User Action Log

This feature allows you to view the specific action taken by any of your user accounts (employees) and your customers. The log shows which user performed the following activity: Add Customer, Accept Payment, Update Customer, Approve Auto-Pay, Disable Auto-Pay, Reset Customer Password, Unenroll Payer, Create Payment Plan, Approve Payment Plan, Unapprove Payment Plan, Delete Payment Plan.

This is a helpful tool for tracking or researching potential questions or discrepancies. For example, if a customer said “I didn’t make that payment” you can go to their screen and it will tell you exactly how and who processed the payment. 

Example of the User Action Log found at the bottom of each Customer page:


There is a $50 setup fee and $10/month additional fee for this service. To enable this feature, click on Support in your Bill & Pay account to contact customer service.

Bill & Pay Desktop Manager Installation Location Determination Steps

These steps should be answered from the perspective of the user that will be responsible for synchronizing QuickBooks with Bill & Pay.

1. Do you use a Remote Desktop connection to access QuickBooks?
   Yes - See #2
   No - See #4
2. Do you use a 3rd party QuickBooks hosting service supported by Bill & Pay? (For example Right Networks, Cloud9 Real Time, iNSYNC)
   Yes - Request your hosting service to enable Bill & Pay for your account.
   No - See #3
3. Connect Remote Desktop to your session you use to run QuickBooks. Install the Bill & Pay Desktop Manager within the Remote Desktop session. If you do not have permissions making it possible to install the Desktop Manager within the Remote Desktop session you will need to request that your network administrator perform the installation.
4. Install the Bill & Pay Desktop Manager software on the computer that you personally use to run QuickBooks.

QuickBooks Server Components

• QuickBooks Server / QuickBooks Enterprise Server
  A computer connected to a network that holds the QuickBooks company file. Windows file sharing is used to give other computers on the same network access to the company file. You would rarely install the Desktop Manager on this computer. See the “QuickBooks Desktop” component for exceptions to this.
• QuickBooks Desktop 
  A computer connected to the same network as the QuickBooks Server that a person uses to run the QuickBooks software and interact directly with it. The Desktop Manager will be installed on the QuickBooks Desktop computer of the user responsible for synchronizing with Bill & Pay.
• Remote Desktop
  A Remote Desktop is a Windows desktop environment that you connect to and it gives you a separate desktop running inside a window on your local computer. Your local computer can be Windows but it does not have to be. The QuickBooks Desktop may be running inside a Remote Desktop session. If the user responsible for synchronizing with Bill & Pay uses Remote Desktop then the Desktop Manager should be installed on the desktop they see when they connect to Remote Desktop.
• Terminal Server
  A computer connected to a network, possibly the Internet, that users connect to in order to access their Remote Desktops. Some companies may run their own in-house Terminal Server or outsource this to another hosting service. Terminal Server hosting services are similar to QuickBooks Hosting services except there Remote Desktop sessions are not specific to QuickBooks but instead provide a general purpose Windows Remote Desktop environment that any Windows software can be run in. The Terminal Server itself is not important to Bill & Pay however it is described here as customers may mention it and wonder how it fits into the installation of our software.

Statement Overview

This blog explains how you can email a statement to your customers that notifies them what their current account balance is.   You can also send customers a detailed statement of their account status.

In your Bill & Pay account go to Advanced Options/Statements:

The “Email Statement” box will only appear on the customer screen if the above option is set to send "manually" or "monthly".

When you click “Email Statement”, the customer receives an email based on their account balance using the respective templates:  Balance Due, Zero Balance, Credit Balance.   If the template is not checked, an email will not be sent for that condition. 

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Detailed Statement PDF 

To enable this advanced option, please send a request to our Helpdesk by clicking the Support button in your account.  There is a one time $50 activation fee and an additional $10/month fee ongoing.

When detailed statement PDFs are enabled, a new section is added under Advanced Options/Statements (see red arrow below).   The first step is to edit the statement PDF appearance.  The PDF is sent as an attachment with the statement emails as described above. 

When the statement PDF option is enabled, the customer screen changes from “Email Statement” to “Statement”.  By clicking the statement box on a customer screen you can view and send the statement email and PDF to this specific customer.  

When detailed statements are enabled, the invoice appearance template includes this option:

Below is an example of the “Open Invoice Summary Area”.  This box is embedded in the invoice below the summary lines.  It’s simply a list of open invoices:

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Statements and Click Pay

This feature allows the payer to make a payment from a statement email or detailed statement PDF without a log in.  A support ticket should be sent requesting that this feature be enabled.  There is no cost.  

Note:  We cannot sync actual statements from QuickBooks because QuickBooks generates statements as a dynamic report that captures a point in time, which is why Bill & Pay creates the statement.   

Payment Plans

Bill & Pay payment plans allow you to setup installment payments against a single invoice. You setup the payment amount and frequency per the screen shots below.   If you need the payment amounts to vary, you can use the "Schedule Multiple Payments" button found on the top of the view invoice screen.  Click the "?" for more details.  

1.  In your Bill & Pay account, select the customer name from the customer list and click “Payment Plan” from the customer detail screen.  Another option is to select the invoice from the "unpaid invoice" list in the left navigation panel.

2.  All open invoices for that customer are displayed, select the invoice to create payment plan for.

3.  Fill-in the Payment Plan fields to select your down payment (optional), schedule/frequency, starting date and payment amount.  Select if the payments can be made using ACH or Credit Card.  

The preview window displays the details of the payment plan.   The final payment will auto calculate to pay the remaining balance. 

4.  Select if the payment plan should be emailed to the customer to approve and they enter their payment account info OR select “Approve Plan” if the business is going to enter the payment account information.

5.  Payments are automatically run per the payment plan details.  If the biller is using QuickBooks or XERO, the payments will auto post into the accounting software and are applied to the invoice.

6.  If the biller approves the payment plan, the customer can see the details in a new tab called Payment Plan as shown below. 

The following screens apply only if the customer is being emailed the payment plan to approve and enter their payment account info.

The customer receives an email notifying them of the payment plan.

After the customer logs in to their Bill & Pay account, they see the payment plan details for the invoice and they click to approve.

The customer selects the payment option.

The customer enters their payment account details.  They can enter credit card or bank account if the merchant is setup for both.  Bill & Pay provides an ACH application.

Customer authorizes the payment.

You can also allow customers to create payment plans themselves. You must enable it in Advanced Options / Payment Plans under the "Customer Create Payment Plans" heading. Once enabled, the customer can go to their "Invoices & Payments" page to view an invoice, and it will show the "Create Payment Plan" button above the invoice.