Invapay - anyone use it?

[Nicko]

We have a gig arranged via a booking agent who has advised that the venue wants to pay using the Invapay system.  I've had a look at the website but there doesn't seem to be any info on there for the supplier of the service and what we need to do to collect payment.  I've contacted the Invapay people but not had a response yet. 

I've worked with teh booking agent before and have no reason to suspect this isn't absolutely kosher.

Is there any BC wisdom on this payment mechanism?

[Stofferson]

used this once, for payment at a pub gig as it was from the brewery, bit of a pain, but does work in the end, 

just need to sign up to it, then the venue/ or whoever is in charge or releasing the payment will send you a link/email or something like that . .

 

sorry it was once and a while ago haha! 

[NoRhino]

Like @Stofferson I had to do this for gigs in a Greene King pub.  I was paid promptly enough but your follow band members need to know that won't be paid on the night.

[chris_b]

We had to use Invapay several years ago. It's a pain to walk out of a gig with no cash in your pocket, but we got our money, albeit a little later than usual. You have to start invoicing each other so there is a payment "paper" trail but it's not as big a deal as I was expecting.

We thought the pub was trying to provide info to HMRC, but they were using this system to crack down on rogue landlords, who were putting in claims to the brewery for non-existent gigs and pocketing the cash. 

[Al Krow]

Bear in mind they will dock you a small % for the privelege of using Invapay. Which definitely annoyed some of my bandmates. 

[chris_b]

52 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Bear in mind they will dock you a small % for the privelege of using Invapay. Which definitely annoyed some of my bandmates. 

Do they?

I seem to remember the brewery, Shepherd and Neame, paying Invapay.

[rogerstodge]

We played a green king pub and they paid us £100 over the top with invapay, I owned up and told the landlord, he said it was for our inconvenience of not getting paid on the night

[pete.young]

There was a thread a couple of years ago here:

 

[skidder652003]

yeah done this a couple of times, small admin fee so up your fee accordingly. I think the pub sends you an email link to set it up to their account or something, probably best to contact the venue rather than invapay.

[Al Krow]

On 15/10/2019 at 15:53, Al Krow said:

Bear in mind they will dock you a small % for the privelege of using Invapay.

On 15/10/2019 at 16:49, chris_b said:

Do they?

Yes.

1 minute ago, skidder652003 said:

yeah done this a couple of times, small admin fee so up your fee accordingly. 

Chris - still yes!

One of these days, you may even believe me 😁

[FinnDave]

Used it quite often when I was with a pub band. Greene King pubs use it. It's not a very user friendly system, but we always got our money in the end.

[Skinnyman]

It’s the standard procurement mechanism used by Greene King that maintains a database of approved suppliers (in this case, your band) along with their payment details and contacts. 
 

When the venue make a booking, they go onto their end of the system and raise an order asking you, the supplier to provide them with a specific set of goods or, in this case, services for an agreed fee. You get an email notification of this order and go on to your end of the system and accept it. It then goes through whatever approval processes GK have in place before ending up in the system as a pending order.

At the appropriate time you confirm delivery of the goods (service). The venue confirm receipt and this kicks the payment system into action and a couple of days later a BACS payment ends up in the account associated with your supplier record.

Provided everyone does what they need to do at the right time, it works well - as others have said, you need to add a five or so to your usual fee to cover the admin charge and you may need to chase the venue manager to either raise the order or, more often, confirm receipt.

There is nothing to say that this can’t all be done in a compressed time and for repeat gigs the pub often timed things so that we got paid on the morning of the gig.

The Invapay website itself is quite helpful - IIRC you need someone at the venue to raise the initial order and ask you (via an email address) to provide the service - that prompts the system to ask you to create a supplier record which then goes through the supplier approval process. Once that’s done, you’re ready to accept your first Purchase Order.

Remember that the system is designed around ordering crates of beer and boxes of crisps and it starts to make sense.....

 

[zibbe]

I've been doing regular weekly resident gigs and get paid through invapay. They are very inconsistent with payments. Often missing a payment and having to ring them to correct it (when you can get someone to answer the phone) So far I'm nearly £800 behind on being paid. They are unreliable. Their attitude is that being paid on time is unimportant. I won't be taking any more gigs through invapay. I would advise anyone being offered this method of payment to give them a wide berth if you don't like being messed around.

[Silvia Bluejay]

Except that Invapay is now deceased and SAP Concur has been chosen by Greene King as their replacement. There is a dedicated Concur thread on here somewhere.

[Happy Jack]

4 hours ago, zibbe said:

They are very inconsistent with payments. They are unreliable. 

 

2 minutes ago, Silvia Bluejay said:

Except that Invapay is now deceased ...

 

It is possible that these are somehow connected.