About Creating Payment Batches Automatically

You use the A/P Create Payment Batch screen to create batches of payment entries automatically to pay all or a selection of your due accounts.

Important! You must create a separate payment batch for each bank account on which you want to write checks.

Once you create a batch of payments, you can edit them using the A/P Payment Entry screen if the Allow Edit Of System Generated Batches option is selected on the A/P Options screen.

Preparing to Create a Payment Batch

Before you create a payment batch, you should:

• Post all outstanding batches.
• Post invoice batches to update vendor accounts with any new charges, credit notes, and debit notes.
• Post adjustment batches to ensure that vendor records are correct.

• Post payment batches. Accounts Payable will scan all open batches for pending payments, but problems can arise when you work on several payment batches simultaneously.

  For example, the payments listed on the Pre-Check Register will not match the generated payment batch if you continue to enter payments manually.

• Choose Generate Separate Payments For Each Invoice in the vendor records of any vendors who require separate invoice payment.
• Use the A/P Control Payments screen to set maximum amounts or to hold payments on individual invoices.
• Place vendor records on hold if you want to block payments.
• Edit the payment selection criteria on the A/P Create Payment Batch screen to exclude individual vendors from the check run.

• Print the Pre-Check Register and review it before you generate the payment batch.

The Pre-Check Register

The Pre-Check Register lists the details and totals of checks that the program will produce, using the criteria you specify in the A/P Create Payment Batch screen.

After reviewing the Pre-Check Register, you may decide not to pay certain transactions, or you may want to force payment on certain transactions, or pay only a portion of a transaction.

If you use the A/P Control Payments screen to add payment restrictions, reprint the Pre-Check Register to check their effects.

Payment Criteria and Payment Selection Codes

The A/P Create Payment Batch screen selects vendors for payment according to criteria you specify, and creates a payment batch that you can later edit with the A/P Payment Entry screen.

You define the criteria for selecting payments by first defining at least one payment selection code with the A/P Payment Selection Codes screen. You then select the code you want to use when you create a payment batch, and modify the criteria, if necessary. More...

On Hold Transactions

Some transactions do not appear on the Pre-Check Register unless you assign them a Forced status on the A/P Control Payments screen. These transactions include:

• Transactions that are being withheld, either because the associated vendors are on hold or because the transactions have been placed on hold in the A/P Control Payments screen.
• Prepayments with activation dates later than the check date.

Note: The Pre-Check Register lists transactions that have a Forced status only if the amounts of the checks that would include the forced payments are within the minimum and maximum check amounts specified for the check run.

The Pre-Check Register can also include all payables that were bypassed in the check run. Bypassed transactions include transactions placed on hold in the A/P Control Payments screen, transactions being withheld from payment because the vendors have been placed on hold in the Vendors screen, and Forced transactions for amounts outside the specified range of check amounts.

Check Language

The language for printing the check amount in text is taken from the vendor record or primary remit-to record for each vendor. If you need to specify a different language for individual checks, you will have to edit the payment entries after you create the batch.

Note: The check language applies only to the textual amount printed on each check. All other text on the check or advice comes from the check report screen

Unposted Payment Batches

A/P Create Payment Batch scans the payment entries in all unposted batches to make sure that outstanding invoices are not paid twice.

Payment Controls

A/P Create Payment Batch also checks to see whether any payment controls have been placed on vendors or invoices using the A/P Control Payments screen.

Multicurrency Ledgers

All payment entries in a batch are in the same currency and are drawn from the same bank.

All vendors being paid must have the same source currency; however, payments do not have to match the vendor's currency. For example, you can create a batch of checks in US dollars to pay vendors whose source currency is the drachma.

Discounts

If you take discounts, you must specify a range of discount dates on the Vendor and Date Selection Criteria tab of the A/P Create Payment Batch screen. Accounts Payable will review all documents with a discount date within the range you specify (that meet other criteria), and take discounts if they are available as of the batch date you specify on the Bank and Currency Selection Criteria tab of the screen.

Optional Fields

If you use optional fields, an Optional Fields tab is available. Initially, the tab displays any payment optional fields that you set up for automatic insertion, along with their default entries. You can accept or change the inserted optional field entries, or you can delete the optional fields. You can also assign different payment optional fields to the batch.

When you generate payment entries, Accounts Payable assigns optional fields to the payment entries, as follows, using the values specified on the Optional Fields tab:

• All payment optional fields that are set up for automatic insertion. More...

  If you removed any automatically inserted optional fields from the Optional Fields tab, Accounts Payable inserts them in the generated payment entries, reassigning values as follows:

  • If the optional fields specified for the vendor match the optional fields defined for payments, the program uses the values specified in the vendor record.
  • If the optional fields specified for the remit-to location match the optional fields defined for payments, the program uses the values for the remit-to location. (If the vendor and the remit-to location use the same optional field, the value from the remit-to location is used.)
  • If an automatically inserted payment optional field does not match any optional fields in the vendor record, the default value specified in the payment optional field record is used.
• Any additional optional fields you specified for the payment batch on the Optional Fields tab.

Printing Checks for a Generated Batch

After creating a payment batch, you should:

• Print the batch listing before you print checks. You can edit payments and delete transactions before you print checks. Once you print checks, you cannot edit the transactions, but you can delete them.

• Print the checks and payment advices together or separately using the Print/Post button in the A/P Payment Batch List screen. Once you indicate that the printed checks are acceptable, the checks are posted to the vendor accounts.

  If the checks are not acceptable, you can reprint them as often as necessary. They will not be posted until you indicate that they are acceptable.

  For information about printing checks for a batch, see Printing Checks for a Batch of Payments.

• Print the Check Register. The A/P Check Register Report screen provides a list of all valid checks issued by the check printing program.

  Note: Normally, you print the Check Register immediately after you have printed and posted checks and advices.

You will likely do check runs on a regular basis—semi-monthly, for example, or as often as necessary to maintain a consistent cash flow.