# Remittance Advice: What It Is, When to Send One, and Free Templates > Remittance advice explained for SaaS founders. What it is, when buyers and sellers send one, formats, and how modern billing automates the whole flow. - **Author**: Aarthi Poonia - **Published**: 2026-06-07 - **Category**: Payments, Accounting, Glossary - **URL**: https://dodopayments.com/blogs/remittance-advice-guide-templates --- A remittance advice is a notification a buyer sends to a supplier to confirm that a payment has been made or is about to be made. It tells the supplier which invoice or invoices the payment covers, the amount, the payment method, and the expected settlement date. For SaaS businesses with B2B customers paying via bank transfer, remittance advices are a critical reconciliation tool. This guide explains when remittance advices are used, the standard formats, what should be included, and how modern billing systems automate the entire flow so finance teams do not have to chase emails for reconciliation. ## What a remittance advice does When a buyer pays a supplier by bank transfer (wire, ACH, SEPA), the supplier sees a deposit in their bank account but often does not immediately know which invoice it pays. A B2B SaaS receiving a $12,000 deposit on a Tuesday could be looking at: - An annual renewal from one customer - Two semi-annual contracts from different customers - A partial payment of a larger invoice - A combination of multiple invoices netted together The remittance advice closes this gap. It is sent by the buyer (often their AP team) to the supplier, listing: - Buyer name and reference - Payment date and amount - Payment method (ACH, SEPA, wire, check) - Invoice numbers being paid and amount allocated to each - Any deductions (early payment discount, credit memo applied) - Reference / payment ID for tracing in the bank system The supplier's AR team uses it to match the incoming bank deposit to the right invoices in their accounting system, close out the AR balances, and reconcile any partial payments or deductions. ## When remittance advices are used Remittance advices show up in a few specific scenarios: ### 1. B2B SaaS billing via wire or ACH Enterprise customers paying annual contracts often pay via bank transfer rather than card. The remittance advice tells the SaaS finance team which contract is being paid and lets them mark the invoice settled. ### 2. Multi-invoice batch payments Large customers sometimes batch-pay multiple invoices in one transfer ("paying November invoices"). The remittance advice lists which specific invoices the lump sum covers. ### 3. Partial payments or deductions When a buyer disputes part of an invoice or applies an early payment discount, they pay less than the invoice face value. The remittance advice documents the deduction so the AR team does not flag it as a short payment. ### 4. Cross-border payments with FX International wires can arrive with FX-adjusted amounts that do not exactly match the invoice currency. The remittance advice ties the actual received amount to the invoiced amount and explains any FX delta. ### 5. Tax withholding Some jurisdictions require buyers to withhold tax on certain payments to foreign suppliers. The remittance advice shows the gross invoice amount, the withholding, and the net wire amount. ## What a remittance advice should include A standard remittance advice has the following fields: | Field | Example | Why | |---|---|---| | Date | 2026-06-15 | When the advice was issued | | Buyer name | Acme Corp | Who is paying | | Buyer reference | AP-2026-001234 | Internal tracking | | Supplier name | Your SaaS Inc | Who is being paid | | Payment method | ACH | How the money is moving | | Payment date | 2026-06-17 | When the funds will arrive | | Bank reference | ACH-789456 | Trace ID in the banking system | | Invoice list | INV-001 $5,000; INV-002 $7,000 | Allocation across invoices | | Total payment | $12,000 | Sum of allocations | | Deductions | $0 (or detail) | Discounts, withholding, disputes | | Net amount | $12,000 | What the supplier receives | | Contact | ap@acme.com | Who to ask if there is a question | For SaaS suppliers, the most important fields are the invoice list and the bank reference. Without those two, matching a deposit to invoices is detective work. ## Remittance advice formats There is no single global standard. Common formats: ### Plain email or PDF The simplest format: a buyer's AP team emails the supplier a PDF or a structured email body listing the invoices and amounts. Easy to produce, easy to misfile, hard to automate matching from. ### Structured spreadsheet (CSV or Excel) A CSV attached to an email with one row per invoice. Easier to parse programmatically. Common in mid-market AP departments. ### EDI 820 (US-centric) The Electronic Data Interchange standard for remittance advice. Used heavily in large US enterprises. Requires EDI infrastructure on both sides. ### ISO 20022 pain.002 / camt.054 The international banking standard for payment status and remittance information. Increasingly common as banks modernize their messaging. ### Embedded in payment rail Some payment rails (SEPA Credit Transfer with structured remittance, real-time payments) carry remittance information in the payment message itself. The supplier does not need a separate document; the bank statement includes the invoice references. ## Why SaaS rarely uses remittance advices for card payments Card payments do not need remittance advices because: - The card processor knows exactly which customer paid (the card was charged for a specific subscription) - The settlement file from the processor lists which customer / subscription each line item covers - The supplier's billing system already has the invoice-to-charge mapping This is one of the operational advantages of card-first SaaS billing. Reconciliation is automatic. Wire-based invoicing requires a remittance advice flow that has to be matched and reconciled manually or via integration. ## Sample remittance advice template Here is a minimal email template a buyer can send (or a SaaS supplier can include in its onboarding documentation for B2B customers): ``` Subject: Remittance Advice from Acme Corp - $12,000 - 2026-06-17 Hello, This is to notify you that we have initiated a payment of $12,000 via ACH on 2026-06-17. Below is the allocation across your invoices: Invoice INV-001 $5,000.00 Invoice INV-002 $7,000.00 ------------------------ Total $12,000.00 Payment method: ACH Bank reference: ACH-789456 Expected settlement: 1-2 business days Please apply this payment against the invoices listed above. For any questions, contact our AP team at ap@acme.com. Regards, Acme Corp AP Team ``` For high-volume cases, replace the email body with a CSV attachment listing one row per invoice. ## What goes wrong without remittance advices Without a remittance advice, the typical failure pattern in SaaS finance: 1. Customer pays $12,000 via ACH 2. Supplier's bank statement shows "ACH credit $12,000 from Acme Corp" 3. Supplier's AR team has to guess which of Acme's three open invoices the payment covers 4. They might apply it to the wrong invoice, leaving an old one open and a recent one over-paid 5. When the customer calls about a dunning email on the old invoice, both sides spend time reconciling 6. DSO ticks up because the right invoices are not closed in time Multiply this by 50 enterprise customers paying monthly and you have a meaningful finance overhead. > The reason SaaS finance teams beg customers to pay by card is not the rate. It is the reconciliation. Card payments map themselves to invoices. Wire payments require detective work for every deposit. > > \- Ayush Agarwal, Co-founder & CPTO at Dodo Payments ## How modern billing reduces remittance advice friction A few tactics that eliminate or automate remittance handling: ### 1. Card-first defaults Move as many customers to card-on-file billing as possible. Reserve invoice billing for genuine enterprise procurement requirements. ### 2. Unique payment references per invoice Include a unique reference code in each invoice ("Please reference INV-12345 on your wire"). This pushes the matching burden to the buyer's bank message, where it can be parsed automatically. ### 3. Customer portals with self-serve invoice payment A hosted portal that lets the customer click "pay this invoice" via ACH or wire and submit the bank details inline produces structured remittance data automatically. ### 4. Integration with AP networks Mid-market and enterprise AP teams use AP networks (Bill.com, Coupa, Tipalti) that can emit structured remittance advice in EDI or ISO 20022. SaaS billing systems that integrate with these networks get clean reconciliation data. ### 5. Merchant of record collection When you sell through a [merchant of record](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/what-is-a-merchant-of-record), the MoR collects from the end customer (via card, wallet, or local rail) and pays you out with a clean platform-level settlement file. The customer-side remittance complexity stays with the MoR. Dodo Payments handles this across 220+ countries and 30+ local payment methods. ## Remittance advice quick checklist For SaaS suppliers receiving payments: - [ ] Include a unique invoice reference on every invoice - [ ] Document remittance advice format expectations in your AR onboarding - [ ] Use a billing system that auto-reconciles known payment methods - [ ] Escalate consistently unreconciled payers to card-on-file - [ ] Reconcile bank deposits to remittance advices weekly, not at quarter-end For buyers paying SaaS suppliers: - [ ] Send a remittance advice for every batch payment - [ ] Include the supplier's invoice references, not just your internal PO - [ ] List deductions explicitly with reason codes - [ ] Use ISO 20022 or EDI 820 if your bank supports it ## FAQ ### What is a remittance advice? A remittance advice is a document the buyer sends the supplier to confirm a payment has been made and to specify which invoices the payment covers. It supports reconciliation when the bank deposit alone does not make the allocation clear. ### Is a remittance advice the same as a receipt? No. A receipt is sent by the seller to the buyer to acknowledge payment received. A remittance advice is sent by the buyer to the seller to announce a payment being made. Different direction, different purpose. ### Do I need a remittance advice for card payments? No. Card payments come with full transaction-level detail from the card processor, so the seller already knows which customer and which invoice the payment covers. Remittance advices matter for bank transfer payments (ACH, SEPA, wire). ### What format should a remittance advice use? It depends on the recipient. Simple email or PDF works for small volumes. CSV or spreadsheet for mid-volume. EDI 820 or ISO 20022 for high-volume enterprise. The right format is whatever the recipient's billing system can parse automatically. ### How does a merchant of record affect remittance advice handling? A merchant of record collects from end customers and pays you out via a single platform settlement, eliminating the per-customer remittance advice problem on your side. The MoR's settlement file tells you exactly which subscriptions and customers the platform-level payout covers. ## Conclusion Remittance advices solve a real reconciliation problem for B2B SaaS taking payments by bank transfer. The fix at scale is not better remittance advice handling, it is shifting payment mix toward methods that carry their own reconciliation data (cards, MoR settlements, structured bank rails). For global SaaS that wants this entire reconciliation problem off the table, [Dodo Payments](https://dodopayments.com) settles all customer collections through a single MoR payout. See [pricing](https://dodopayments.com/pricing). --- - [More Payments articles](https://dodopayments.com/blogs/category/payments) - [All articles](https://dodopayments.com/blogs)