A remittance advice tells a supplier which invoices a payment covers. Fill in the payment, list the invoices and any deductions, then download a PDF or copy it into an email. No signup.
Remittance advice
| Invoice | Invoice date | Invoice amount | Deduction | Reason | Amount paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INV-1042 | Sep 2, 2026 | $12,500.00 | – | – | $12,500.00 |
| INV-1057 | Sep 9, 2026 | $8,240.00 | $240.00 | Damaged in transit, PO 7731 | $8,000.00 |
| INV-1063 | Sep 15, 2026 | $3,980.00 | – | – | $3,980.00 |
| Total deductions | $240.00 | ||||
| Total paid | $24,480.00 | ||||
Questions about this payment: ap@northwind.example
A remittance advice is a note from a customer to a supplier that says a payment has been sent and what it pays for. The customer’s accounts payable team sends it, by email, as a PDF, inside the bank payment, or through a supplier portal. The supplier’s accounts receivable team uses it to apply the payment to the right invoices.
Without it, a supplier sees a deposit from a customer and has to guess which invoices it covers. That guessing is most of the work in cash application.
| Document | Sent by | When | What it says |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice | Supplier | After goods or services are delivered | What is owed and when it is due |
| Remittance advice | Customer | When the payment is sent | Which invoices the payment covers, and any deductions |
| Receipt | Supplier | After the payment arrives | That the payment was received |
The same payment can come with its remittance in several forms, and suppliers usually receive all of them:
A payment that arrives short, or with no remittance at all, is the start of a small investigation. Ask the customer for the remittance in the original email thread, and give them the details they need to find it:
“We received a payment of [amount] on [date] with reference [reference]. Could you send the remittance advice so we can apply it to the right invoices?”
If the payment was short, our payment reminder and collections email templates include one for asking about a short payment, and the guide to short-pays and deductions covers how to research them.
A remittance advice is a document a customer sends to a supplier to say that a payment has been made and which invoices it covers. It usually lists each invoice number, the amount paid against it, and any amount deducted with the reason. The supplier uses it to match the payment to the right invoices.
The payer: the customer’s accounts payable team sends it to the supplier when a payment goes out. Many AP systems generate one automatically. Suppliers receive it and use it for cash application.
No. A receipt is issued by the seller after payment arrives. A remittance advice is issued by the buyer when the payment is sent, and it describes what the payment is for. It is not proof that the money arrived. The supplier’s bank statement confirms that.
The payer and payee names, the payment date, the payment method, a payment reference that also appears on the bank transaction, each invoice number covered with the amount paid, any deduction with its reason, the total paid, and a contact for questions.
The supplier has to work out which invoices the payment covers, usually by matching the amount and payer against open invoices, and then ask the customer to confirm. Until then the payment sits unapplied, and the invoices it paid can still look overdue.
No. The generator runs entirely in your browser, and the PDF is created by your browser’s print dialog. Nothing you type is sent to Alder or stored.
Alder reads remittances from bank files, emails, and PDFs, matches each payment to the invoices it covers, and queues the exceptions for your team. See how cash application works.
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