Remittance Matching for Wholesale and Distribution, Line by Line
Wholesalers and distributors sell to retail chains, buying groups and trade accounts that pay for every store or branch in one go, with credits, claims and discounts netted off along the way. RemitClear reads every line of the remittance, matches it to your open invoices in Xero or QuickBooks Online, and posts the payment with the remittance attached.
Trusted by finance teams across Xero and QuickBooks Online
The Problem
One Head Office, Hundreds of Store Invoices, and Deductions in Between
A distributor invoices each store, branch or delivery separately, then gets paid by the customer's head office for all of them at once. A retail chain's remittance can run to hundreds of lines, and every buying group and trade account pays on its own run with its own layout.
Few of those payments are clean. A credit for returned stock is netted off in the middle of the list, a claim leaves one invoice part-paid, a settlement discount comes off as one lump at the bottom, and a promotional deduction turns up with a reference nobody recognises. Ticking all of that off against Xero or QuickBooks Online can take hours for a single remittance.
The hours aren't the only cost. When the job sits with one person who knows every customer's quirks, it stops when they're away, and a slip leaves an invoice looking unpaid to a customer who's already settled it.
The Solution
Every Line Matched, Including the Ones That Aren't Invoices
RemitClear reads the whole remittance, invoice lines, credits and deductions alike, matches each one against your ledger and posts the payment into Xero or QuickBooks Online with the remittance attached for audit. There's no template to build for each customer.
How it works for wholesalers and distributors:
1. Upload or forward the remittance
Send in the retailer's PDF, a portal export, a spreadsheet or the email it came in. A remittance covering hundreds of store invoices is read in one pass.
2. Invoices, credits and deductions told apart
Every line is extracted with its amount and type, so invoice lines, credit notes for returns, claims and discount lines are separated before anything is matched.
3. Matched to your ledger
Invoice lines are matched to your open invoices on the invoice number, whichever store or branch record holds them. Credit lines are matched to the credit notes already in your ledger and applied against the right invoices, capped at what's left on each credit.
4. Posted, with the exceptions held back
Approved matches post as a batch or separate payments in Xero, split past the 200-invoice batch limit, or as one payment per customer in QuickBooks Online. A part-paid invoice keeps its balance open, and a deduction with nothing behind it in your ledger waits for a decision.
Proof
What This Looks Like for a Distributor
Xpedite Distribution supplies most of the major New Zealand retailers and matches their remittances with RemitClear. Its operations and IT manager describes the first month below.
invoices reconciled in a distributor's first month
of lines on a single retail chain remittance
templates or rules built for any customer
"We distribute into most major NZ retailers, with remittances often containing hundreds of lines each. Matching them to our Xero invoices used to be a manual time consuming job. RemitClear reads them and matches them without us building a template or a rule for each customer. In our first month it's reconciled close to 1,300 invoices across eleven payers, saving a significant amount of time and effort. When we needed invoices posted at their pre-rebate value rather than net, that was built and live two days after I raised it."
Tim Kranenburg
Operations & IT Manager, Xpedite Distribution
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Who It Is For
Built for Wholesalers and Distributors on Xero and QuickBooks
If your customers pay for many stores or branches in one remittance and someone ticks it off line by line, RemitClear does the matching for you.
Suppliers to retail chains
Importers and distributors selling hardware, automotive, garden, homeware and general merchandise into national retail chains.
Trade and building products
Wholesalers and building products suppliers paid by builders' merchants, trade counters and buying groups on a monthly run.
Food and drink wholesale
Food and drink wholesalers paid by independent retailers, convenience groups and hospitality chains.
Packaging and consumables
Packaging, cleaning and consumables distributors paid by manufacturers, hospitality groups and multi-site businesses.
Credits for returns
Credit notes already in your ledger are matched to the credit lines on the remittance and applied to the right invoices.
Settlement discounts
A discount taken as its own line is matched to a credit note you've raised for it under the same reference. Without one, the remittance waits for a decision.
Every store, one payment
Lines are matched on the invoice number, whichever store or branch record holds the invoice, and in Xero one batch payment can cover them all.
If a handful of large customers make up most of your receipts and each of their remittances takes an hour or more to tick off, that's the job RemitClear takes over.
See RemitClear in action
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From remittance to posted
See RemitClear in Action
RemitClear reads each invoice line on a remittance advice, matches it to the open invoice in Xero or QuickBooks Online, and posts the payment once you approve it.
Remittance advice
Open invoices
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Our biggest customers pay hundreds of invoices on one remittance. Can RemitClear take that?
Yes. RemitClear reads the full remittance in one pass and matches every line against your open invoices, and a distributor supplying national retail chains uses it on remittances of hundreds of lines. Xero takes up to 200 invoices in a batch payment, so a longer remittance posts as consecutive batches, in order, with the original kept on file.
Customers take settlement discounts, claims and promotions off the remittance. What happens to those lines?
Each one is read with its amount. A discount or credit that matches a credit note in your ledger is applied against the invoices. A claim that leaves an invoice short is allocated at the amount actually paid, with the balance left open to chase. A deduction with nothing behind it in your ledger is shown for review, and the remittance waits for a decision before anything posts. There's more on how deductions and short pays are handled.
We need invoices to close at full value, with the discount booked separately. Is that possible?
Yes. For distributors whose retail customers take trading-terms discounts, RemitClear can allocate each invoice at its full value and post the payment at the remittance's gross total, so the discount is booked separately the way your accountant prefers. It's a setting we switch on for your account once we've looked at your customers' remittances together.
Will credit notes for returned stock be applied?
Yes, where the credit note is already in your ledger. RemitClear matches it to the credit line on the remittance and applies it against the right invoices, up to whatever is left on the credit, so a credit that's been partly used elsewhere isn't counted twice.
We supply supermarkets directly. Is this the right page?
This page covers distributors selling into retail chains, trade accounts and buying groups. If most of your remittances come from the supermarkets themselves, with their promotional deductions and claims, the detail is on our page for grocery and FMCG suppliers.
We're on QuickBooks Online. Does it work the same way?
Yes, the same remittances are read and matched on QuickBooks Online and Xero. In Xero the payment posts as a batch or as separate payments. QuickBooks Online records one payment per customer, so a head office paying for several store accounts becomes one payment for each. In Xero, a rebate you've raised as a supplier bill on the same contact can also be netted against the invoices.
Related Solutions
Grocery & FMCG Remittances
Supermarket remittances with hundreds of lines and promotional deductions.
Deductions & Short Pays
Capture each deduction off the remittance so the rest of the payment posts on time.
Multi-Invoice Payment Matching
Apply one payment across dozens or hundreds of invoices in a single step.
Further Reading
Remittance Deductions in Xero
The four deduction types you actually meet, and how far automation takes each one.
Apply a Credit Memo to an Invoice in QuickBooks Online
Keeping a credit on the invoice the remittance names, and the setting that moves it.
Xero's 200-Invoice Batch Payment Limit
Why long remittances hit Xero's batch ceiling, and how they post as consecutive batches.
See a retail chain remittance matched
See how RemitClear matches a long remittance, credits and deductions included, in a 30-minute demo. We can use examples, or one of yours if you'd like.
Or email sales@remitclear.com with a sample, if you'd like.
Get Started
Book a Demo
We can use example remittances, or yours if you'd like.