Create Payment Batch Form —  Overview

This topic contains an overview of the Create Payment Batch form.

The Create Payment Batch form lets you automatically create batches of payment entries to pay all or a selection of your due accounts.

Only one bank per batch

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 the same way you edit batches created with the Payment Entry form. (You must first select the option Allow Edit Of System Generated Batches from the Options form.)

Before you create a payment batch

• 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 Control Payments form to set maximum amounts or to hold payments on individual invoices.
• Edit the Payment Selection Criteria to exclude individual vendors from the check run.
• Place vendor records on hold if you want to block payments.

Print the Pre-Check Register

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

The Pre-Check Register lists the details and totals of checks that the program will produce, using the criteria you specify in the Create Payment Batch form. 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 Control Payments form to add payment restrictions, reprint the Pre-Check Register to check their effects.

Create the batch

When you are satisfied with the transactions listed for payment on the Pre-Check Register, you can use the Create Payment Batch form to create the payment batch.

Print batch listings

List the payment batch after you create it and 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 checks

Print the checks and payment advices together or separately using the Print/Post button in the Payment Batch List form. 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.

Print Check Register

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

The Check Register provides a list of all valid checks issued by the check printing program.

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).

Selecting invoices for payment

You select invoices for payment in the Create Payment Batch form by specifying:

• The bank for the payment batch and the vendor. In multicurrency ledgers, you also specify the bank currency for the payment batch and the currency for the vendor.
• The type of document date you want to use for selecting documents for payment. You must choose one of the following:

Due Date. Select this option if you want the program to select transactions only on the basis of due dates and not consider discount dates. (The program ignores discount dates when selecting transactions, but still takes the discounts that are available when paying the transactions.)

You must also enter the date on or before which the invoice must be due in order to be paid.

Discount Date. Select this option if you want the program to select transactions only on the basis of discount dates and not consider due dates. (The program ignores due dates when selecting transactions.)

You must also enter a range of dates during which the discount must be paid in order for the invoice to qualify.

Due Date and Discount Date. Select this option when you want to pay all transactions that are due on or before a certain date, or that may not be due, but which have a discount available on or before the same date. (The program looks at both due dates and discount dates when selecting transactions.)

You must enter an “on or before” due date and a range of discount dates.

• Whether to pay all selected documents or forced documents only.

All Selected. Includes all selected transactions.

Only Forced. Includes only the selected transactions that have a Forced status.

• Vendor ranges. You can select vendors by choosing ranges for each of the following:
• Vendor groups.
• Vendor numbers.
• Account sets.
• Check amounts (lets you place a ceiling on check amounts)
• Vendors you want to exclude from the check run.

Selection criteria are defined, then used again and again

Remember, that you define these selection criteria in the Payment Selection Codes form, then use them when you create the payment batch.

On Hold transactions

Transactions that are being withheld (either because the associated vendors are on hold or because the transactions have been placed on hold in the Control Payments form), and prepayments with activation dates later than the check date, do not appear on the Pre-Check Register unless you force them (assign them a Forced status) in the Control Payments form.

Note that the Pre-Check Register will list transactions assigned 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 Control Payments form, transactions being withheld from payment because the vendors have been placed on hold in the Vendors form, and Forced transactions for amounts outside the specified range of check amounts.