Send, track, and cancel network invitations
Use network invites to connect to your vendors and customers to pay them electronically. Here are some ways to send and manage network invites.
Jump to:
- Edit your default invitation template
- Search for a business in the network and send an invite
- Send an invite when you add a new vendor
- Send an invite when you add a new customer
- Track a network invite
- Cancel a network invite
- Send a reminder for a network invite
- Invite sent to a vendor already in the Network
Edit your default invitation template
You can edit your invite template to customize the message included in the invite.
- Select Vendors in the navigation menu
- Select the name of a vendor you haven't connected to yet
- Select Invite Vendor at the top of the page
- Select Edit in the email body
- Enter the message you want to include in your default invite
- Check Make this my default invite - this invite message will then be the default for all vendors
- Select Save
- Select one of the following options:
- Select Send to send an invite to this vendor now
- Select Cancel to save the default invite changes, but not invite this vendor now
Search for a business in the Network and send an invite
Connect to another account within our network to pay and get paid via ePayments!
Search for a business
- Select the Network icon
- Select Access additional network features here
- Select the Search tab and enter the search criteria you want to use. You can search for companies using:
- Business name (Ex: Acme Baking)
- Business name + ZIP code (This can refine the search results and is helpful if the business name is common. Ex: Acme Baking 94132)
- Payment Network ID (You will need to obtain this information from your customer/vendor directly)
- Select the name of your customer/vendor from the list to visit their network profile page
- Select Connect
- Select how you plan to do business
- If they are a new vendor/customer for you, select the new option - we'll add them to your Vendor or Customer list
- If you already have them in your Vendor/Customer list, select them from the dropdown menu(s)
- Select Send
Depending on how their account is configured, you could be connected immediately or you may need to wait for your vendor to accept your invitation.
- You can pay your vendor by check until they accept your invitation
Things to know
- You can also search the Network when you add a new vendor in the Pay vendor without a bill feature or when creating a new bill
- Search results display Managed by, so you can trust that you're connecting with the companies you want to connect with
Send an invite when you add a new vendor
When you begin adding a new vendor to your account and enter a vendor name, we'll show you potential matching vendors who currently exist in the Network.
- Enter the vendor's name, and we'll show search results for vendors currently in our Network
- Select Connect & Pay to connect to a standard vendor, or select Connect Instantly to connect to a verified national vendor in our network
- Verified national vendors include water, power, cable, phone, electric, and other well-known companies, and are verified national billers
- After selecting Connect & Pay or Connect Instantly
- For a standard vendor, we show the vendor details for you to review. If it is the correct vendor, select Invite to connect to immediately save the vendor and send the invite. The connection will be complete once the vendor accepts the invite
- For a verified national vendor, we ask you to enter the vendor's ZIP code and your account number with them to be sure we connect you properly. Enter those details and select Submit to immediately connect to that verified national vendor, no invitation needed, and save the vendor.
Send an invite when you add a new customer
There are two different ways customers can sign up:
1. Customer isn't in the Network
To invite a customer who isn't in the Network, simply send them an invoice. We'll include your Branded Website Address on the invoice, and your customer can use that link to sign up.
When your customer selects the link in the invoice, we'll ask whether they're:
- A business
- An employee or individual
If they choose An employee or individual, they'll log into a Customer Portal to pay only you. If they choose A business, we'll guide them to create a free Basic Payables account to manage and pay all their contacts.
2. Customer already has a Customer Portal account
Your customer will see an upgrade option in their Customer Portal, to convert to a free Basic Payables account.
3. Customer is already in the Network
If your customer is already in the Network, you have a couple of options to connect with them:
- If you have your customer's Payment Network ID (PNI), you can enter that number in the Details tab on the customer record
- You can give your customer your Payment Network ID (PNI), and they can enter that in their account under your profile to connect
- You can search for your customer in our network and send an invitation to connect
Please see the resources at the bottom of this article for steps on the first 2 options.
Track a network invite
The real-time network Invitation tracker gives you a way to quickly view the status on a network invitation to a vendor or customer, and quickly view or take pertinent actions at each stage, right from their profile.
Upon sending an invite to a vendor or customer, you'll see the tracker appear at the top of their profile, with the Connection request sent step marked as completed.
Invitation accepted
- For customers, this is the last step of the connection. When your customer accepts the invite, the tracker no longer appears on their profile and you're successfully linked.
- For vendors, if they haven't added a verified bank account yet, the tracker will show as Invite accepted, but not Connected. You can still send check payments while waiting for their bank to be set up.
- Once the vendor adds a bank, the tracker will no longer appear on their profile, you'll be successfully linked, and payment method will show as ePayment.
Invitation declined
- If your customer or vendor declines the invitation, the tracker will show a red X, and display a message indicating the invitation was declined, and that it may only be resent once to reduce SPAM. You can cancel or send the invitation again right from the links on the tracker.
- If you select send the invite again from the tracker, a pop up appears to confirm you'd like to resend and to reiterate that it can only be sent one more time.
We highly suggest double checking the email address or Payment Network ID, and let the vendor know the invitation will be coming.
You can then opt to resend invite, cancel the re-send, and/or hide the warning in the future.
Invitation Expired
- Invitations will expire if there's no response after 60 days. The tracker will indicate the invitation has expired, and there will be an option to send the invite again on the tracker.
Cancel a network invite
After sending a customer or vendor an invitation to pay or get paid by you electronically, you may need to cancel the invite. This might be due to an incorrect email address, an invite sent to the wrong person, or that you simply changed your mind.
Please note that once an invitation is sent, we can't prevent the email from going out to the listed email address. Canceling an invite will invalidate the link contained in the invite email, not recall the emailed invitation itself.
An expired invitation can't be canceled this way, it's canceled upon expiration. Also, you can't cancel an invite if it's already accepted, you'll need to unlink with the steps below.
Cancel an invite
- Select the Network icon
- Select Access additional network features here
- Select Invites
- Under Invites Received, select Sent
- Select the vendor whose invite you'd like to cancel
- Scroll down and select Cancel Invite
or
- Select Vendors in the navigation menu
- Select the vendor whose invite you'd like to cancel
- Select the three dots menu
- If you see Cancel Invite here, you can select that to cancel a pending invite, or go to step 5
- Select Invites
- Select the vendor whose invite you'd like to cancel
- Select Cancel Invite
Disconnect a network connection
Vendor:
- Select Vendors in the navigation menu
- Select the vendor to disconnect
- Select More actions
- Select Disconnect
- On the confirmation pop up, select Disconnect
Customer:
- Select Customers in the navigation menu
- Select the customer to disconnect
- Select More actions
- Select Disconnect
- On the confirmation pop up, Select Disconnect
Send a reminder for a network invite
If you invited a company to connect on the Network and they haven't accepted the invite yet, you can send a reminder.
- Select the Network icon
- Select Access additional network features here
- Select Invites
- Under Invites Received, select Sent
- Select the Company you'd like to remind about your invite
- Scroll down and select Resend Invite
Invite sent to a vendor already in the Network
If you sent your vendor an invitation to receive ePayments from your company and learned that they're already in the Network, you can connect with their existing account. They don't have to create a new account to connect with you.
All you need is their Payment Network ID, which they can provide you. They'll find it on their My Network Profile page, displayed in Additional Network Features, under the Network icon.
Once you have your vendor's Payment Network ID(PNI), cancel the pending invitation, and add the PNI to the vendor record by following the steps below.
You must have Manage Vendors permission to follow these steps.
Add a vendor's Payment Network ID (PNI)
- Select Vendors in the navigation menu
- Select the vendor's name
- Select Details
- Select Enter next to Payment Network ID
- Enter your vendor's Payment Network ID and select Search
- Select Connect and pay on the vendor in the list that matches your vendor
- Select Confirm after you verify the vendor's details
Your vendor will receive a connection request, and once they confirm the connection and add a bank account, you can send them ePayments.
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