About Controlling Payments

When you use A/P Create Payment Batch to create a batch of checks, you can control which checks are generated in three ways:

• By using payment selection codes to apply predefined criteria to select documents for payment.

  Payment selection codes provide default settings for the Create Payment Batch screen. These settings cover such things as the payment bank and bank currency, the range of vendors, and a vendor exclusion list.

• By imposing payment controls, either holding or forcing payment, for individual vendors and invoices.
• By placing a vendor on hold. You cannot enter any payments for a vendor who is on hold.

Using Payment Selection Criteria

Payment selection codes specify how Accounts Payable should select vendor invoices for payment. You can create as many payment selection codes as you want using the A/P Payment Selection Codes screen. For example, you might have separate selection codes for processing US, Canadian, and Mexican payments.

When you create a payment batch, you specify a payment selection code that provides default criteria for creating the batch. You can override these criteria when you create the batch.

Placing Invoices On Hold Using the Control Payments Screen

You use the A/P Control Payments screen to control payments for a specific vendor, document, and payment (for multiple payment schedules).

You can also change the status or clear any invoice payment limits of groups of transactions for a vendor or for a range of vendors.

Normally, you use the Control Payments screen after printing the Pre-Check Register and reviewing the current payables to select the transactions you want to pay.

Documents On Hold

Putting a transaction on hold means it will not be paid until you remove the hold.

Important! Placing invoices on hold using the Control Payments screen prevent you from generating payments using the Create Payment Batch screen. It does not prevent you from entering checks using the Payment Entry screen.

Forcing Payments

Forcing payment of a document means that a payment will definitely be generated the next time you create a payment batch, provided the vendor and the check amount are within the ranges of vendors and check amounts specified for the batch.

Note: We recommend that you set holds and force payments to control non-payment and payment of individual transactions, rather than trying to achieve the same effect by changing due dates or discount dates.

For information about applying payment controls to a single document, see About Applying Payments Controls to a Single Document.

For information about controlling payments for a range of documents, see About Applying Payment Controls for a Range of Vendors.

For instructions on using the Control Payments screen, see Applying Payment Controls.

Setting a Vendor On Hold

You can place an individual vendor on hold in the vendor record so that no transactions for that vendor are paid.

Important! This restriction applies only to the Create Payment Batch process. You cannot force a payment for an On Hold vendor using the Control Payments screen. However, you can make payments to an On Hold vendor manually, using the A/P Payment Entry screen.

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