Payment Options

Ottimate allows you to select invoices for payment, validate remittance instructions, code payments against proper GLs, schedule invoices for future payment, use approval workflows, and select from eligible vendor payment acceptance methods, all in a timely manner. It provides a seamless accounts payable experience with the ability to leverage vCard, ACH, or check payment options to easily align with your current workflow.

vCard Payment
Virtual card (vCard) payments are the preferred method when available by the accepting vendor. vCards are secure, timely, and efficient, ensuring vendors get paid accurately and in the quickest available method.

vCard Money Movement

When a vCard payment is processed (leaves the “Scheduled” tab), the funds will be withdrawn from your bank account. There will be one withdrawal per payment. For example, if you choose to pay three different vendors $1,000 each in one day, you will see three withdrawals from your account at $1,000 per transaction. If you make three separate payments to a single vendor in one day, you will still see three separate withdrawals from your account, one for each transaction. Transactions being sent to a single vendor will only be combined if they are approved and scheduled to go out within the same hour.

vCard Generation
vCard generation typically requires 2-3 business days for completion based on the time of initiation. The timeline excludes weekends and public holidays. Any weekend or federal holiday that falls during the initiation period will incur an additional delay corresponding to the duration of the weekend or holiday.

Initiation Cut-off Time: For same-day initiation of vCard generation, approval must be received by 11:45 AM CT

vCard payments are issued to the vendor through three remittance methods:

• Email Payment

• Phone Payment

• Portal Payment

vCard Payment Remit Methods

• Email: Once a vCard is generated, our system will automatically email a secure link to the vendor's preferred remittance email on file. The vendor is then responsible for processing this unique vCard for the exact amount issued through their own merchant terminal.

• Phone: Once a vCard is generated, our in-house payment specialists will call the vendor using their preferred phone number to process payment. 

• Portal: Once a vCard is generated, our in-house payment specialists will process this payment via a one time payment link or a payment portal hosted by the vendor.

vCard Processing SLAs and Refund

Regardless of the remittance method, Ottimate strives to process vCards within 10 business days through automated reminders. If payment processing extends beyond this period, it will be escalated, and direct follow-up will occur with the vendor. However, if a vCard remains unprocessed even after 25 business days, Ottimate will automatically cancel the vCard and issue a refund. The payment will then be rescheduled as an ACH or check payment.

Vendors Looking to be Set Up for vCard

• Vendors can reach out directly to Ottimate (support@ottimate.com), requesting vCard setup using the preferred remittance as noted above. 

• You can also directly refer a vCard accepting vendor to be contacted by our Vendor Outreach team.

• The Vendor Outreach team regularly connects with our customers’ vendors to determine their preferred acceptance methods.

The Vendor Outreach team will connect with each new vendor to confirm they can accept vCards and do not charge any processing fees back to the customer. If the vendor accepts vCards, we will then mark the vendor for setup and the next payment will go out as vCard. That first vCard payment is initiated through our Vendor Services team as a secondary verification to ensure the vendor's vCard acceptance.

ACH Payment
You can pay vendors who do not accept vCard to be set up to receive payments via ACH as needed.

Vendor Setup for ACH
You can invite vendors of your choosing to be paid via ACH.  This requires the vendor to accept a secure ACH invitation initiated by you to an email address also provided by you. Vendors cannot be paid via ACH unless they complete the ACH invite and Ottimate completes a micro-deposit verification. This micro-deposit verification generally takes 1-3 business days to complete. 

ACH Money Movement

When an ACH payment is processed (leaves the “Scheduled” tab), the funds will be withdrawn from your bank account. There will be one withdrawal per payment. For example, if you choose to pay three different vendors $1,000 each in one day, you will see three withdrawals from your account at $1,000 per transaction. If you make three separate payments to a single vendor in one day, you will still see three separate withdrawals from your account, one for each transaction. Transactions being sent to a single vendor will only be combined if they are approved and scheduled to go out within the same hour.

Standard ACH Processing
A standard Ottimate ACH transaction typically takes 4-5 business days based on the time of initiation. The timeline excludes weekends and public holidays. Any weekend or federal holiday that falls during the initiation period will incur an additional delay corresponding to the duration of the weekend or holiday.

Initiation Cut-off Time: For same-day initiation of ACH payment, approval must be received by 11:45 AM CT

Priority ACH Processing
A priority Ottimate ACH transaction typically takes 2-3 business days based on the time of initiation and with each priority ACH transaction you will be charged $.50. The timeline excludes weekends and public holidays. Any weekend or federal holiday that falls during the initiation period will incur an additional delay corresponding to the duration of the weekend or holiday.

Initiation Cut-off Time: For same-day initiation of ACH payment, approval must be received by 11:45 AM CT

Charges for Overnight ACH
You will be charged $5 per ACH transaction that is expedited as same-day/next-day ACH. However, if you want all your ACH transactions to go through the faster same-day/next-day ACH speeds, then you won't be charged a per-expedite cost. Instead, a bulk price will be determined and the charges will be based on your monthly ACH transaction volume. The Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) will be adjusted accordingly.

Check Payment
For vendors who are unable to accept vCard or ACH payments, Ottimate offers you the option to pay these vendors via checks. These checks are sent to addresses confirmed by you within our platform.

Paper Check Funding
Check payments function just like checks you would write/print yourself. The funds will not be pulled from your account until the vendor cashes the check. Check transactions will appear on your statement exactly how they would appear if you wrote the check yourself. Each transaction will be listed separately with one transaction on your statement per check printed. If you are processing a check payment for a single vendor to cover multiple invoices in Ottimate a single check will be cut and the corresponding invoice numbers will be listed on the check stub as reference points for your vendor.

Custom Check Signatures: During onboarding Ottimate will request an image (JPEG or PNG) of the signature(s) you’d like to use to be printed on the checks.

Check Delivery Options:
Ottimate provides three check delivery options:

• Standard Delivery: Takes 5-7 business days at a cost of $1.74 per check.

• Priority Delivery: Arrives within 1-3 business days at a cost of $14.99 per check.

• Overnight Delivery: Ensures next-day delivery at a cost of $20.99 per check.

Note: Delivery costs may vary periodically based on postage rates set by the United States Postal Service.

Check Generation
The approval cutoff time for same-day printing and mailing of checks for all delivery types is 12 PM CT. If a check payment is approved after the cutoff time, an additional day is required for processing. Any weekend or federal holiday that falls during the initiation period will incur an additional delay corresponding to the duration of the weekend or holiday.

Canceling a Payment

A payment is considered processed when it has left the “Scheduled” tab. Canceling a payment will not return any money that has been cashed, nor will it prevent a check from being cashed. Canceling a payment within Ottimate will only affect the visual status of the payment in the portal. The associated invoice(s) will be returned to the “Unpaid Invoices” tab so that new payments can be processed.

If a check needs to be canceled after it has been mailed, first cancel the payment in Ottimate. Then, contact your bank to request a void on the check to ensure it cannot be cashed upon delivery.

Payment Method Specifics

*The ACH & vCard delivery speed and limit outlined above is available with our new partner Stripe. Please contact support if you are interested in being moved. Additionally, higher transaction limits available upon request.

Payment Partners

ACH - Stripe (New Partner) Dwolla (Legacy Partner) 

vCard - Stripe (New Partner) ConnexPay (Legacy Partner) 

Check Printing and Mailing - Online Check Writer and Lob