📅 How to Manage Supplier Invoice Payments in Xero Using Planned Payment Dates

Managing supplier payments effectively is key to maintaining a healthy cash flow and staying on top of your payables. Xero offers a simple but powerful tool to help you plan your payment runs—Planned Payment Dates. In this post, we’ll show you how to use this feature to gain better visibility and control over your upcoming bills.

Step-by-Step: Setting Planned Payment Dates in Xero

1. Go to the 'Bills to Pay' Section
   From your Xero dashboard, head to Business > Bills to Pay, then click on the ‘Awaiting Payment’ tab. This will show you all the supplier invoices that are currently due for payment.

2. Assign Planned Payment Dates
   Now you can go through your list of bills and decide when you intend to pay each one:

   • For invoices that are already overdue, you might plan to pay them tomorrow—say, 22nd March.

   • For invoices due later in the week, you might decide to schedule them for Monday.

   • If an invoice is due on 6th April, you could plan to pay it a day early—Friday 5th April, for instance.

3. View Your Planned Payments Summary
   Once your planned payment dates are entered, you’ll see a summary line at the top of your bills screen. This summary breaks down the total value of invoices planned to be paid on each date—so you can instantly see how much you’re committing to pay on a given day.

4. Drill Down by Date
   Click on any planned payment date to view only the invoices associated with that date. This is a great way to quickly prepare for upcoming payment runs or to confirm what's scheduled for a specific day.

Why Use Planned Payment Dates?

• 🧮 Improve Cash Flow Management: By seeing upcoming outflows in advance, you can make sure you have enough funds to cover them.

• ✅ Better Controls Over Payables: Avoid last-minute payments or missed deadlines by proactively assigning payment dates.

• 📊 Streamlined Planning: Plan weekly or monthly payment runs with ease and accuracy.

By making full use of planned payment dates in Xero, you’ll be able to stay organised, manage your working capital more effectively, and reduce the stress that comes with last-minute supplier payments.