Many companies pay their vendors with an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) instead of a check. An EFT will transfer money from your bank account directly into your vendor's account. Checks are not printed, but you must print EFT advices and reports in order to register that payment has been made. Once the electronic transfer has been made, you must retain these advices and reports for your audit trail.
Then in order for a vendor to be eligible to receive an EFT transfer, the following conditions must exist:
In the Maintain Banks screen in Costpoint General Ledger, the information must exist for your own bank account and the bank accounts of each of your EFT vendors. (Review this information via the Print Vendor Bank Info Report.)
In the Maintain Vendor EFT Info screen in Costpoint Accounts Payable, the vendor should be active and identified as an EFT vendor as follows:
The Bank ID column should contain your vendor's bank ABA that will be used for EFTs.
The Bank Account column should contain your vendor's bank account number.
The ACH Code column should contain one of the following values: 22, 23, 32, or 33. (Number 22 is a payment to a checking account, number 23 is a pre-note to a checking account, number 32 is a payment to a savings account, and number 33 is a pre-note to a savings account.) Once your payee has successfully received a pre-note, his bank will be ready to receive an actual payment.
Enter "Y" in the EFT Active column in the Maintain Vendor EFT Info screen to make the vendor active for EFT transactions.
Select vouchers to be paid via the Edit Payment Status by AP Account screen or Edit Payment Status by Vendor screen. Following your company's guidelines, approval may be necessary.
You can prepare only one of your company's bank abbreviations at each time for EFTs. If you want to create EFTs for more than one of your company's bank accounts, you must create each account's EFTs separately.
Print this report in lieu of the Print Prepayment Edit that is used before printing checks. The Print EFT Pre-Transfer Report will show the scheduled payment information for EFT vouchers that are ready to be paid. The report will print information on the selected vouchers to be paid including pay vendor name and ID, as well as pay vendor address code, voucher number, invoice number, invoice and discount date, discount rate, invoice amount, and amount to pay. This report's primary sort is by your bank's abbreviation, with a secondary sort available by pay vendor name and pay vendor ID. The total of this report signifies the amount that will be paid by wire transfer if you 'hit the button' to transmit from your bank account immediately. To change the items that appear on this report, make adjustments via the Edit Payment Status by AP Account screen or the Edit Payment Status by Vendor screen.
Once you have reviewed and approved the EFT Pre-Transfer Edit Report, print the report and save it for your audit trail. Now you are ready to create an EFT file on the Create EFT File screen. This screen will NOT perform the transfer. This screen will create a CTX file that you will send to your bank via modem or diskette in accordance with your bank's requirements. For new EFT vendors, you must first make a "dry run" of an electronic funds transaction. This transaction is called a pre-note and is performed just like a regular EFT, except the transfer amount is zero and the voucher will be paid through a check on your next check run. For these "new" vendors, the ACH Code column value of the Maintain Vendor EFT Info screen should be 23 or 33 (see above). If your vendor successfully receives the 'zero' EFT, future EFTs will be completed for the selected voucher amounts after you change the ACH Code column value to 22 or 32. If your vendor does not successfully receive the "zero" EFT, you must continue to send pre-notes until a prenote is successfully transmitted. In addition, if your vendor changes banking information, you must send a pre-note again before sending an actual EFT to the vendor's new bank account.
Once you have created your file, the next step is to create a report of the file via the Print EFT Edit Report. If there is any item that is not correct, do NOT send the file to your bank. Repair the incorrect item through the Maintain Vendors, Maintain Vendor EFT Info, Edit Payment Status by Vendor, or Edit Payment Status by AP Account screens. Then re-run the Print EFT Pre-Transfer Edit Report and review. When the report is correct, re-run the Create EFT File and reprint the Print EFT Edit Report. After the EFT File is correct, but before you send the file to the bank, print the EFT Advices via the Print/Void Checks screen. You may want to send a copy of the EFTs to your vendors as a remittance advice.
Select vouchers for payment or use Edit Payment Status by Vendors screen or the Edit Payment Status by AP Account screen.
Approve Checks.
Print Prepayment Edit.
Print Checks from the Print/Void Checks screen.
Post Cash Disbursements.
Select vouchers for payment or use the Edit Payment Status by Vendors screen or the Edit Payment Status by AP Account screen.
Approve Checks (EFTs).
Print EFT Pre-Transfer.
Create
EFT File.
Print
EFT Edit Report to verify transfer file.
Print EFT Advices from the Print/Void Checks screen
Print the actual checks for any pre-notes from the Print/Void Checks screen.
Post Cash Disbursements