Invoice & Payment Processing
All invoices should be sent to the company’s accounting email for processing. The Accounting and Finance Teams uses an e-payment system for vendor payments.
Vendor tax forms
Accounting cannot process a payment without these tax forms.
US-based vendors
US-based vendors are required to provide a completed W-9 Form prior to or at the time when they submit their first invoice and upload a copy in e-payment system under the Document section. This form can be downloaded from the IRS website. If the vendor is unable to upload their W-9, please email the form to our accounting email alias.
Non-US vendors
Non-US based vendors are required to provide a completed W-8BEN-E Form prior to or at the time they submit their 1st invoice and upload a copy of in e-payment system under the Document section. This form can be downloaded from the IRS website. Here are the instructions for Form W-8BEN-E Form. If the vendor is unable to upload their W-8BEN-E, please email the form to your company’s accounting email alias.
Vendor invoices
The invoicing process is managed by the Accounting & Finance Team and requires management review and approval prior to payment processing. All invoices should be directly processed/paid by the Accounting & Finance team. Please DO NOT submit invoices and/or payment instructions via other channels.
Invoices tend to be more than $1,000 and are usually automatically provided for significant business expenses. Examples include office spaces and contractors.
Vendor payment process
The Accounting and Finance team will send an e-invite to the vendor’s email.
The vendor accepts the invite and provides their bank information within the e-payment system.
e-Payment will be scheduled according payment terms as well as the accounting team’s processing cycle.
e-payment will typically arrive in the recipient's account within 2-4 business days from the scheduled payment date. For some non-US vendors, a wire payment may be processed instead.
Vendor payments must be proceed through ACH/Wire only. If vendors refuse to onboard onto the bill pay system, management team to ping the vendor. Check payments need to be authorized by company management.
We recommend vendors to submit their invoices within 7 days after the services are rendered or the goods are delivered. Timely submission of invoices will enable Accounting to record the expenses in the right financial period.
Customer invoicing and payments
It is recommended to loop in the Accounting and Finance Team as early as possible when considering launching paid features. The company’s controllers should have access to the company’s payment processor account which will enable them to add necessary integrations and coordinate on setup.
There is a significant amount of lead time that will likely be dedicated to development in integration of payments and some of the associated setup processes for different companies. Registration for VAT may take a significant amount of time though US sales tax registration is comparatively quicker. Appropriate configuration and testing may take a significant amount of time as well.
Setting up sales taxes/VAT
It is important to configure the payment processor to appropriately target sales taxes and VAT for the type of customer and location that each company is targeting. The payment processor will help manage this when marked appropriately. Part of appropriately designating purchases includes if the type of transaction is B2B or B2C.
The payment processor offers specific Tax Set up for VAT taxes, United States Taxes as well as other Countries taxes to be added to each transaction when invoicing. Once you receive your Tax Registration you can add the registration in ‘Tax Settings’. The ‘Tax Settings’ is also where the payment processor monitors the thresholds for charging VAT, Sales Tax and other taxes.
When setting up customers it is critical to obtain their location (address) and ensure it is entered correctly. This allows the Monitoring of Tax Thresholds to work and inform users of the data correctly.
It is important that companies create a separate line in payments to differentiate charges associated with the products and services they provide and the taxes associated with them.
Testing and launching payment processor
Before you launch your payment processing system, it's important to test it thoroughly. You can do this by using the payment processor's test mode to simulate transactions and ensure that everything is working correctly. Once you are satisfied with your payment processing system, you can launch it on your website and start accepting payments from customers.
Foreign exchange
During the pre-Seed stage, OCV companies are expected to operate predominately in USD. The companies are funded in USD, customer contracts are expected to be denominated in USD, expenses are incurred in USD.
If the company has team members outside of the U.S., the EOR platform manages foreign currency exchange and charges the company in USD at the prevailing market exchange rate. In this respect, the company takes on foreign exchange rate risk when hiring outside of the U.S.
If and when a company expects large (6-7 figures) customer contracts and/or expenses in foreign currency, contact the Accounting and Finance Team to evaluate foreign currency management options.
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