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Payment Advisory

Payment Advisory tells you what to pay now and what can wait. In Books, the Pay plan tab on Bills ranks every open bill, pre-selects the ones that fit the cash in your bank, and walks you through the run: download the pay list, pay from your bank, then mark the bills sent so Auto-match links each payment when it clears.

The Pay plan tab on Bills needs no add-on. Payment Guidance in the client portal and the firm AP summary are part of the AP Automation add-on.

Key capabilities

  • Bills ranked in pay order: Late (longest late first), Early-pay discount (soonest deadline first), Due within 7 days, then Can wait
  • A dated reason on every bill — "13 days late (due Oct 1)", "Pay by Oct 18 to save $25.00 (2% early-pay discount)"
  • Cash in bank and Left after paying, with a Spend up to amount that re-picks the bills that fit
  • Download pay list (CSV) and Mark as sent for the selected bills
  • Bills it can't pay yet — on hold, already sent, awaiting approval, drafts — are counted with links to them
  • Available on Bills → Pay plan in Books and Payment Guidance in the client portal
  • Firm AP summary on Firm Overview — overdue and outstanding totals across all clients, with a Client AP Breakdown table

How it works

DayZero reads each received bill's balance (net of payments and vendor credits), due date and early-pay terms, ranks it against today's date, and compares the bills due now with the cash in your bank accounts. The ranking is rule-based, so it's instant and the same every time you open it.

flowchart LR
  bills["Open bills"] --> rank["Rank: late → discount → due this week → later"]
  rank --> fit["Pre-select what fits the cash in the bank"]
  fit --> pay["Pay from your bank"]
  pay --> sent["Mark as sent"]
  sent --> match["Auto-match links the payment"]

How to use it

  1. Open Bills and switch to the Pay plan tab (or Payment Guidance in the client portal).
  2. Check Selected to pay against Cash in bank. When the bills due now cost more than the cash, the plan selects the highest-priority bills that fit; set Spend up to to plan a smaller run.
  3. Tick or untick bills — click a vendor name to open the bill.
  4. Download pay list and pay the bills from your bank.
  5. Mark as sent. Each bill shows Initiated until its bank transaction posts and Auto-match links it.
  6. Advisory firms: open Firm Overview for a consolidated AP summary across clients.

Pro tips

  • Open the Pay plan before a weekly pay run — it surfaces late bills you might miss in a long bill list.
  • A bill on payment hold never appears in the plan; release the hold on the bill first.
  • Can wait is not "never pay" — revisit when cash improves or a due date gets close.
  • Marked a bill sent by mistake? Open it and choose Undo Payment Initiated.
  • Client-portal Payment Guidance groups the same open bills by urgency, read-only; your team still pays and records payments in Books.
  • Payment Advisory complements AP aging — aging shows buckets, the pay plan adds an order of operations.

In-depth guide

Pay order (Books → Bills → Pay plan)

Group What's in it Order within the group
Late Past the due date Longest late first, then larger balance
Early-pay discount Discount deadline within 7 days Soonest deadline first
Due by … Due within 7 days Due date
Can wait Due later, or no due date Due date

Bills in the first three groups are the ones to pay now. With a cash figure (or a Spend up to amount), the plan walks them in order and selects each one that still fits; a bill too big for what's left is skipped so smaller ones after it can be paid.

What the reason says

  • Days late or days until due, against today's date
  • Balance due net of payments and vendor credits ("partly paid" when some is paid)
  • Early-pay savings and deadline from the bill's payment terms (only while nothing has been paid or credited)
  • How many late bills the same vendor has, and their total

Client portal guidance bands

Payment Guidance (client portal, Bill Approvals → Payment Guidance) is a separate read-only view. It shows cards for Outstanding, Overdue, Due This Week, and Total Bills, then groups open bills by due date:

Band Typical action
Pay Immediately — Overdue Past the due date
Pay Soon — Due This Week Pay or schedule within seven days
Schedule — Due This Month Plan payment within 30 days
Can Defer Safe to wait 30+ days, or no due date

Bills over their contract amount carry an Over Contract warning.

Firm consolidated view

The Client AP Breakdown on Firm Overview rolls up Outstanding, Overdue, and Needs Review (draft bills) per client business, sorted by overdue amount. It is a quick triage list for practice managers monitoring client cash and vendor obligations.