Suggesting and Processing Payments
The Payment Management extended payment journal offers additional functionality, such as payment validation and direct bank communication when you create and send vendor and employee payments to the bank. To use the extended payment journal, Payment Management must be enabled and set up on the payment journal. For more information, see Setting up payment journals with Payment Management.
To create vendor payment suggestions
Search for Payment Journals, then select the related link.
Open the relevant journal, and in the action bar, select Prepare > Suggest Vendor Payments.
On the Suggest Vendor Payments form, fill in the fields as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.
Tip
Use the fields in the Filter: Vendor section to, for example, filter on a specific payment code.
Select OK to generate the vendor payment suggestions.
Payment lines that comply with the settings of the payment journal suggestion will now be created in the payment journal. All payment lines must have the status Valid before they can be sent/exported to the bank. In case of errors on a payment line, you can use the Payment File Errors, located in the lower right corner of the payment journal, to find a more descriptive error message.
Tip
When you have made payment suggestions in the payment journal, use the Status on each of the payment lines to identify the stage of the payment in its lifecycle. If you use direct communication, statuses will also be imported from the bank. For more information, see Using the payment status.
To create employee payment suggestions
Important
Before creating an employee payment suggestion, you must fill in the fields Balance Account No. and the Payment Method Code on the Employee card for the existing employees.
- Use the
icon and search for Payment Journals, then select the related link. - Open the relevant journal, and in the action bar, select Home > Suggest Employee Payments.
- Define the relevant criteria for suggesting employee payments.
- In the Use Payment Information from Employee field, select Yes if you want to use, for example, the balance account number and payment method code that is set up on the Employee card. To only use details from the Employee card if it's missing from the employee ledger entry, select Use for Missing Fields.
- Select OK to create the suggested employee payment lines.
Note
How employee expenses should be processed in the payment journal depends on the purpose of the payment suggestion. In the case that the expenses have already been posted to a bank account and you want to post the bank ledger entries, the payment method Manual must be used. If you, on the other hand, want to transfer money to your employees, you must use a payment method, for example, BTD, that is accepted in the bank.
To send or export payments
When the payment lines in the payment journal have the status Valid, they can be sent or exported depending on the chosen type of bank communication. To send or export payment lines, follow these steps:
- Use the icon and search for Payment Journals, then select the related link.
- Open the relevant journal, and in the action bar, select Home > Export/Send Payments.
Tip
You can specify a custom-defined name for payment files that are manually exported from the payment journal. Use the
icon and search for Payment Management Setup, then select the related link. In the action bar, select Troubleshooting and navigate to the FastTab General. In the field File Name (Payment File) define the file name to be used for manually exported payment files. - If you send/export payments to various banks, you must choose to which bank you wish to first send/export payments. After having sent/exported payments to one bank, you can repeat step 2 and then select the next bank to send payments.
The status of the sent/exported payment lines will be updated to Sent for exported payments, or Processing for payments send by direct communication.
To post payments
You can post a payment line when it has the status Sent or Processing. However, it is recommended not to post any payment lines before they have been paid in the bank. You can define posting criteria, to ensure that no payment lines are posted before they have been paid. For more information, see To define a required status for posting payments. To post the payment lines, follow these steps:
- Use the icon and search for Payment Journals, then select the related link.
- Open the relevant journal, and in the action bar, select Post/Print > Post.
Accessing information about a payment
While working on the payment line, various information about a chosen payment line will be available on the right side of the payment journal. You can dive into more detailed information, by selecting the information displayed in green text. The payment line information includes:
| Fact box | Description |
|---|---|
| Payment Management | Every update of the payment line status will be logged. To view a complete log, select the status displayed in green text. This will open the page Credit Transfer Log from where you can also access the File Archive for the payment line. |
| Journal Line Details | This section provides the most basic journal line details such as Posting Group, Account, and Balance Account. |
| Incoming Document Files | If the payment line is related to an incoming document this will be available here. Select the action Incoming Document Files, to attach a file, or to view or edit an incoming document for the payment line. |
| Payment File Errors | If there're errors on the payment line, each error will be described in more detail in this list. When the payment line status is updated, errors that have been resolved will be deleted from the list. |
See also
Setting up payment journals with Payment Management
Using the payment status
To define a required status for posting payments