Help and support
Frequently asked questions
Common questions
New Booksellers
What is Batch for Books?
Batch for Books is a business tool designed to help independent bookstores more easily keep track of invoices and credits, eliminate friction in administrative and payment processes, and save you time.
How much does Batch cost?
There is no cost for bookstores to use Batch.
How do I sign up to use Batch?
The first step in the sign-up process is to submit some general information about your company through this registration form.
Upon receiving your submission, you will receive a Batch User Agreement and Vendor Account form. Once you return that document, you will be added to our set-up list.
Here’s what you can expect in terms of timing:
Publishers set up new accounts at the beginning of each month.
User agreements returned by the 15th are eligible for Batch onboarding at the beginning of the following month.
Where does Batch get all their data? Do I have to upload all that information?
Once a store signs up to use Batch, your publishers electronically transmit all your invoices and credits to your Batch portal so that you have everything standardized, centralized, and in one place. Stores will never need to upload information to their Batch portal.
When do invoices appear on Batch?
Publishers send invoices and credit data daily and stores can expect to see transactions within 24 hours of being raised on the publisher’s systems. Typically, invoices will be available on Batch prior to the shipment arriving at your store.
What publishers are on Batch?
Our current publisher partners include:
Arcadia
Blackstone
Gardners US
Hachette Book Group
HarperCollins
Independent Publishers Group
Macmillan
Microcosm
Penguin Random House
Simon & Schuster
WW Norton & Company
Are pre-paid accounts eligible to use Batch?
Pre-paid accounts are not eligible to be added to Batch. Stores must have credit terms with a publisher for them to be able to connect your account to Batch.
Does Batch integrate with my POS system or accounting software?
Batch is not directly integrated with any POS system, but we are able to integrate with various accounting software such as QuickBooks and Xero.
If you connect Batch to your accounting software, Batch will be able to enter all invoices and credits, saving hours of time each month on data entry.
Am I able to submit orders to my vendors through Batch?
No. Batch is not an inventory management or ordering system. Our sole focus is on helping bookstores manage invoices and streamline publisher payments.
Common questions
Current bookstore users
How does Batch determine what invoices to pay?
Batch does not dictate what invoices get paid to the publisher. Stores will determine what invoices and credits get paid by authorizing them on Batch. Batch will only remit invoices and credits that have been authorized by a Batch user.
How do I apply my open credits?
To use credits, stores must authorize them. Authorized totals on Batch take into consideration any credits that have been authorized.
Can I pay part of an invoice or use part of a credit?
Stores must always pay the full amount of the invoice and use the entire amount of the credit when paying through Batch for Books.
When do publishers receive payments from Batch?
Batch sends publisher payments and remittance information every Friday morning, plus the last business day of the month.
The payment deadline is 6 pm Eastern on the evening before payout. This applies to both weekly and monthly payments.
How do I submit my payment to Batch?
Stores will transfer funds to Batch via ACH or wire transfer. Transferring funds does not happen directly on your Batch portal. Typically, this will be done through a store’s financial institution or a service like QuickBooks or Melio payments.
Can I submit payment by check or credit card?
Stores must electronically transfer funds to Batch by ACH or wire transfer. Credit card and check payments cannot be processed by Batch.
Do I have to send a separate payment for each vendor?
Stores only need to send one combined payment covering all vendors and Batch will allocate that payment to each publisher based on your authorized amounts. The Current Summary screen will display authorized amounts for each vendor and show your combined payment total in the Funds Still Owed field.
How do I pay future-due invoices?
Batch will only include invoices that are part of the current period in payments to the publishers. To include a future-due invoice, stores must move that invoice to the current period.
My outstanding amount is a negative amount. Will Batch include those transactions in the publisher payments if I authorize those transactions?
A negative amount means that the value of the credits exceeds the value of the invoices. Batch cannot remit a negative amount to the publishers. If your authorized amount is negative, you will see a red flag and the remittance amount will be 0.00, indicating that publisher won’t be included in the remittance.
Warning! A negative outstanding amount does not mean that you have no invoices due to the publisher.
How can I tell if an invoice has been paid?
If the status of an invoice or credits is Cleared, that indicates the transaction is no longer open, and the publisher has received payment for that transaction.
If the status is Open, Verified, or Authorized, the transaction is still considered outstanding and yet to be remitted.
How can I tell if a publisher has received my payment?
Stores can view past payments through Batch in two places on their Batch portal:
Period Summaries Past Payments Select Date
Reports Past Payment Status
If a record of your payment is in either of these locations, that means that Batch has sent the payment to the publisher along with the remittance information.
Can I send Batch a lump sum payment and keep an open balance?
Stores can send funds to Batch at any point and for any amount, even if no invoices have been authorized. Batch will hold onto the funds, and the store will be able to apply the open balance whenever they decide to authorize invoices and credits for payment.
Warning! If Batch does not have enough funds to cover the total authorized amount, no payment will be remitted to any publishers.
What vendors are on Batch?
Arcadia
Blackstone
Gardners US
Hachette
HarperCollins
Independent Publishers Group
Macmillan
Microcosm
Penguin Random House
Simon & Schuster
WW Norton
How do I add a new vendor to my Batch portal?
Submit your vendor account information through the account administration form to add a new vendor to your Batch portal.
Can I pay publishers directly instead of paying through Batch?
Except for Penguin Random House*, stores can make direct payments to publishers instead of paying through Batch.
Warning! Publishers cannot update your Batch portal if you make a direct payment. Stores are responsible for manually clearing invoices and credits paid outside of Batch by changing their status to Not Paid in Batch.
*Penguin Random House stipulates that Batch users must pay through Batch.
If I have a pre-paid account, can I add that vendor to Batch?
Pre-paid accounts are not eligible for Batch. Stores must have terms with a publisher to be able to pay them through Batch.
Macmillan offers a 1% early payment discount. How can I get that discount through Batch?
When you make a payment through Batch, our system identifies all invoices eligible for the 1% discount and adds a new credit to your account that can be used with your next payment.
Why does the outstanding amount on my publisher statement not match the outstanding amount on Batch?
The most common discrepancies are due to timing. Publisher statements are snapshots from a specific point in time, whereas Batch is real-time. The two most common sources of timing discrepancies are:
The latest invoices and credits are on Batch but not the statement because the statement is a few days/weeks out of date.
The publisher received and posted your most recent payment through Batch after their system generated the statement.
Will co-op credits appear on Batch?
Vendors send us all invoices and all types of credits, including co-op credits.
Do publishers provide copies of their invoices?
Some publishers – HarperCollins, Blackstone, Microcosm, WW Norton & Co – provide Batch with PDF copies of their invoices, which you can download from the transaction screen by clicking on the PDF icon in the PDF column.
For those publishers that don’t provide PDFs, you can download invoices by going into the invoice and clicking the download button, which will download all the invoice details into a spreadsheet.
How do I add new users to Batch?
To add an additional user to your Batch account, please email support@batchforbooks.com with your store name, the email address for the new account, name for the new account (optional), and the account type. There are two account types to choose from:
General / Admin – this account type has access to all Batch functions.
Receiver – this account type has access to all Batch functions except those related to payments (Authorizing invoices and clearing invoices as Not Paid in Batch)
How do I look up an invoice?
There are various ways to run searches for invoices on Batch. To look up a single invoice, the recommended method is to enter the invoice number or an ISBN from the invoice into the QuickSearch bar located on the right-hand side of the yellow menu bar.
Can I look up invoices by due date?
Stores can use Advanced Search to look up custom sets of transactions. Stores can search on various parameters such as vendor, transaction type, transaction status, invoice number, ISBN, transaction date, and due date.
Who do I contact if an invoice or credit is missing from Batch?
If you can’t locate an invoice or credit, please reach out to Batch at support@batchforbooks.com. Please include your store name, contact info, vendor, invoice number, and invoice date.
Who do I contact if the invoice details are incorrect on Batch?
All invoice details are provided to Batch directly from the publisher. If there is incorrect information on the invoice, please contact your credit rep or publisher customer service.
When do invoices show up on Batch?
Publishers send invoices and credits to Batch daily. Typically, invoices are on Batch prior to shipments arriving at your store.
On some occasions, publishers don’t raise an invoice in their A/R systems until after shipping your order. In those cases, it’s possible for the shipment to arrive and the invoice not yet appear on your Batch portal.
There are outstanding invoices on Batch that I’ve already paid. When will the publisher remove them?
Publishers will not send Batch an update to remove those invoices. If there are outstanding invoices that were paid directly to the publisher, stores need to manually clear them by changing their status to Not Paid in Batch.
I have authorized an invoice that I am not ready to pay yet. Can I unauthorize the invoice?
Stores can unauthorize an authorized invoice by re-opening the invoice. The process to re-open an authorized invoice is the same as authorizing an invoice, except the user will click the button in the ‘R’ (= re-open) column instead of the ‘A’ column.
Can I print or download an invoice from Batch?
You can download invoices directly from Batch by going into the invoice and clicking on the gray download button. Your invoice will be downloaded as a spreadsheet which you can open with Excel or similar software.
What accounting software can Batch connect with?
Batch can connect with QuickBooks Desktop, QuickBooks Online, and Xero
What information will Batch send to my accounting software?
Batch can enter summary details – invoice date, due date, invoice number, amount – for all invoices and credits. Additionally, Batch can send payment updates to create vendor-specific bill payments to mark your invoices as paid and to apply your credits.
I don’t have QuickBooks or Xero. Can Batch still connect with my account software?
Not directly. QuickBooks and Xero are the only accounting software for which we’ve developed an integrated solution. However, most accounting packages have import utility functions wherein users can import invoices and credits via file upload. Users could export data from Batch and format it for import into their account software to save time with data entry.
I use QuickBooks or Xero, but I don’t record each individual invoice or credit. Should I connect Batch with my accounting software?
Only if you want to start recording that information in your accounting software. If you only record payments to the publishers without attaching those payments to individual invoices/credits, then it won’t be necessary to connect Batch to your account. Plus, you’ll always be able to find all the payment specifics within your Batch portal.
Can I submit claims for damages and shortages through Batch?
Except for Penguin Random House*, stores can submit claims for damages and shortages directly through their Batch portal. To access the claims screen for an invoice, click on the Claims link in the Options column.
*Clicking on the claims link for a Penguin Random House invoice will open up their publisher portal.
Why doesn’t the Claim link appear for all invoices?
There are two reasons why an invoice might not have the claims link.
The invoice is older than 30 days. The claims link is removed after 30 days to emulate the publisher policy of needing to submit claims within a certain time frame.
The invoice is authorized. Stores can’t submit claims for authorized invoices. If you’d like to make a claim against an authorized invoice, you need to re-open it first.
How long does it take to get credit for claims submitted through Batch?
It varies, but most publishers will process the claim and transmit a credit note within a few days. Macmillan is an outlier and processes the previous weeks’ claims en masse every Monday.
Can I get a damaged book re-shipped instead of receiving credit?
All claims made through Batch are processed for credit and a re-ship option is not currently available.
What happens if there’s a problem with the claim?
If a publisher has an issue with the claim, they will reach out directly to store to resolve.
Can I submit more than one claim against an invoice?
Stores can submit multiple claims against an invoice.
Common questions
New Publishers
How much does a Batch account cost?
Bookshop accounts are free to open. Batch is funded by a small service charge applied to participating suppliers, so there is no per invoice fee for retailers.
When are payments taken?
Payments are collected on the published authorisation date each month. You will see the next date on your dashboard and in your statement email.
Can I use Batch alongside my existing till system?
Yes. Batch works with all major EPOS providers, and invoices can be exported to your accounting package in a standard format.
How do I raise a claim?
Claims are raised from the invoice line inside your account. The supplier is notified immediately and any credit is offset against your next authorisation.
Common questions
Current publisher users
What is the schedule for receiving payments and remittances from Batch?
Batch will send payments and remittance advice to publishers every Friday morning and once more on the last business day of the month. The remittance advice will break down the accounts included in that day’s payment, the invoices and credits included in the payment, a total payment amount for each account, and a grand total.
The total payment amount will always match the full value of all invoices and credits included in the remittance.
How is the remittance advice delivered?
The remittance advice can be delivered in multiple ways and is dependent on how each publisher would like to receive the report. Typically, it is added to an FTP folder in both EDI and PDF formats. The report can also be scheduled to be emailed to publisher-approved contacts or downloaded directly from the Batch for Books Publisher Portal.
How is payment delivered?
On Friday morning and the last business day of the month, Batch for Books will initiate a wire transfer for the total remittance amount. Wire transfers are typically delivered by 10:00 am Eastern on the payment date.
If an invoice is Authorized in Batch, does that mean Batch have received payment, and the invoice will be included in the next remittance?
Authorized invoices will be included in the remittance only if Batch has received payment from the bookstore before Batch prepares the remittance to the publisher. Batch prepares the remittance the evening before the payment date.
Can bookstores apply part of a credit or pay part of an invoice when making payment through Batch?
Stores will always pay the full amount of each invoice and apply the full amount of each credit when paying through Batch. This should reduce the number of chargebacks, deductions, and exceptions that would otherwise occur.
How can invoices and credits be removed from Batch for Books that have already been paid?
Bookstores are responsible for manually clearing any invoices or credits paid outside of Batch. This is done by changing the status of those transactions to Not Paid in Batch. However, publishers can also contact Batch Support at support@batchforbooks.com to have invoices and credits cleared from a store’s account.
How does a current Batch user add a new publisher account to Batch?
New accounts are set up at the beginning of each month. Current Batch users should email support@batchforbooks.com with the information for the account they want added to their Batch portal to be added to the next available set-up list.
Can pre-paid accounts be added to Batch for Books?
Only accounts with terms are eligible to be added to Batch.
What happens if there is an issue with a claim submitted through Batch?
Publishers should reach out directly to the account if there is an issue with processing a claim submitted through Batch.
Can bookstores elect to have damaged/short books re-shipped?
Currently, there is not an option for stores to have damaged or short books automatically re-shipped when making a claim through Batch. All claims made through Batch should be credited by the publisher and placed on re-order by the bookstore.