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This section guides the user through the menu options that are available under the Account Payments menu.
In some cases, carriers deposit payments directly to a bank, and the bank sends payment information to the newspaper. The information is then read by Circulation, and the payments are applied to account balances. This is known as lockbox processing. The format of the lockbox file is defined in File Map.
Circulation reads payment data from the file /dti/exchange/cm/lockbox.d. You must therefore place the payment information from the bank into this file.
Select Lockbox Processing from the Account Payments menu to display the Account Lockbox Processing window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the company for these payments.
READ OPTION
predefined
Indicate whether to edit or commit this information. Select commit to create payment records. Select edit to view a report showing the number of records processed (and errors)—you must then run Lockbox Processing again and set this field to commit.
CASH BATCH
open (10)
Enter a batch ID for these payments.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a description of this batch.
SPLIT BY TYPE
yes/no
Select this checkbox if you want to separate payments into two different batches: a cash batch and a credit card batch.
CC BATCH
open (10)
Enter a batch ID for the credit card payments. Be sure it does not match the ID entered in Cash Batch.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a description of the credit card batch.
BANK
setup
Enter the ID of the bank where payments were deposited.
APPLY METHOD
predefined
Indicate how the payments should be applied: automatic, invoice, or none.
FILE FORMAT
setup
Select the file map you want to use for these payments.
BPAY FILE
yes/no
Indicate if this file is from the BPay form of online banking.
FILE NAME
open (30)
Enter the name of the input file.
Click OK and then Continue to process the lockbox payments. A suspended but applied batch of account payments is created.
The Account Lockbox Processing report will be created, listing the lockbox payments that were processed.
To validate entries, print the Payment Journal before accepting these payments.
Restart this suspended batch of payments by selecting Payment Entry and entering the batch ID and default information. If you make any changes to the batch, the changes will reapply when you accept them.
Once payments are applied, they cannot be modified in Payment Entry. You must then cancel the payment by using this option and entering a separate batch of payment cancellations. Payment cancels are automatically applied to a carrier’s account as negative amounts. A cancel payment cannot be entered unless it matches a payment amount for that particular carrier.
Note:
Payment cancellations should not be entered when a billing run is in process.
Select Cancel Payment from the Account Payments menu to display the Cancel Payment batch screen.
Enter batch default information on the sign-on screen.
Select Accept to accept the default information and display the Account Payment Cancel Batch screen.
Enter the payment cancels for each account, one after another.
Circulation will search for a payment that matches the criteria you have entered. If it finds a match, it will allow you to enter more payment cancels; if it cannot find a match, you will have to reenter the payment information.
When you have finished entering payment cancels, press F4 and select ACCEPT to apply the payment cancels to the accounts and return to the main menu.
The lifecycle of an account payment is outlined in the diagram below. Payments can be entered and applied to carrier/dealer accounts using this option. However, payments do not have to be applied here. If a payment does not have a corresponding charge, for example, it is considered unapplied. The Payment Journal includes information about both applied and unapplied payments.
When payments are applied, they offset charges created in account billing processing. When billing processing is run again, new charges are created. Depending on Business Rules, unapplied payments can be applied to these new charges automatically during bill processing. This can also be done using the Apply Unapplied (specific payments) or Apply All Unapplied (all unapplied payments) options. The last steps for the payment are to create a general ledger transaction for it, along with other carrier/dealer accounting information, using Payments To GL. General ledger transactions can then be exported to a file using the Export GL option.
Business Rules determine, among other things, whether:
Payments should be entered and applied as a combined or separate process, or either one.
Payments are applied automatically, manually by invoice, or either method.
A check number is required.
Credit card payments are allowed in payment entry, and if so the credit card authorization vendor (Payway Complete, Cybersource, Braintree, etc.). If using a hosted payment page for entering credit card data, the host name and URL are also specified in the Business Rules.
In Payment Entry, you can enter and apply account payments. The steps you take to verify the accuracy of account payment entries depends on whether you are entering and applying payments in one or two steps:
Payment adjustments are also entered in Payment Entry. For example, if a payment was entered incorrectly in a previous batch, you can make an adjustment to correct the error.
Before you begin entering payments, calculate the total amount of payments, coupons, and adjustments in this batch. This will give you the control totals for each category. The control totals are compared against what you actually enter, which can prevent entry errors.
Select Payment Entry from the Account Payments menu.
Note:
If an account billing run is in progress, Circulation displays a warning message with the bill source that is being billed. Do not enter payments for that bill source (whether or not the payments are within the billing period), or the accounts will become out of balance.
Enter the batch header information, such as batch control totals and defaults for payment entry (described below). Click OK when you have finished. If you are restarting a suspended batch, enter the batch ID and click OK; the rest of the fields will default.
Enter individual payments by clicking Add and completing the fields in the Payment Entry panel. When you click OK, the payment is added to the Payments table on the right side of the window, and the cash, coupon, and adjustment amounts are updated automatically. Continue entering payments in this manner.
When you have finished entering the payments for a batch, if the cash amount entered does not equal the cash total entered in the Batch Entry panel, an out-of-balance condition exists. Coupon values and adjustment values are not included in the cash total (they have their own control totals). You will be given the option of updating the cash total.
When the entered payments are correct, click Cancel and then Accept (in the header) to accept the batch. If you are applying a batch that was entered as a separate step, click Apply instead and indicate which payments should be applied. All of the control totals must match at this point—otherwise Circulation will not allow you to accept the batch (you must Suspend, Reject, or Modify the batch).
It is possible to enter a payment that covers some or all of the accounts on a truck. This method could be used, for example, to enter payments truck drivers collect from single copy outlets along their route.
In order to enter payments by truck, you must select a truck sequence in the Collection Scheme field when entering the batch information. This determines the accounts that display for a truck (based on the scheme date entered). Special truck sequences may be defined just for account payment entry, or existing truck sequences used in Publishing can be selected. A collector is also specified.
Note:
If the payment amount is different than the balance for the selected routes, the collector assigned to the account in Account Setup (typically the collector selected here) is charged for the difference.
To enter a payment for the truck, enter the truck ID in the Entity field. The Select Accounts popup window displays, listing the accounts delivering routes on the truck. If the truck contains relay trucks, accounts on those trucks will be displayed as well. Check all accounts for which payments have been collected, or click Select All to select all accounts on the truck. Click OK to accept the account selection.
Note:
If the Apply Method is “Invoice”, each account will show the open items outstanding. If the Apply Method is “Automatic” or the entry method is “Entry”, the accounts will be displayed on one line with only the total balance showing.
The total balance for all the selected accounts will default in the Payment Amount field, but can be changed.
Suppose you are entering a batch of payments from four accounts, and the total amount of checks and cash is 700.00. One account also has a coupon for 5.00, and another account, who was shorted one day last week and had to buy extra papers at the grocery store, has a credit adjustment of 10.00. At this newspaper, payments are entered and applied in a combined process, and applied to specific invoices. The example below illustrates how the batch entry panel would be entered for this batch.
Since your apply method is by invoice, for each payment you enter, the Apply Invoices window will open, listing the open invoices for this account. You can then select one or more invoices to which the payment should be applied.
If an invoice is not selected, the payment amount will remain unapplied. Likewise, if the payment amount is greater than the invoice amount, the leftover amount will remain unapplied.
For example, say the carrier made a payment of 500.00. The oldest invoice (for 494.75) could be selected, but 5.25 of the payment would be left over. If there were a next-oldest invoice, you could apply the 5.25 toward that.
Note:
Account payment adjustments are applied to the “oldest” balance, while miscellaneous charges/credits are applied to the current balance.
As we continue with our example, we enter a payment for Chris Bragg—a check for 200.00. Chris has also sent in a 5.00 holiday coupon, so we enter this in the Coupon Amount field. Another carrier, Rhonda Coon, was shorted 10.00 when her payment was entered last month; so an adjustment credit for 10.00 is entered. After all of the payments have been entered and the control totals equal the entered totals, you accept the batch.
Next, you print the Payment Journal and check your entries. Any payments that were entered incorrectly can be canceled using Cancel Payment, and then reentered in another batch.
A credit card company might not accept all account credit card payments sent to it by your newspaper. Cancel payment transactions must then be entered in Circulation for rejected credit card payments. To streamline this process, you can select Cancel Credit Payment and import a list of rejected credit card payments from an ASCII file; a cancel payment batch will automatically be created for the payments.
Before running this option, the ASCII file must be placed in the /dti/exchange/cm directory and named cancelccpmt.d. For the required format for the ASCII file, see Appendix B.
Select Cancel Credit Payment from the Account Payments menu to display the Cancel Account Credit Card Payments window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and then Continue to begin processing. The ASCII file will be read and, if you selected the “commit” option, a batch of payment cancellations will be created. After processing is complete, a processing report is displayed, listing the payments processed and any errors that occurred.
The Payment Journal will record all payments (both applied and unapplied) and payment cancellations entered in a specific batch or date range. One way in which the journal can be used is to verify account payments before a batch is applied.
Select Payment Journal from the Account Payments menu to display the Payment Journal window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and then Continue to produce the report.
Accounts with debit balances may pay the newspaper via automatic withdrawals from a bank account. The withdrawals are created by this option, Bank Draft Payments, and are essentially the reverse of Direct Deposit: all accounts who owe more than a certain amount (specified at run time) and have bank account information defined for them in Account Setup will have payments exported to an ASCII file, which will be sent to the bank. The accounts will also have a payment created in Circulation for the amount withdrawn. The ASCII file will be in either a standard Canadian banking format—CIBC (see Appendix B for the format) or Bankers Automated Clearing Services format—BACS (see Appendix B for the format).
Select Bank Draft Pmts from the Account Payments menu to display the Bank Draft Processing window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and then Continue to create a suspended batch of automatic withdrawals. A processing report will list the number of records, the amount exported, and any errors that occurred.
The payment batch can now be accepted in Payment Entry. The entry method must be “combined”. Upon accepting this batch, accounts who qualify for automatic withdrawal will be exported to /dti/exchange/cm/secure/paymentMMDDYY-xxx.
It may be useful to print this journal (in particular, before an account billing run) to determine what batches of account payments are still suspended or unapplied. Account billing cannot be run if there are suspended batches (although it can be run if batches are unapplied).
Select Batch Audit Journal from the Account Payments menu to display the Cash Batch Audit Journal window.
Click Add enter the date range for the journal. Suspended or unapplied batches that were entered on or between these dates will be included in the journal.
Click OK and then Continue to produce the report.
Select this option to create the general ledger transactions associated with account payments. Exporting these transactions using the Export GL option is the final step for account payments.
Note:
Business Rules determine the level of detail that transactions are created for the general ledger (account, detail, or summary).
Select Payments To GL from the Account Payments menu to display the Interface Payments to GL window.
Enter a batch ID in Cash Batch, or click the lookup icon to select one or more from a list.
Click OK and then Continue to begin the interface.
If entry and application are done in two steps, you should enter the batch, suspend it (by selecting Suspend rather than Accept), and then print the . Examine the cash batch entries and correct any errors by restarting the batch and modifying the payments. Then, accept the entered batch and apply it. Entry and application as two steps means that you must handle each account payment twice (i.e., once to enter and once to apply).
If entry and application are done in one step, you forego the opportunity to print the Payment Journal in between entry and application. You can, however, print the journal after the payments have been applied, and correct any errors by selecting .
Select the appropriate checkbox(es) and click OK to continue. If this window does not open, it is because the account has no open invoices. Print the Report or the to check the status of carrier accounts.
BATCH
open (10)
Specify the batch ID for the payments you are entering.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a description of this batch of payments.
BATCH DATE
date
Type the date on which you are entering this batch. The current date defaults.
BANK
setup
Enter the ID of the bank to which these payments will be deposited.
COLLECTOR SCHEME SCHEME DATE
setup setup date
These optional fields allow you to enter payments for some or all accounts on a truck as a single payment. This would be applicable if a truck driver collects payments from single copy outlets along their route. • In Collector, enter the ID of the collector (typically, the driver) who collected the payments from the account. • In Scheme, enter the truck sequence from which you will select accounts for payments. You will typically have special truck sequences set up for payments. • In Scheme Date, enter the basis date for selecting routes (and their corresponding accounts) for the truck sequence.
ENTRY METHOD
predefined
Specify the entry method for these payments: combined entry and application, entry only, or application only. Depending on Business Rules, only one of these options may be available. If you enter and apply payments in two steps, use entry both to enter payments and restart suspended batches. Then use application to apply the batch.
APPLY METHOD
predefined
Indicate how you will apply payments: • Automatic—The payment will be applied to the oldest open invoices, with leftover amounts going to the next oldest invoice, and so on. • Invoice—The Invoices window opens during payment entry, and you select the invoice to which you are applying the payment. Depending on Business Rules, only one of these options may be available. This field is not active if you are only entering (not applying) payments.
CASH TOTAL
integer (14)
Enter the total amount of all payments in this batch.
ADJUSTMENT TOTAL
integer (14)
Enter the total amount of adjustments in this batch.
COUPON TOTAL
integer (14)
Enter the total amount of coupons in this batch.
PAYMENT DATE
date
Enter the date this payment was made. The default is the current date.
ENTITY
setup
Specify an account, account group, or truck: • Account—Enter the carrier/dealer’s name (or part of the name), ID, social security number, telephone number, route ID, or invoice number. • Account Group—Enter the account group ID. You must use an entry method of “combined” and an apply method of “invoice”. When you enter an account group ID, open invoices for accounts in that account group will be displayed for selection. • Truck—If you selected a collection scheme when adding the batch information, you can enter a truck ID in this field. This option is documented on Entering Payments by Truck.
TYPE
predefined
Indicate the type of payment—cash, check, or credit card.
If you select cash, no additional details need to be entered.
If you select “check”, the Check Detail window will appear for entry of the check number. You also have the option of changing the account holder name.
If you select “credit”, the Credit Card window opens for entry of the credit card number, validation value, expiration date, and authorization number. The fields in this window vary based on Business Rules, your selected credit card authorization vendor, and whether you are using the Hosted Order Page. See About Payment Authorization for more information on credit card authorization.
PAYMENT AMOUNT
decimal (8)
Enter the amount of this payment.
COUPON AMOUNT
decimal (8)
Enter the coupon amount, if any, included in this payment.
ADJUSTMENT
yes/no
If you are making an adjustment for an account, enter charge (charge the account) or credit (credit the account).
ADJUSTMENT AMOUNT
decimal (10)
If you are making an adjustment for an account, enter the amount of the charge or credit here.
SUBSCRIPTION
Sometimes, carrier collect subscribers make “over-the-counter” payments directly to the newspaper (rather than the carrier). Since carrier collect subscribers do not, by definition, pay the newspaper, this payment is treated as an account payment. If this is an over-the-counter subscriber payment, enter the name, account number, or phone number of the subscriber making the payment. This payment will appear under the payment section of the account’s bill with the name and address of the subscriber. Note: If you populate this field and the remarks field, only the remarks will be printed on the account’s bill.
REMARKS
Enter any remarks about this payment. The remarks will appear on the Payment Journal and may appear on invoices (as determined by Business Rules).
READ OPTION
predefined
Indicate whether to commit or edit the credit card payments in the ASCII file. If you choose “Commit”, cancel payment transactions will be created. If you choose “Edit”, only the processing report will be created (you can then look the report over for errors before committing).
BATCH DESCRIPTION
open (10) open (30)
If the field above is set to “commit”, enter an ID and description for the batch of account payment cancellations that will be created by this process.
CANCEL DATE
date
Type the date on which you are entering this batch. The current date defaults.
BATCH ID
open (10)
Enter an ID for this batch of account payment cancellations.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a description of this batch.
CANCEL DATE
date
Type the date on which you are entering this batch. The current date defaults.
ACCOUNT
setup
Specify an account (enter the carrier/dealer’s name, ID, social security number, telephone number or route ID).
CHECK
open (8)
Enter the check number of the original payment. Enter “*” to include all check payments.
AMOUNT
decimal (11)
Enter the amount of the account payment.
DATE
date
Enter the date this payment was made (you can leave DATE blank).
CASH BATCH
setup
Enter the batch ID in which the account payment was initially entered, or enter a question mark to include all batches.
REPORT TYPE
predefined
Indicate whether payments to be included in the journal should be selected based on batch or date range.
BATCH
setup
If you are selecting payments based on batch, enter the batch ID to include in the journal.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the company whose payments should be included in the journal.
BILL SOURCE
setup
If you are selecting payments based on date range, enter the billing source whose payments should be included in the journal, or an asterisk (*) for all billing sources.
START DATE, END DATE
date
If you are selecting payments based on date range, enter the range of dates here. All payments entered on or between these dates (within the company and bill source defined) will be included in the journal.
PRINT PRIVATE DATA
yes/no
Indicate whether private banking and credit card information (such as account numbers and credit card numbers) should be displayed on the journal.
DISPLAY OPTION
predefined
If you answered “yes” in PRINT PRIVATE DATA, indicate here whether private credit card and banking information should be masked (only the last four digits shown) or displayed in full. Note that users without the proper security will not be able to see private data even if “full” is selected.
ALL BANKS
yes/no
Select this checkbox if all banks should be included. Otherwise, specify the bank in the bank field.
BANK
setup
If you are selecting payments based on date range, enter the bank for which payments should be included in the journal (payments made to other banks will not be included).
PRINT ADDITIONAL DETAIL
yes/no
Indicate if you want an additional line to be printed displaying each payment’s create user, create date, create time, modify user, modify date, modify time, batch description, and batch status (accepted or suspended).
SORT BY
predefined
Indicate whether the journal should sort by carrier account number or by payment sequence (order in which the payments were entered).
COMPANY
setup
Enter the ID of the company for which to make account withdrawals. The company ID must be valid for the bank entered below.
BILL SOURCE
setup
Enter the ID of the bill source for which to make account withdrawals (enter “*” to multi-select bill sources).
BATCH
open (10)
Specify a batch ID for the batch of account payments that will be created by this process.
DESCRIPTION
open (30)
Enter a short description of this payment batch.
PAYMENT DATE
date
Enter the date on which the automatic payments should be automatically withdrawn from the carrier’s bank account.
CUTOFF DATE
date
The cutoff date is used to determine which payments are due at the time of file creation (i.e., so that the entire credit balance is not included). It must be the same as or earlier than the payment date.
BANK
setup
Enter the bank where the carrier’s payment money will be deposited into the newspaper’s account.
SHORT DESCRIPTION
open (10)
Enter some descriptive information (such as “Tribune”) for the account’s bank statement.
BALANCE MINIMUM
decimal (10)
Enter the minimum debit balance that an account must have in order to have an automatic withdrawal. Accounts with credit balances or debit balances for less than this amount will not be included, even if bank information is defined for them.
When you apply account payments, any amount that is not applied to an invoice is considered “unapplied”. Typically, you will have Business Rules set to apply unapplied payment amounts automatically during account bill processing, when new charges are created. Likewise, you will typically set Business Rules to apply credit memos (typically account delivery credits) that are also created in account bill processing. However, if you want to apply unapplied payments and credit memos as a separate step, you can use this option, to apply payments and credit memos to an individual carrier’s outstanding balance.
Select Apply Unapplied from the Account Payments menu to display the Apply Unapplied screen.
Complete the following fields.
COMPANY
setup
Enter the ID of the company for which you are applying unapplied payments.
BILLING SOURCE
setup
Enter the ID of the billing source for which you are applying unapplied payments.
APPLICATION DATE
date
This is the date that the payments will show up in the general ledger as “applied.” You will usually enter today’s date here.
APPLICATION MODE
display
Indicate whether the Invoice or Automatic application mode is to be used.
PAYMENT TYPE
predefined
If “Invoice” is selected as the application mode, then the payment type must be identified here. Select Unapplied Payments or Credit Memos.
If you select “Credit Memos,” a popup window will appear during entry where you can specify the invoice number.
Enter the accounts, one after another, that should have unapplied payments applied. When finished, press F4 to exit to the main menu.
The Applied Payment Journal lists accounts that have had payments or credit memos applied to invoices on a certain date or within a certain date range. This includes payments applied in payment entry, account bill processing, or the two “apply unapplied” options.
Select Applied Journal from the Account Payments menu to display the Applied Payment Journal window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
REPORT TYPE
predefined
Indicate whether the journal should include a date range or an entry session (a single date).
APPLICATION DATE
date
If the journal is being run for an entry session, enter the application date here. All payments and credit memos applied on this date will be included in the report.
COMPANY
setup
If the journal is being run for a date range, specify the company that should be included.
BILLING SOURCE
setup
If the journal is being run for a date range, specify the billing source that should be included.
START APPLICATION DATE, END APPLICATION DATE
date
If the journal is being run for a date range, enter the start and end dates here. All payments or credit memos applied on or between these dates will be included in the report.
Click OK and then Continue to produce the journal.
Single copy outlets may send “proof of sale” documents, listing the amounts for copies sold by the outlet. These proof of sale amounts can be imported into Circulation via the Proof of Sale Adj option. Importing proof of sale amounts will not change a dealer’s balance. However, it will create offsetting charge and payment (credit) records, effectively moving part of the balance (equal to the sold amount) to the proof of sale date. These offsetting entries will also display on the dealer’s invoice.
Importing proof of sale amounts is entirely optional. If choosing to import them, you may wish to define charge and credit codes to use for proof of sale, or use existing codes. A Proof of Sale file map must also be defined (see Appendix B). See About Sold / Shrink Copies for more information on sold copies.
Place a file containing the proof of sale adjustments in your dti/exchange/cm directory.
Select Proof of Sale Adj from the Account Payments menu in Graphical Accounting. The Proof of Sale Adjustment Import screen displays.
Select Add and enter information about the proof of sale batch, in the fields described in the table below.
CASH BATCH DESCRIPTION
open (10) open (30)
Specify a batch name and description for this batch of proof of sale adjustments. The amounts are imported into the system as an account payment batch.
CHARGE CREDIT
setup
Select the charge and credit code that should be used to create the offsetting entries for the sold amounts
BATCH DATE
date
Specify the entry date for the proof of sale batch. If the import file has no date field, this date will also be used as the date for the payment (credit) and charge transactions.
BANK
setup
Select the bank that should be associated with the payments.
FILE FORMAT
setup
Select the file format for the import. Only file maps with a “ProofOfSale” usage can be selected.
FILE NAME
open (45)
Enter the file name containing the proof of sale amounts. The file must exist in your dti/exchange/cm directory.
Click OK and then Continue to import the payment adjustment amounts. If a company and/or bill source are included in the file, payments will only pay off account charges for that company/bill source. The payment batch will initially be suspended.
Restart and accept the payment batch in Payment Entry. The entry method will be “ProofOfSale.” Payments cannot be added to a “ProofOfSale” batch, nor can a batch be manually added with this entry method.
Prenotification files are used to prepare automated currency exchanges with banks. Typically, a prenotification file is sent to a bank to verify that all of the bank and account information is correct before transactions are sent. This option generates a prenotification file in Bankers Automated Clearing Services (BACS) format that is used to verify carrier/dealer account information before submitting direct deposits.
Select BACS Pre-Notify from the Account Payments menu to display the BACS Prenotification window.
Click Add and complete the following fields.
Click OK and then Continue to produce the file.
Apply All Unapplied is a method of applying all unapplied carrier amounts for one or more companies and bill sources.
For example, you might select this option before processing account bills to pay off outstanding invoices in one aging period which are offset by a credit in another aging period. There is no consideration of date—you simply enter the company and bill source (or enter “*” to multi-select) and click OK and then Continue. Circulation will automatically apply all unapplied payments and credit memos in carrier accounts.
BANK
setup
Enter the bank to which this prenotification file will be sent. The bank must have an electronic file format of BACS.
FILE NAME
open
Enter a name for the prenotification file.
