Alternative Payees

An alternative payee is a party that receives payment for an invoice, but this party is not the same the supplier of the goods and services.

The Invoice Vendor Identification functionality includes the setting to specify an alternative payee.

For example, if an invoice is processed for vendor 1000 and an alternative payee of 2000 is specified, then the invoice is created in the downstream ERP system against vendor 1000. However, when the payment run is executed, vendor 2000 is the recipient of the funds.

In an ERP system, the relationship between a vendor and one or more alternative payees is tightly defined in the vendor master data. At the time of invoice entry, a user may only specify an approved alternative payee that is set up against the invoice vendor. Possible alternate payees for a vendor are known as permitted payees. Alternate payees exist as vendor records in the vendor master data in their own right. However, they are typically blocked for direct posting and may have a different account group. The alternate payee field and associated functionality can be activated per profile ID.

An alternate payee is activated in either Settings > Invoice Processing > Capture Profiles > Field Settings or in Settings > Invoice Processing > Capture Profiles > Vendor Settings.

If you configure an alternate payee in Settings > Invoice Processing > Capture Profiles > Field Settings, the Alternate Payee field is activated in the project. This field is included as a supplementary field to the vendor ID on the Validation activity page. However, the field only functions in relation to the settings in Settings > Invoice Processing > Capture Profiles > Field Settings, effectively becoming an extra free text field that can be used as necessary. The AlternatePayeeValidate user exit is also available for any custom validation logic.

If you configure an alternate payee in the Settings > Invoice Processing > Capture Profiles > Field Settings as well as the Settings > Invoice Processing > Capture Profiles > Vendor Settings, then the Alternate Payee field is available and its standard functionality is activated. Activating an alternate payee in the Settings > Invoice Processing > Capture Profiles > Vendor Settings without configuring an alternate payee in the Settings > Invoice Processing > Capture Profiles > Field Settings has no effect. This is because the alternate payee is a supplementary field to the vendor ID. The Vendor ID must also be an active field in the profile.