Payment Requests

Request payments for operational expenses with multiple disbursement methods, fraud scoring, and reconciliation tracking.

Payment requests allow your team to request money for operational expenses such as market purchases, logistics fees, utilities, and supplier payments. Every payment request includes a purpose, payee details, and a disbursement method so managers know exactly where the money is going before they approve it.

Payment purposes

Each payment request is tagged with a purpose that categorizes the expense:

• Market Purchase — Buying goods or ingredients from a local market or vendor outside the regular supply chain.
• Logistics — Transportation and delivery costs for moving goods between locations.
• Delivery Fee — Fees paid to delivery drivers or courier services for customer orders.
• Maintenance — Repair and servicing costs for equipment, facilities, or vehicles.
• Utilities — Electricity, water, internet, and other recurring operational costs.
• Supplies — Office supplies, cleaning materials, packaging, and other consumables.
• Reimbursement — Paying back a team member who used personal funds for a business expense.

Payee types

The payee type identifies who will receive the payment:

• Supplier — A registered supplier in your Eleo system. Selecting a supplier auto-fills their payment details.
• Staff — A team member who needs to be reimbursed or receive funds for an operational task.
• One-off — A vendor or individual who is not registered in the system. You enter their payment details manually.
• Self — The person submitting the request is also the payee, typically for reimbursements.

Disbursement methods

Choose how the payment should be disbursed:

• Wallet Transfer — Send funds directly from your Eleo wallet to the payee’s wallet.
• Cash from Till — Disburse cash from the store register. This creates a corresponding paid-out transaction in Cash Management.
• Mobile Money — Send funds via mobile money to the payee’s phone number.
• Bank Transfer — Transfer funds to the payee’s bank account.
• Cash Advance — Issue a cash advance that must be reconciled later. This creates an advance record in the Cash Advances module.

Creating a payment request

Follow these steps to submit a new payment request:

1. 1

   Navigate to Payment Requests

   From the sidebar, go to Operations & Projects → Payment Requests. Click New Payment Request to open the form.

2. 2

   Select purpose and payee

   Choose the payment purpose (Market Purchase, Logistics, etc.) and the payee type. If the payee is a registered supplier or staff member, search for and select them. For one-off payees, enter their name and payment details manually.

3. 3

   Enter amount and disbursement method

   Enter the requested amount and select the disbursement method. If you choose Cash from Till, the payment will be recorded against the active cash shift. If you choose Cash Advance, an advance record will be created automatically.

4. 4

   Add supporting details

   Add a description explaining what the payment is for. Attach any supporting documents such as invoices, receipts, or quotes. These help the approver make an informed decision.

5. 5

   Submit for approval

   Review the payment details and click Submit. The request enters the approval queue and Eleo’s fraud detection engine automatically scores it for risk.

Status flow

A payment request moves through these statuses during its lifecycle:

• Draft — The request has been started but not yet submitted.
• Submitted — The request is awaiting manager approval. Fraud scoring has been applied.
• Approved — A manager has approved the payment. Disbursement can proceed.
• Disbursed — The funds have been sent to the payee via the selected method.
• Reconciled — The actual spend has been compared against the requested amount and any change has been accounted for.
• Rejected — A manager has rejected the request with a reason.
• Cancelled — The request has been cancelled before disbursement.

Reconciliation

After a payment has been disbursed, the system tracks whether the actual spend matches the requested amount. If a team member was given money for a market purchase but spent less than the requested amount, the remaining change must be accounted for during reconciliation.

The reconciliation view shows the requested amount, actual spend, and any variance. Receipts and supporting documents can be attached as proof of expenditure. Once reconciled, the payment request is considered fully closed.