This article is for: finance teams and admins.
Pay back many employees at once with a single bank file: Factorial prepares a SEPA transfer file with every approved expense you select, and you upload it to your bank. No typing IBANs and amounts by hand, and employees can follow each expense from Approved to Sent to pay to Paid.
Send approved expenses to pay
Overview
Use it to pay back out-of-pocket expenses in euros, outside payroll.
Before you start
- Your plan includes paying back expenses with SEPA, and you have permission to reimburse expenses.
- The expenses are Approved, were paid by the employee (out-of-pocket), and are to be paid back in euros (EUR).
- Each employee has an IBAN in their profile, under Bank information.
- Your company has a bank account added in Treasury, to pay from.
How to use
- Go to Spending > Employee expenses and click the Approved tab.
- Select the expenses you want to pay back.
- Click Reimburse > Reimburse via SEPA.
- In Reimbursement via SEPA, check the number of expenses and the total, and set the Expected date of reimbursement (today by default): the date you expect the employees to be paid.
- Click Submit. The expenses move to Sent to pay (in the Paid tab), and a payment request is created for each one in Treasury.
Create the SEPA file and pay it
How to use
- Go to Treasury > Payments > Payment requests.
- Select the expense payment requests and click Send to pay.
- In Send payment requests to pay, choose Create new bulk payment (or Add to existing bulk payment) and click Continue.
- Check the Name, choose SEPA file in Payment method and the Account to pay from, then click Continue. If your company has a Factorial bank account, you can choose Pay with Factorial instead.
- The bulk payment opens, with each employee's IBAN and amount. Click Download SEPA file and upload it to your online banking.
- Once your bank has made the transfers, open the bulk payment in Factorial and click Mark as paid. The expenses become Paid (with Pay with Factorial, when the payment completes).
Tips and Best Practices
- Fix missing IBANs before month-end. Ask employees to add their IBAN in their profile, under Bank information, so nobody is skipped.
- Several expenses with the same IBAN are combined into one transfer in the file, so an employee gets one payment, not ten.
- Expenses in another currency? Pay them back through payroll if the currency matches the employee's salary, or pay them outside Factorial and set them as paid (see How do I mark an expense as paid, or undo it? and Expenses in another currency).
Related articles: How do I pay back expenses through payroll? · How do I mark an expense as paid, or undo it?
Troubleshooting and FAQ
Troubleshooting
"Missing IBAN": I can't send the expenses to pay.
"You can not process reimbursements without an employees's IBAN." Some employees don't have an IBAN in their profile. Either:
- add the missing IBAN in the employee's profile (Bank information > IBAN) and try again, or
- click Skip and continue to pay everyone else now, and pay the others later.
"SEPA file could not be generated. The IBAN of [name] is invalid."
Correct that employee's IBAN in their profile, then generate the file again.
I don't see "Reimburse via SEPA".
Check that the expenses are Approved, out-of-pocket and in euros, and that you have permission to reimburse expenses.
"None of the selected expenses can be reimbursed via SEPA."
Each expense must be approved and in euros, and its employee needs a valid bank account and a legal entity.
"Legal entity [name] has no tax ID. Add it before generating the SEPA file."
For companies in Spain or Portugal, banks need the legal entity's tax ID in the file. Ask your admin to add it to the legal entity, then generate the file again.
I sent an expense to pay by mistake.
Delete its payment request in Treasury > Payments > Payment requests, before the payment is made. The expense goes back to Approved.
FAQ
1. Does the SEPA file follow ISO 20022?
Yes. It's an XML file in the ISO 20022 SEPA Credit Transfer format (pain.001.001.03), a standard format used by banks in the SEPA area. Check with your bank that it accepts it.
2. Can I pay back expenses in other currencies with SEPA?
No. SEPA payments are in euros only. Use payroll, or pay them another way and set them as paid.
3. Where does the employee's bank account come from?
From their employee profile, under Bank information.
4. Do I need to connect my bank to Factorial?
No. You download the file and upload it to your bank yourself. If you have a Factorial bank account, you can also choose Pay with Factorial.
5. When does the employee see the expense as paid?
When the bulk payment is marked as paid in Factorial, or when the transfer completes if you paid with Factorial. Until then they see Sent to pay. Once it's Paid, the employee sees Paid on their expense, with the date it was set as paid.
6. I see "Reimburse via SEPA". Does that mean it will work?
The option is offered for approved, out-of-pocket expenses in euros, if your plan and permissions allow it. When you click it, Factorial checks each employee: without an IBAN in their profile you see Missing IBAN, and an expense that can't be paid this way is left out ("None of the selected expenses can be reimbursed via SEPA.").
7. Where do the expenses I sent to pay show up in Treasury?
In Treasury > Payments > Payment requests, one request for each expense. Select them and click Send to pay to put them in a bulk payment. In Expenses, they show as Sent to pay until the payment is marked as paid.