1 CONNECT TO QUICKBOOKS

Click "Connect to QuickBooks" and and follow the onscreen instructions from the Intuit page to connect to your company If you have more than one company each can have their own SparcPay subdomain, and you can have a single UserID/password for all.

NOTE: You can disconnect the SparcPay app from QuickBooks at any time by clicking the Disconnect button, and reconnect later if you choose using the process above.

2 SELECT QUICKBOOKS ACCOUNTS TO USE

Once connected, select the following from the dropdown options, and then select Update Quickbooks Settings.

  • the Account Name for Sparcblock Bill - transaction fees will be expensed under this account (e.g. Bank Charges)
  • the Canadian Bank Account that will be used for payments (e.g. Chequing)
  • the Account for Vendor Credits - if any Sparcblock transaction causes an overpayment (e.g. if a bill is deleted in Quickbooks) this is the account that the overpayment will be posted to so that it can be used as a future vendor credit
  • the Tax Account - this is the tax account that will be used for the tax charged on Sparcblock transaction fees

3 SELECT APPROVAL LEVELS

Approval levels are configured under My Company, Approval Levels.

A bill must have all Required Approvals at Level 1 before it is visible to Level 2, and so on.

There is no limit to the number of levels or the number of Approvals Required at each level so you can configure the approvals to meet your needs.

There is no limit to the number of approvers that can be assigned to a level (this is done in the Users setup).

The default is one Approval Required at Level One and one Approval required at Level Two. You can add or remove levels and put the number of Approvals Required at each level in the box beside the level.

Example:

Level 1 with 1 Approval Required

Level 2 with 2 Approvals Required

In this example Level 1 could be an administrative approval with one of two administrators approving, and Level 2 could be the two partners of a firm approving (equivalent of dual signatures).

4 INVITE OTHER USERS

Users are invited by selecting Users from the left hand menu, and then clicking the Invite User button in the upper right. Enter the user's name, email and phone number.

If they are an Approver, check off the AP Approver role and select their level from the dropdown. If they are not an approver leave the box unchecked and select 0 in the dropdown.

If the user is a signer on the bank account, select the Can Sign PAD role. If all the required PAD submissions have not been received yet then these users will be prompted to complete one online.

Check off other roles as applicable. Note that the User Administrator and Company Administrator roles should be restricted to one or two senior people.

When ready click Add User and if they are a new user they will receive an email invitation to join SparcPay. If they are an existing user you will receive an acknowledgement indicating they can log into the new site with their existing credentials.

 

5  VIEW AND APPROVE

Now you can go to Approve, and click Refresh Bills to do a realtime synchronization with QuickBooks (it is synchronized automatically one a day)

You should a list of your outstanding bills, including a View Bill button for any that have attached images.

 

6 PAY

Once the required number of users with the Can Sign PAD role have completed the PAD online the SparcPay team will validate the submitted information for compliance reasons. This validation may include a microdeposit - a small deposit which we make you your account and have you confirm the amount. Once all compliance requirements are confirmed the account(s) will be enabled for the Pay function.

 

SETUP FAQ's

WHAT IF I DON"T SEE THE QUICKBOOKS SETTINGS MENU OPTION?

This function is restricted to the Company Administrator role. If you are authorized to change company settings but do not have this role, the User Administrator within your organization can grant you access to this role.

HOW DOES SPARCPAY SYNCHRONIZE WITH QUICKBOOKS ONLINE?

SparcPay will automatically read company information, vendor information, open bills and supplier credits from QuickBooks Online and present the bills along with Memo field contents and any attached images, to be reviewed and approved or rejected.

For rejected bills the approver will be prompted to enter a Reject Reason. Then a notification is provided, and the bill may be deleted or revised in QuickBooks. If deleted then the rejection is final. If revised, the bill will be re-presented for all required approvals, marked with a "revised" icon.

Approval tiers are set by the Company Administrator, and each tier or level can require one or more approvals.  Accepted (approved)  bills will continue through the approval process until all required approvals are obtained, at which point they will appear on the Pay screen.

On the Pay screen, by default all approved bills are selected for payment, but any bills can be deselected in which case payment will be deferred to a future Pay selection. Also on the pay screen, and existing Supplier Credits can be applied to the bills for that supplier prior to making a payment. The credits selected are automatically applied in QuickBooks.

After the Pay step is completed, the bills are paid via the Payment Method selected by the Company Administrator:

  • For SparcPay, the payment process is automated, based on the pre-selected funding method (most commonly Pre-Authorized Debit)
  • For customers that choose to perform the EFT directly to selected banks (e.g. TD, BMO), the payment process can be done via a manual download of the batch file which can then be uploaded to the bank

In either case, when the payment is confirmed as processed tot he destination account, the bill is automatically marked as Paid in QuickBooks.

HOW DO I REFRESH THE DATA ON DEMAND?

The QuickBooks data can be refreshed in demand by clicking:

  • Refresh Bills from the Approve screen
  • Vendor Refresh from the Vendors screen
  • Refresh Company Information from Accounting System from the My Company screen

 

HOW DO MY VENDORS REGISTER FOR DIRECT DEPOSIT BY EFT?

Simply ask your vendors to go to https://www.sparcblock.com/vendors where they can register for free. I only takes a moment for them to register, and their direct deposit information will be updated to your site within 2 business days for you to verify.

 

HOW DO I INDICATE BY WHAT METHOD A VENDOR SHOULD BE PAID?

As a SparcPay user, all of your payments are paperless from your perspective.  However, if some suppliers do not provide banking information and choose to be paid by a different method, SparcPay will handle that for you. Under Vendors, the following payment methods are available:

  • AutoEFTOrCheque - this is the default, which will pay by the most effective means based on the information available (requires either address or bank details)
  • ForceEFT - will only pay this supplier by EFT (requires bank details)
  • ForceCheque - will only pay this supplier by a cheque, automatically issued by the Sparcblock Bill Payment Service (requires address)
  • CreditCard - for bills that are automatically charged to a credit card, will approve the amount but not issue a cheque or EFT
  • PreAuthorized debit - for bills that are automatically debited from a bank account, will approve the amount but not issue a cheque or EFT

If any Vendor is missing information it will appear in the Pending To Do list, and the missing information may be completed there. If the priority is LOW then payments may be processed for the vendor without completing the information. If the priority is HIGH this indicated that mandatory information is missing and payments cannot be made to the vendor until the To Do item is completed

WHEN WILL MY VENDORS RECEIVE PAYMENT AFTER I CLICK PAY?

  • EFT payments released from the Pay screen before 5:00 PM Eastern Time are deposited to the vendor’s account on the fourth business day before 9:00 AM. For example. if the payment is released before 5:00 PM Eastern Time on a Monday, your vendor will receive the payment before 9:00 AM on the Friday.
  • Cheque payments released from the Pay screen before 5:00 PM Eastern Time are mailed to the vendor's address on the fourth business day from our head office in Mississauga, Ontario. Please allow time for postal delivery. For example. if the payment is released before 5:00 PM Eastern Time on a Monday, the cheque will be mailed out on Friday in the same week.

 

WHY DO I NOT SEE BILLS ON MY PAY SCREEN?

The Pay screen is only visible to a user with the AP Disburser role.

Every bill that gets processed into the system needs to be approved by the designated approvers. Once a bill received the required number of approvals the bill will land in your Pay screen. The approval levels and workflow are customizable. If you need assistance with customizing your workflow please reach out to support@sparcblock.com.

 

WHAT DOES THE DUE DATE IN THE SYSTEM MEAN?

The due date is there for the AP Disburser to refer to when the user is releasing payments. This does not normally reflect how the system disburses payments. The Pay function is controlled by the AP Disburser. The only exception is if you are using BMO or TD direct EFT, in which case, once released, payments are completed to the vendor on the due date only.