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Pay bills with the vendor direct payment method
Purchase orders are only available in QuickBooks Online Plus and QuickBooks Online Advanced. If you need to, you can upgrade your plan.
Vendor direct is an automated payment solution that issues eligible bill payments the same day as the selected withdrawal date at no additional cost to you. When you upload or send your vendor's invoice via email to your account, it is evaluated for vendor direct eligibility. If eligible, once you schedule the payment, it is mapped to the vendor's linked payment method and issued via a single-use virtual card, a temporary digital payment method that is created for a specific payment amount.
How it works
Only eligible bills can be paid as a vendor direct payment. Keep in mind that even if a vendor was previously paid via vendor direct, a specific bill may not be eligible. For a bill to qualify, the bill attachment must include a link to a payment portal for payment posting and processing the vendor's invoice must include a payment link that supports credit card transactions. Additionally, the payment amount must be less than $25,000 and the transaction must be a one-time payment rather than a recurring one.
Enable vendor direct
Vendor direct is enabled by default in all QuickBooks Bill Pay plans. If, for any reason, it was disabled, you can enable it within your account settings.
Go to Settings
, then select Account and settings.Select the Expenses tab.
Within the Bill Pay tile, enable Vendor direct for eligible invoices.
Schedule a vendor direct payment
Emailed or uploaded bills are automatically evaluated for vendor direct eligibility.
When a bill is eligible, vendor direct will default as the Payment Method on the Schedule bill payment screen.
Select the Withdrawal Date for when you want the funds debited from your bank account.
Eligible payments will be issued the same day as the Withdrawal Date when scheduled before the cutoff time. The cutoff time depends on how your vendor accepts payment:
Vendors who accept payment through QuickBooks Payments: 3:00 PM PT (business days only).
All other vendors: 5:00 PM PT (business days only).
The funding method is an ACH transfer from your associated bank account, but the payment method presented to the vendor is Intuit's virtual card.
Your bank information is never displayed, and your personal credit card is not used for the payment.
Once the payment is initiated, it will be processed as a virtual card and the payment method cannot be changed.
The vendor receives the funds without needing to manually process card numbers, codes, or PINs. Routine verification steps may delay delivery of funds and deposit timing may vary depending on the vendor’s bank.
The process simplifies matching payments to bills in your accounting software and to invoices for your vendor.
Opt out of vendor direct
If you prefer that your bill payments are not converted to Vendor Direct for eligible bills, you can change the payment method on a per-payment basis before the payment is initiated. You can also opt out completely at any time by going to your Company Settings, selecting “Account and settings”, the Expenses tab, then changing the payment method in the Bill Pay section.
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