Read Customer Payments Single Dialog Workspace

Use this workspace to read a file that contains customer payments that you receive from the payment agent.

When Maconomy reads the file, it automatically prints a specification of the entries that it read. Maconomy creates one or more Automatic Customer Payment journals, ready for posting, based on the entries that it read. Maconomy distributes the customer payments to a number of journals so that the journals only contain entries from the same period.

Maconomy creates a customer payment entry and an offset entry for each customer payment. If the payment agent charges you for collections made from your customers, and this information is included in the customer payment file, Maconomy creates a charge entry and an offset entry for each charge.

The customer payment import process reads the file and creates journals for posting. During the import process, Maconomy reads the customer payment lines and displays a message showing how many lines remain to be imported. After the import is completed, Maconomy processes the lines that it read and creates journals for posting.

Maconomy enters all offset entries jointly so that entries to the same account, on the same day, with the same dimension values, become one entry when posting. If you select the Automatic Posting of Automatic Payments system parameter, the journals that Maconomy creates are automatically posted upon import. However, the automatic posting only takes place if the payment agent has been set up so that a separate journal is created to receive error entries.

Interrupted Reading

If reading is interrupted, Maconomy must read the file again, either in its entirety or from where the reading was interrupted. To read the entire file, select the Read File option as you would normally do to read customer payment files. To continue the reading, do not select the Read File option or enter a run number in the Run No. field.

If an error occurred during the previous reading, you receive a warning that you need to convert entries. If you ignore this message, the entries are overwritten.

Error Messages

If you receive the error message "Wrong number of digits" when reading a file, the format of the customer payment file is incorrect. Check that you selected the correct file, then check that you selected the correct customer payment mode in the Customer Payment Modes workspace.

You may also see one of these messages:

• "Wrong record type in line X" or "Closing record missing" - The format of the customer payment file is incorrect. Usually this error occurs because you selected the wrong file. If you selected the correct file, check that you selected the correct customer payment mode in the Customer Payment Modes workspace.
• "Error in import file. Control no. X" or "Error in expression: …" - Maconomy cannot validate the import file because it does not contain the correct number of entries or the sum of the paid amounts is wrong. In most cases, an error occurred during transmission of the import file or the import file was edited before Maconomy read it. Contact the payment agent.
• "Error in Get(CustomerPaymentFormat)" - You did not import the format description of the selected customer payment mode. Import format descriptions using the Import Customer Payment Forms program.

Errors can occur that are not related to the format of the file, such as when Maconomy encounters an unknown payer ID for a customer. These entries are called error entries. If you selected the Create Error Entries option in the Payment Agents workspace for the payment agent, these entries are sent to a Customer Payment journal. You must reconcile them in the Customer Open Entry Reconciliation workspace in the A/R module before you post the journal.

Review Previously Read Customer Payments

Use the Show Customer Payments workspace to view or reprint previously read customer payments.