Because Abio is designed for large construction projects, many vendor payments will need to be processed at the same time. For this reason, issuing payments to vendors is done in several steps.
Approve Payments
The first step is to approve which invoices to pay. Navigate to [a] Payables, then [l] Approve Payment.
A criteria window lets you narrow down which invoices to pay.
Selection Criteria Fields
Cheque Type
The cheque type can be either ‘A’utomatic or ‘M’anual. Select ‘Automatic’ if you want Abio to create cheques based on the invoices you’ve approved. You will be able to print or EFT these cheques.
If someone has written a paper cheque outside of Abio and you want to mark which invoices were paid, use the ‘Manual’ option. Manual cheques create a cheque record and mark invoices as paid, but don’t queue a cheque for printing or EFT transfer.
All, Hbk or Net
- ‘A’ll – select invoices with either holdback or net amounts outstanding.
- ‘H’bk – only show invoices with holdback amounts outstanding, or
- ‘N’et – only show invoices with a net amount outstanding (default).
Invoices to Date
This field is used to restrict the approval to those outstanding items dated up to the end of the entered date. Date entered must be a valid date within the past year or in the next 31 days.
Date Type
Date type is used to determine whether the invoices to date criteria applies to the ‘I’nvoice date, date of ‘E’ntry in the system or e’X’traction date. Extraction is a method that lets you keep track of which invoices have been processed by selecting them in a report, exporting them to a spreadsheet, and then marking the original invoices as extracted.
From Job, To Job
Either a specific job number can be entered in both the from job and to job – limiting the selection to that job or a range of jobs can be selected as any jobs that fall within the from job and to job range are selected.
Include Parent Job
Must be one of ‘Y’es – include parent job or ‘N’o . The parent job is the job that holds the contract with the client and contains a complete picture of the job costing applicable to the client.
Pay Group
Recall that when we set up vendors, we assigned them to a pay group? You can select to process payments according to which pay group vendors were assigned to. For instance, you might want to pay all the vendors you have direct deposit information for. If you’ve assigned them to a pay group called EFT, then you can select that pay group here. Or, you may have vendors that require immediate payment, so you assign them to the IMM pay group.
Show Approved?
This field is No by default, and only shows unapproved invoices. If you’ve approved the invoices and want to go back and make a change, set this flag to Yes. Then the approved invoices will display on the left, and you can make changes to invoices you previously approved.
Starting Vendor
Enter a vendor here as a starting point for the list of invoices to process.
Starting Invoice
If you’ve selected a starting vendor, you can also select an invoice to start on.
Approving Payments
Invoice items that have met all the selection criteria entered are offered for approval on the A/P Bulk Payments Screen.
Using the arrows at the bottom, each invoice item, or all invoice items highlighted can be moved to and from the Approved side. If you right-click on the list of unapproved invoices, a drop-down menu lets you select all items shown, all items on a specific invoice or all items for a specific vendor. You can also choose to open the invoice entry screen and examine an individual invoice more closely.
If the outstanding balance is not to be paid in full, a partial payment amount can be entered in the net appr. column.
When recording manual payments,
the cheque form number is required. Manual cheques have been written up outside of Abio, out of the company cheque book. Record the number of the paper cheque here. This will create the cheque record and mark those invoices as paid, but the manual cheque won’t be sent to the print queue or EFT batch.
Several manual cheques for the same vendor can be recorded concurrently so long as they are not from the same invoice item.
If an invoice item is to span two cheques, then the first cheque must be approved and the A/P Cheques option run. Following this A/P Cheques run the second cheque can then be approved and run.
Issuing Cheques
Once cheques are approved, you can issue them to create the cheque record and, in the case of automatic cheques, place the cheque on the print queue. Navigate to [a] Payables, then [m] Issue Cheques.
Cheque options:
- ‘A’utomatic – field ‘starting form number’ is required
- ‘M’anual – Manual cheques
- ‘R’eprint – damaged cheque number is required
Reprint
Cheque Number
The cheque number is system generated and sequential. If you wish to reprint a damaged or lost cheque, enter that cheque number here.
Reissue as EFT?
This field defaults to ‘N’o and is protected unless the Vendor has been set up to receive EFT payments.
EFT Cheques
Assign EFT Batch?
- ‘Y’es will allow you to batch all EFT cheques created in a single Cheques run to a specific EFT batch.
- ‘N’o will place all the EFT cheques created in the Cheques run into a generic EFT batch called AP NEW.
If you use the option ‘Y’es, only the cheques created in that Cheque run will be placed in the batch you create.
If you use the option ‘N’o the EFT cheques created from that cheque run and every cheque run where the ‘N’o option is used will be placed in the batch called AP NEW. When the AP NEW batch is approved it is assigned a batch number and a new default AP NEW batch will be created.
EFT Batch Memo
The entry in this field will be used to identify the specific batch you have created.
Printed Cheques
Bank Printed Cheques?
Either ‘Y’es – cheques will be printed at the bank or ‘N’o. See more below.
Starting Form Number
If the ‘bank printed cheques?’ option is ‘Y’es the starting form number field will be populated from the ‘next form number’ field located in the bank printed A/P cheques section of company entry.
For ‘A’utomatic cheques not being printed at the bank, this number should reflect the pre-printed form number loaded into the appropriate printer.
Cheque Posting Details
Issue Date
YYYY.MM.DD – date cheques are issued.
G/L yyyymm
YYYYMM – Accounts Payable General Ledger period cheque is to be costed against.
Issue Cheques
Once you’ve completed your selection, click <Apply> to create cheque records and queue automatic cheques for printing. Abio will produce a report showing the invoices it paid.
It will also create a report showing the cheques it created.
We’ve highlighted two vendors that will have their payments direct deposited. That’s because they have EFT information recorded on their vendor record.
Cheque Entry
You can double-click on a cheque on the A/P Cheque Register to view it, or you can navigate to [a] Payables, then [n] Cheque Entry, to review the cheques you just created.
The second tab shows the invoices paid by this cheque.
Print Special Forms
Like payroll cheques, AP cheques are handled as special forms. If you’re printing physical cheques, likely you are printing them on cheque stock that needs to be loaded into the printer before you start.
If you have Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) information for some vendors you can pay them electronically. Abio produces an EFT file you can submit to your bank to transfer funds directly.
You may have chosen to assign pay groups to vendors in a way that allows you to run the EFT vendors as a single pay group. If not, you’ll have a blend of vendors that are set up for electronic payment, and others that require paper cheques. The print facility separates the two, and produces the EFT file for EFT vendors, and sends cheques to the printer for non-EFT vendors.
EFT Payments
If Abio detects EFT payments pending, two different users with appropriate permission will need to approve the EFT batch. To approve the EFT batch, navigate to [h] Shared Reports, then [f] Approve EFT Batch.
All the pending EFT transfers are listed. When we issued the cheques we named the batch SAMPLE_EFT. It’s listed here.
Double clicking on the SAMPLE_EFT line displays the cheques in the batch.
The EFT batch contains the two vendors that were highlighted earlier. We set up EFT information on their vendor records. You can print this report for your records. When you close the report, Abio will ask how the batch should be processed.
We’ll select ‘Approve’ to be the first approver. The batch still can’t be processed until it’s approved a second time by a different user. The next user permitted to approve EFT batches will see our user id listed as the first approver.
They can also review the cheques and then choose to approve the batch.
You can now process the SAMPLE_EFT batch. Navigate to [h] Shared Reports, then [a] Print Special Forms, then [e] A/P – Electronic Funds Transfer.
All fully approved EFT batches are listed.
Double-click on the batch you wish to process. A report will display the cheque advice for each cheque in the batch.
You can choose to print and/or email the cheque advice. Select which option you would like, and click the ‘Send to >’ button at the bottom of the screen
Abio will use the EFT email specified on the vendor records. At this point you could be sending out hundreds of emails, so Abio will prompt you before it starts.
A progress window shows you the status of each email.
When you leave this report Abio will prompt you to create the EFT export file.
If you say yes, you’ll be asked where you want to save the file.
The file name will look odd. It’s the batch number followed by your company’s T4 file prefix. When the export is saved Abio reports the batch, release date, and the cheques included.
Now it’s just a matter of signing in to your bank and uploading the export file. When you close the above window you’ll be asked to purge the batch.
If the EFT export has uploaded successfully, purge the batch so it’s not processed a second time.
Printing Paper Cheques
If you don’t have banking information for your vendors, you’ll have to mail them a paper cheque. To do this, navigate to [h] Shared Reports, then [a] Print Special Forms, then [a] A/P – Cheques.
A report will display that shows all the paper cheques currently on the print queue.
Load your cheque stock into your printer and click the ‘Print’ button. Select the printer
Now press print to print the paper cheques.
Bank Printed Forms
Some banks offer a service where they will handle the printing and mailing of large numbers of printed cheques. To use this feature in Abio, you must first arrange with your bank to participate in their program.
Next, you need to set up Abio to allow bank printed cheques. Navigate to [d] General Ledger, then [u] Set Up, then [a] Company Entry.
The set up for bank printed A/P cheques is at the bottom of the window.
If cheques are to be printed at the bank, Abio will produce an export file from Print Special Forms that you will send to the bank. All cheques in the file will be printed and mailed by the bank.