Approve & Pay vs Mark as Paid Externally

Resolving a cannabis consignment settlement on ShelfSpace is the last step in the weekly cycle. The platform has already pulled your POS sales, reconciled inventory against Metrc, applied profit splits and aging-discount tiers, and netted any returns or waste credits. The settlement is sitting in your Payments → Consignment Payments tab with a calculated net payout amount and a ready-to-send PDF report. The only thing left is your call on how the money moves.

Two buttons present that choice. Both are equally valid; the right one for any given settlement depends on your accounting workflow, your banking setup, and your relationship with the vendor.

Side-by-side comparison

The mechanics differ across five dimensions worth knowing before you decide.

When to pick Approve & Pay

This is the default path and the one the platform was designed around. Pick it when any of these are true:

• You want the QuickBooks entries handled for you. Approve & Pay posts both the bill and the payment automatically through your QBO connection. Your bookkeeper opens QBO and sees a clean, reconciled entry — no manual data entry, no missing memo lines.
• You want one place that knows what was paid. The Check 21 ID, the settlement ID, the package-level sell-through data, the vendor's portal record — all tied to one resolution. Two months later, when a vendor asks "why was the check for $557.27?", the answer is one click away in their portal.
• You have bank info on file in ShelfSpace. Approve & Pay requires a connected bank account so the platform can draw the Check 21. Most retailers connect during onboarding; if yours isn't connected yet, this path waits for that step.
• The vendor prefers a mailed/emailed printable check. Many cannabis vendors specifically request Check 21 because their own bank treats it cleaner than an ACH from a dispensary's account. The vendor mobile-deposits or prints and takes it to a teller.

When to pick Mark as paid externally

This is the alternate path for retailers who'd rather route the payment themselves. Pick it when any of these are true:

• You already paid the vendor off-platform before approving. A vendor called Friday and asked for the check early; you cut a paper check Friday night; the settlement only ran Monday. Mark as paid externally records the resolution so the platform doesn't double-pay.
• You prefer to pay via your bank's bill-pay or ACH. Some retailers route all vendor payments through their primary bank's bill-pay system for reconciliation reasons. The platform doesn't object — pay your way, record the resolution.
• The vendor specifically requested a non-Check 21 payment method. Rare, but some vendors require ACH only. Pay them off-platform and mark externally so the settlement record stays accurate.
• The settlement was small enough to settle in cash on the spot, or you want to keep a particular vendor's payments out of the platform's check pipeline for any other operational reason.

How to mark a settlement paid externally

1. Go to Payments → Consignment Payments and open the settlement from the Payments Due queue.
2. Click Mark as Paid (External). The "Mark settlement as paid externally" dialog opens.
3. Set Payment Method — Check, ACH, Cash, or Other. Enter a Reference (for a check the field labels itself Reference (check #), e.g. 1234).
4. Click Mark as Paid. The settlement flips to Paid, no Check 21 is cut, no check fee applies, and the vendor's report ends with a "PAID EXTERNALLY" stamp.
5. Changed your mind? On an externally-paid settlement, Undo — mark as unpaid returns it to Payments Due so you can record it again or run Approve & Pay instead.

What the vendor sees, either way

Vendor transparency is the same on both paths. The vendor receives an email notification within minutes of your approval, with the full multi-page Settlement Report PDF attached. The first five pages are identical regardless of which path you picked — they cover the period's settlement summary, the line-by-line sales detail, the margin analysis (showing any discount-budget true-up), the waste and credits reconciliation against Metrc, and the remaining inventory on shelf at period end.

The difference is only on page six. Approve & Pay ends with a Check 21 compliant printable check ready for mobile deposit. Mark as paid externally ends with a "PAID EXTERNALLY" stamp page that confirms the settlement is resolved without surfacing a check. The vendor sees the same payout math, the same package-level sell-through data, and the same authorized discount budget in either case — the resolution method is the only thing that changes.

For the page-by-page walkthrough of what's on the report, see Anatomy of a Consignment Settlement Report or download the demo PDF above.

Switching back and forth

The choice is per-settlement, not per-vendor. You can run a vendor on Approve & Pay all year, then mark one settlement externally if you happened to pay it early, then go back to Approve & Pay the following week. The platform doesn't lock you in. The vendor record stays the same; only the resolution-method history accumulates over time. If you're trying to standardize across all vendors, you can — but the system doesn't require it.

QuickBooks implications worth flagging

This is the operational gotcha that catches bookkeepers off-guard if it isn't called out: Approve & Pay does the QBO sync; Mark as paid externally does not. If you handle AP entirely on ShelfSpace and approve every settlement through Approve & Pay, your QBO file stays auto-reconciled. If you mix in Mark as paid externally settlements, those need manual entry on the bookkeeper's side — pay the bill, then in QBO post the corresponding bill and payment to keep the books aligned. Not a bug, just the consequence of telling the platform "I handled this off-platform."

For retailers whose accounting firm is on the For Bookkeepers partnership track, flag externally-paid settlements during your weekly handoff so the manual entries don't get missed.