11.07. Payment Approval

Payment Selection

The first step in the payment approval workflow is making a list of documents and then generating payment proposals based on the list. The documents can be:

• invoices

• invoice amounts due (as determined by the payment term)

• calculated withholdings

• debts to payment

• purchase order - for prepayments - only for purchase orders for which their document type has Prepayment checked!

  • starting with v15.09 multiple partial payments can be made for orders, until the total ordered amount is paid. The same functionality applies to orders with multiple due dates;

  • starting with v15.11 a single payment can be made for multiple orders or due order amounts, for a business partner. After generating the payment, the allocation records will be available in the Payment window, Allocate tab, one for each order-payment allocation. This allows the system to determine the due order amounts, so that further payments can be allocated to the respective orders, if necessary.

  • once the vendor invoice is registered, the (pre)payments need to be manually allocated.

The payment selection is made from the Payments Selection window, located in the Open Items menu. The following fields are available:

• Select from - type of documents that will be displayed in the document selection section;

• Business Partner, Organization, Sales Transaction - search filters for the documents that will be displayed;

• Payment Method - proposed payment method;

• Payment Date - proposed payment date;

• Currency - proposed payment currency;

• Destination Currency - starting v15.09, for orders, you can select a different currency for the payment proposal (e.g. order in EURO for which RON payments are made, using the current exchange rate).

The More filters section contains additional search filters for the documents that will be displayed:

• Search button - press to display a list of documents using the search filters provided. Multiple documents can be selected, based on which a payment proposal can be made:

• Applied Amount column - is used to edit the payment amount proposed for each document;

• Selected - displays the total amount for all the selected documents;

• Converted Selected Amount - displays the total amount converted to the destination currency (the actual amount sent for approval);

• Process button - press to generate a payment proposal for the selected documents:

Note: To generate a payment proposal, the business partners on the selected documents must have an ACH bank account defined. Details in Business Partners.

The following priority rules apply for IBAN selection for payments, in order:

• the IBAN field on the document - text field that can be used to enter exceptions, when the payment needs to be made from a different account than the default business partner account (e.g. factoring);

  • Important: the bank used on the payments will be the one for which the value entered in the BNR Code field corresponds to the BNR code within the IBAN. Also the bank address needs to be within Romania (Country = Romania). If the system cannot find a bank you will receive an error message;

• the Partner Bank Account field on the document - used when a business partner has multiple bank accounts and the corresponding account is selected on the document;

• the Partner Bank Account on the Business Partner window - the first bank account for the business partner.

Approval for Payments

All payment proposal generated will be available in the Payments Approval window, located in the Open Items menu, from where they can be approved either manually or by using the Workflow functionality. The following fields are available:

• Name (system maintained) = generic name: "Proposal for payments for approval";

• Description (system maintained) = name of the user who entered the proposal;

• Payment Date - proposed payment date;

• Total Amount - total payment amount proposed;

• Prepare Payment button - is used to process the payment proposals;

• Delete Payment Approval button - is used to delete processed payment proposals;

The Payment Approval Line tab contains the payment proposals for each document:

• Line No, Description

• Payment Method - the payment method for the proposed payment. Details in Payments;

• IBAN - account number for the business partner for which the payment will be made;

Reference section:

• Purchase Order, Debt to Payment, Invoice, Withholding - the document for which the payment is proposed;

• Due Date - due date for the document;

• Vendor - the business partner to which the payment is made;

• Bank - the business partner bank;

Amounts section:

• Payment Amount - amount proposed for payment;

• Open Amount - open amount on the document;

• Project, Campaign, Activity etc. - accounting dimensions used for analysis, determined by the accounting schema. Details in Accounting;

Status section:

• Approved - if checked, the payment was approved;

• Approved by - the user who approved the payment;

• Processed - indicates if the payment was processed (using the Prepare Payment button);

• Pay Selection Check - the payment that was generated based on the proposal (if approved);

The user responsible with payment approval should access each payment approval line and:

• approve or disapprove document payment proposals (Approved checkbox)

• update the payment amount for each line (Payment Amount field);

• process the proposal (Prepare Payment button);

After pressing the Prepare Payment button, a payment set will be generated based on approved payment proposal lines. The payment set can be viewed in the Prepare Payment tab and can be used to allocate the approved payments to the bank account from where the payment transaction will take place.

Note: Access to the Payments Approval window can be limited so that approvals can only be made by designated users.

The Prepare Multiple Payment process, located in the Open Items menu, can be used to process all payment proposals for an organization.

Generate Payments

Based on the paymen sets generated after approving and processing proposals, the corresponding payment transactions can be made.

Generating payments has the following steps:

• allocating payment sets to the bank accounts from which the payment transaction will take place;

• exporting MT100 files used for online banking;

• generating payment records within SocrateCloud;

All the steps above are done from the Approved Payment - Bank Accounts Allocation window, located in the Open Items menu. The following fields are available:

• Bank Account - the bank account from where payments will be made;

  • the bank account must have the Payment Export Type selected. Details in Online Banking;

  • Bank Account Documents must be defined for the account in order to appear on this list;

  • Details in Open Items Setup;

• Payment Method, Payment Date, Organization, Business Partner, BP Bank - selection filters for the payment sets;

• Online Payment Date - date used for the generated payments;

• Search button - will display a list of payment set in the Pay Selection Check section, using the the available search filters;

In the Pay Selection Check section one or more payment sets can be selected, based on which payments can be generated:

• Current Balance - the current balance for the account selected in the Bank Account field;

• Selected - total amount for the selected payment sets;

• Ending Balance = Current Balance - Selected;

• Export button - generates the MT100 files used for online banking based on the selected payment sets. The file type is determined by the corresponding account payment export type. Details in Bank Accounts;

• Process button - generates payment records in SocrateCloud based on the selected payment sets. The corresponding allocations with the source documents will also be generated.

Payment Export

The Payment Batch window, located in the Open Items menu, is used to view the payment sets based on which payments have been generated. The following fields are available:

• Online Banking Payments batch Export - generates the corresponding MT100 files used for online banking. The file type is determined by the corresponding account payment export type. Details in Bank Accounts;

• Payment tab - displays the payments that were generated based on the payment set.

Foreclosure Deeds (RO)

The Foreclosure Deeds window allows you to redirect proposed payments to specific bank accounts. In the "Payment Selection" window, when pressing "Process", for each invoice on foreclosure deed lines and corresponding foreclosure amount, the payment proposal will be generated using the IBAN entered on the deed. The following fields are available:

• Foreclosure Deed Category - can be used to group foreclosure deeds;

  • defined using the Foreclosure Deed Category window;

• Business Partner - business partner for which invoice payments will be redirected;

• Description - relevant description for the record;

• Register Date - informative date field;

• IBAN - this is where the payments will be redirected to;

  • Important: the bank used on the payments will be the one for which the value entered in the BNR Code field corresponds to the BNR code within the IBAN on the deed. Also the bank address needs to be within Romania (Country = Romania). If the system cannot find a bank you will receive an error message;

• Bank - bank corresponding to the account entered above. Updated automatically based on the rules above;

In the Details tab, the invoices and the corresponding foreclosure amount is entered:

• Invoice - enter the invoice for which the payment account will be redirected;

• Amount - an amount less than or equal to the invoice amount. In the Payment Selection window, the invoice will be split in two lines: one line for the foreclosure amount and another line with the remaining amount;

The Foreclosure Deeds And Payments Report report can be used to view foreclosure deeds, each deed on it's own page together with corresponding details and payments;