The Bills tab, filtered to the bills this payment settled.	Always.
Vendor Emails	The mailbox, filtered to this record, so the correspondence and the data sit side by side.	Email communication is enabled for the tenant, and the app runs AP Helpdesk rather than AP Invoices alone.

Standard Fields

The header of the record, held in the Payment Details panel.

Table 5. Standard Fields on a payment record

Field	What it holds
Vendor Name	Who was paid.
Status	Complete, Awaiting Settlement or Canceled.
Payment Date	When the payment was made.
Currency	The currency the payment was made in.
Total Amount	What left your account.
Applied Amount	How much of it has been matched to bills.
Unapplied Amount	The remainder, money paid that no invoice has claimed.
Exchange Rate	The rate applied where the payment currency differs from your base currency.
Payment Category	The category carried from the source record.
Company	The paying company.
Payment Type	How the payment was made, for example Check or Cash.
Bank Account	The account it was paid from.
Settlement Run ID	The settlement batch the payment belonged to.
Settlement Date	When it settled.
Transaction Reference	The number a vendor sees on their bank statement. Quote this when a vendor cannot find a payment.
Discount Taken	Any early-settlement discount applied. Compare it against the vendor’s terms when an amount is short.

Line Items

One row per bill the payment was applied to: Vendor Bill Internal Id, Vendor Bill External Id, Amount Paid, Invoice Date, Due Date and Amount.

Notes

The Notes panel beneath the detail holds what the agent recorded and what people added, in one list.

The panel works the same way on every record tab. For the filters, the search box, adding a note and the permission it needs, see Bills.

Read Applied against Unapplied

A non-zero unapplied balance is the usual reason a vendor says a payment does not match their invoice. It does not mean the payment failed. It means the allocation is incomplete in the system of record, and until that is corrected the bill will continue to show as outstanding.

Where a payment was made in a currency other than your base, the foreign-currency equivalents appear alongside with the Exchange Rate used. Quote the figure in the vendor’s own currency when replying, because the base-currency amount will not match what they see.

Answer a disputed payment

Check Unapplied Amount.
Read the line items to see which bills were settled and for how much.
Compare Discount Taken against the vendor’s terms if the amount is short.
Quote Transaction Reference if they cannot locate the payment at their bank.

What the agent answers from this page

Three email categories are answered from this data, and each needs a different slice of it.

Table 6. Email categories backed by payment data

Email category	What it needs
Payment Status Inquiry	Whether an invoice is paid, and when.
Remittance Advice Request	The payment and the bills it settled.
Short Pay Inquiry	The applied amount against the bill total.

Where this data is missing or stale, those categories route for review instead of being answered. An incomplete payment sync therefore appears as a busier queue rather than as an error.