Vendor ACH Upload

Modified on Mon, Apr 7 at 1:31 PM

Overview

Our Vendor ACH Upload feature streamlines the ACH payment onboarding process by allowing customers to directly upload vendor bank information into our platform, eliminating the need to re-invite vendors or rely on manual uploads by the Ottimate team. While we understand that individuals may be onboarded to receive ACH payments, we recommend that this upload be performed for business vendors only. Individuals should continue to be invited through the platform or reimbursed via our Spend Management product.

How It Works

How do I access this feature?
Customers who want to manage Vendor ACH uploads must already be enabled to invite vendors to ACH. Once this functionality has been enabled, the Upload Vendor ACH option can be added to your account. Once added, admins can grant the “Upload Vendor ACH Information” permission to users authorized to upload Vendor ACH details.

How to Upload Vendor ACH Information

Before uploading your vendor’s banking details, you will need to ensure that the information is properly formatted. To do so, please use the Ottimate provided Vendor_ACH_Upload template.

This template contains the following columns:

Vendor ID
- Required
- Should be the Accounting Vendor ID from your ERP
Vendor Name
- Required
EIN
- Required
- Must be 9 digits
- For individuals you may use a sequence of repeating digits to avoid including a SSN
Routing Number
- Required
- Must be 9 digits
- Be sure to include leading zeros
Account Number
- Required
- Be sure to include leading zeros if present
Account Type
- Optional
- If blank will default to checking
Email
- Required
- Payment notifications will be sent to this email address
Phone
- Optional
- If provided must be 10 digits

Follow these steps to Download the Template:

From the “Vendor ACH Upload” tab, click the “Download Template” button. A template containing the required headers will be downloaded to your computer (.csv format).
Open the template and fill in the required information, ensuring that any leading zeros remain intact for routing and account numbers.
Save the file in your desired file location.

Follow these steps to Upload Vendor ACH Information:

From the VendorPay dashboard, click the “ACH Vendors” dropdown button, then click “Upload ACH Information” or, from the “Vendor ACH Upload" tab, click the “Upload Vendor Information” button.
Select the account for which you’d like to manage Vendor ACH uploads
Drag & Drop the file or click “Browse Files” to open your file explorer.
If applicable, select the desired file from your file explorer and click “Open” to begin the file upload process.
Once the file has been uploaded successfully, you will see a green success icon. Click “Verify Vendors” to begin parsing the file and verifying vendors.
You will be routed to the “Vendor ACH Upload” tab** which displays the following information:
1. File Name
2. Status
3. Upload Date
4. Uploaded By
5. Total Vendors
6. Verified
7. Pending Verification
8. Failed
Files with a green check mark icon are ready for review. You may refresh the file status at any time by clicking the “Refresh” icon at the top right-hand corner of the table.
Clicking the record count in any column will display additional details about the vendors included in the file.
1. Total Vendors displays all vendors included in the file with an overview of the file content and the vendor status.
2. Verified displays all vendors which have been successfully verified and are ready to receive ACH payments.
3. Pending Verification displays all vendors which have been escalated to the Ottimate Risk Team for additional review.
4. Failed displays all vendors with validation or verification errors.
For Failed vendors, refer to the table below for error descriptions and recommended actions.

**Note that you may access this tab at any time to review historic Vendor ACH Uploads.

Errors and Validation Items

Customers may encounter two types of errors when uploading vendor ACH information: validation errors and verification errors. Validation errors stem from file content issues and can be resolved by correcting the data and re-uploading the file. Verification errors are related to risk factors and may require escalation to the Ottimate Risk Team for further review. To view vendors with errors, customers can click the failed record count next to the file name in the Vendor ACH Upload table.

Error	Error Type	Description	Action
Missing required columns: {Column Name}	Validation	The uploaded file does not contain a required column (Vendor ID, Vendor Name, Routing Number, Account Number, or Email).	Review file contents to ensure all required columns are present, including the header rows (1 and 2).
EIN must be empty or exactly 9 digits	Validation	An EIN has been provided which does not meet the field length requirements.	Review file contents to ensure that any EINs provided are 9 digits long (excluding dashes).
Routing Number must be exactly 9 digits	Validation	A routing number has been provided which does not meet the field length requirements.	Review file contents to ensure that all routing numbers provided are 9 digits long.
Phone Number must be exactly 10 digits	Validation	A phone number has been provided which does not meet the field length requirements.	Review file contents to ensure that all phone numbers provided are 10 digits long (excluding dashes and spaces).
(Field name) is missing or invalid.	Validation	The uploaded file does not contain data in a required field (Vendor ID, Vendor Name, Routing Number, Account Number, or Email).	Review file contents to ensure all required data is present.
No vendor found with the given Vendor ID.	Validation	No vendor exists in Ottimate with the provided Vendor ID.	Review the vendor center to ensure that the vendor exists with the correct Vendor ID. If the vendor does not exist, add the vendor via accounting sync or upload.
Multiple vendors found with the given Vendor ID and Vendor Name.	Validation	Multiple vendors exist with the given Vendor ID and Name combination.	Review the vendor center for duplicate vendor entries. Merge vendors where appropriate.
This account type is not supported. Please enter a checking or savings account.	Verification	The account provided is not a demand deposit account (checking or savings).	Contact your vendor for updated account information or invite the vendor to ACH using the standard “Invite to ACH” workflow.
Account data mismatch. This has been escalated to our risk team for review.	Verification	The account provided has failed risk validation.	This account is under review. A decision will be reached in 1-2 business days. If the account fails you may invite the vendor to ACH through the VendorPay tab.
This vendor's account information could not be verified. Please invite the vendor to ACH via the standard workflow.	Verification	The account information cannot be verified by risk.	Invite the vendor to ACH using the standard “Invite to ACH” workflow.
Bank is unsupported. Please contact us at support@ottimate.com for more information.	Verification	The vendor bank provided is not eligible for transactions.	International banks, and banks such as Chime and Sutton bank are not supported.

Additional Information

For further assistance, contact Ottimate Support by emailing Support@ottimate.com or clicking here.