Scheduling and Releasing Payments

Once a bill is approved, it moves into the payment workflow. When a payment guardrail is configured, Light groups approved bills into payment batches that you submit for batch approval, then release. Without a payment guardrail, approved bills are scheduled for payment directly.

Navigate via Spend management → Bills → Scheduled.

# The "Ready for Release" Section

Approved bills sit in a Ready for release section. Each row shows the bill, vendor, due date, and current payment date.

To prepare a payment batch:

1. Select the bills you want to pay using the checkboxes
2. A floating action bar appears at the bottom of the screen
3. Use the calendar icon in the action bar to set the payment date for the selected bills (a "Change payment date" dialog opens with a calendar picker)
4. Optionally, use the message icon to add a comment
5. Click Submit for approval to send the batch for approval

# Payment Batch States

After submission, the batch itself is simply pending, approved, or declined, while the bills inside it move through these states:

The Paid tab lists bills that have completed payment. The Discarded tab includes cancelled batches.

# Retrying a Failed Payment

If a payment fails, the bill row exposes a Retry payment action in its menu so you can re-attempt the payment.

# Marking Bills as Paid Manually

For bills paid outside Light (e.g., manual wire transfer), open the bill or use the batch menu and choose the Mark as paid action. This opens a dialog where you record the payment details so the bill transitions to Paid without going through Light's payment rails.

A Batch mark as paid action is available on multiple selected bills.

# Related Articles

• Bill approval
• Multi-currency payments
• Vendor credit notes