Supplier payments and banking operations
Someone has to approve the payment run, someone has to release it, and neither of them should be the same person entering the invoices. For a subsidiary whose directors are abroad, that needs designing rather than assuming.
A supplier payment run with approvals and fraud controls
Paying suppliers sounds like the simplest thing a finance function does. It is where most fraud against small subsidiaries happens, which is the process most likely to be improvised when everyone with bank access is in another country.
What you get
- Scheduled payment runs
- Approval routing and limits
- Bank detail verification before payment
- Segregation of entry and release
- HMRC and pension payments scheduled
- Multi-currency payments to the group
What we do
Entry and release kept apart
The person who enters a supplier is not the person who releases the payment. In a small subsidiary that is easy to lose and it is the control that matters most.
Bank details verified
Before a new supplier is paid, and independently re-verified whenever one says they have changed. Never from the email that asked.
A scheduled payment run
On agreed dates, sent to your approver with the invoices attached rather than as a total.
Statutory payments diarised
PAYE monthly, VAT quarterly, pensions each pay period, corporation tax when due. These carry automatic penalties and should never rely on memory.
Intercompany with a reason
Money to the parent matched to an invoice, a documented loan drawdown or a dividend the reserves support. Unexplained transfers become an audit and tax problem.
Currency made visible
Multi-currency accounts and, at volume, a currency provider, so the spread is a chosen cost rather than one hidden inside the rate.
Paying suppliers sounds like the simplest thing a finance function does. It is where most fraud against small subsidiaries happens, which is the process most likely to be improvised when everyone with bank access is in another country.
The control that matters
The person who enters a supplier and the person who releases a payment should not be the same person. In a UK subsidiary with two finance-adjacent staff and a director eight hours away, that is easy to lose sight of. We run the entry and preparation side, your nominated approver releases, and the bank mandate reflects that split. It is not bureaucracy: invoice redirection fraud, where a supplier's bank details are changed by someone who is not the supplier, is the most common loss suffered by companies this size, and a second pair of eyes is what stops it.
How the payment run works
- Invoices in, coded and matched to a purchase order or an approval, with the VAT treated correctly so the return is right later.
- Bank details verified before a new supplier is paid, and re-verified independently whenever a supplier says they have changed. Never from the email that asked for the change.
- A proposed payment run on agreed dates, sent to your approver with the invoices attached rather than as a total.
- Release by your nominated signatory, within limits the board has set and minuted.
- Statutory payments scheduled: PAYE and National Insurance monthly, VAT quarterly, pension contributions each pay period, corporation tax when it falls due. These are the ones that carry automatic penalties and they should never depend on someone remembering.
Money moving to the parent
Intercompany payments need the same discipline as third-party ones, plus a reason. A transfer to the parent should correspond to an invoice under an agreement, or a documented loan drawdown, or a dividend that the reserves support. Money moving because the parent needs it, recorded as a director's loan or left unexplained, is where intercompany balances become an audit problem and a tax one. This connects directly to transfer pricing.
Currency
Where the group moves money in and out regularly, the spread on conversion is a real cost that no one sees because it is inside the rate. We set the UK company up with multi-currency accounts and, where volumes justify it, introduce a currency provider, so the cost is visible and chosen rather than absorbed.
What we need from you
- Who approves payments, and up to what value
- Which bank or provider the company will use
- Your preferred payment run dates
- Which currencies the group moves
Common questions
Do you hold or move our money?
No. Buzz does not hold client money. We prepare the payment run and your nominated signatory releases it from the company's own account.
What is invoice redirection fraud?
Someone impersonates a supplier and asks for their bank details to be changed. It is the most common loss suffered by companies of this size, which is prevented by verifying any change independently, never from the email requesting it.
Can our head office approve payments?
Yes, and most groups do. What matters is that whoever enters the payment is not the person who releases it.
What about paying HMRC?
Scheduled and reminded, with the reference correct, because these carry automatic penalties. We tell you what to pay and when; the payment leaves your account, not ours.
Related services
Bookkeeping and annual accounts
QuotedUK bookkeeping and statutory accounts
Xero set up in the parent's currency and account codes, bank feeds, monthly close, and year-end accounts under FRS 102, FRS 101 or IFRS filed at Companies House and with the tax return.
Management accounts and group reporting
QuotedA monthly pack in the group's format, on the group's close calendar
Monthly close, the reporting pack in the group's template, budget against actual, intercompany agreed, and the year-end schedules for the group auditors.
Expense management for a UK operation
QuotedA UK expense policy, the system behind it and the VAT it recovers
A UK expenses policy that matches HMRC's rules, an app your people will use, approvals that route to the right person, and the VAT recovered on everything eligible.
Get a fixed quote
Tell us where the parent company is and what the UK operation has to do.
