Prepare Payments

Form ID: (AP503000)

By using this form, you can pay for outstanding AP documents (bills, adjustments, prepayments, and separate lines of a bill) by using a payment method associated with specific cash account.

Note:

If the Require Approval of Bills Prior to Payment check box is selected on the Accounts Payable Preferences (AP101000) form, only approved bills are visible on this form. Bills can be approved on the Approve Bills for Payment (AP502000) form.

If the Require Approval of Bills Prior to Payment check box is cleared, unapproved bills will also be displayed.

You can select documents (and document lines, if applicable) for payment by vendor, pay date, due date, and cash discount date. A pay date is assigned to a bill automatically based on the Payment By setting of the vendor on the Payment Settings tab of the Vendors (AP303000) form, which can be one of the following:

By Due Date: The pay date is the due date minus the number of lead days specified for this vendor.
By Cash Discount Date: The pay date is the cash discount date minus the number of lead days specified for this vendor.

The system groups the AP documents into a single payment (check) for each vendor unless the Pay Separately check box is selected for a vendor; for these vendors, a separate check will be generated for each document. The system groups document lines into a single check for each vendor if these lines belong to the same bill.

As a result of processing, the system creates documents with the Pending Approval, Pending Print, or Balanced status, depending on how AP payment processing has been configured.

Form Toolbar

The form toolbar includes standard and form-specific buttons and commands. For the list of standard buttons, see Form Toolbar and More Menu. The form-specific commands are listed in the following table.


Button	Description
Process	Initiates the processing of the documents you have selected in the table, and generates payments for them. If the Quick Batch Generation check box is selected, the system generates a batch of payments for the selected documents and opens the batch on the Batch Payments (AP305000) form, where you can further process it.
Process All	Processes all documents from the list, and generates payments for them. If the Quick Batch Generation check box is selected, the system generates a batch of payments for all documents in the list and opens the batch on the Batch Payments form, where you can further process it.

Selection Area

You use the elements in this area to easily find documents that meet certain criteria, such as a particular cash account, payment method, and pay date. Also, you can see the balance of the selected cash account and the total of the documents selected for payment.


Element	Description
Branch	The branch of origin for the payment to be prepared.
Payment Method	The method of payment associated with the cash account.
Cash Account	The cash account to be used for payment.
Payment Date	The date of payment. By default, the current business date appears here, but you can select another date. You can enter only a date that corresponds to a financial period that has been generated on the Master Financial Calendar (GL201000) form. If the date that you enter belongs to a financial period that has not yet been generated in the system—for example, for a date in the distant future or past—the system will display an error message, and you will not be able to save the document.
Post Period	The post period. By default, this period corresponds to the specified payment date, but you can change the value.
Currency	A read-only box reflecting the currency of the cash account.
Vendor Class	The vendor class for which you want to process documents. If you select no vendor class, documents of all vendors that meet the other selection criteria will be displayed. If the Customer and Vendor Visibility Restriction feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, the list of vendor classes available for selection may be limited based on the roles assigned to the user account to which you are signed in. In this case, the Restrict Visibility To box appears on the General Settings tab of the Vendor Classes (AP201000) form. With the feature enabled, a vendor class is available for selection if one of the following is true: The Restrict Visibility To box is empty for the vendor class—that is, the vendor class’s visibility is not restricted. A branch, company, or company group is specified in the Restrict Visibility To box for the vendor class, and your user account is assigned to the role specified in the Access Role box of the Configuration Settings section of one of the following: the Branch Details tab of the Branches (CS102000) form for the branch, or the Company Details tab of the Companies (CS101500) form for the company or a company within the company group.
Vendor	The vendor for which you want to view outstanding documents. Note: Only the vendors with the Active and One-Time status are available in the lookup table. If the Customer and Vendor Visibility Restriction feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, the list of values may be limited based on the branch selected on the current form. A vendor is available for selection if the Restrict Visibility To box on the Financial tab of the Vendors (AP303000) form is empty or contains this branch (or the company or company group that contains this branch).
Project	The project that is specified in the bills that you want to pay. The box appears on the form if the Projects feature has been enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Pay Date Within x Days	A check box that indicates (if selected) that documents will be displayed in the table if they should be paid during the number of days you specify in the unlabeled box. The default value of the box can be specified in the Payment Lead Time box on the Accounts Payable Preferences (AP101000) form.
Due Date Within x Days	A check box that indicates (if selected) that documents will be displayed if they are due in fewer than the number of days you specify in the unlabeled box. The default value of the box can be specified in the Payment Lead Time box on the Accounts Payable Preferences form.
Cash Discount Expires Within x Days	A check box that indicates (if selected) that documents will be displayed if their discount expires in fewer than the number of days you specify in the unlabeled box. The default value of the box can be specified in the Payment Lead Time box on the Accounts Payable Preferences form.
Always Take Cash Discount	A check box that indicates (if selected) that for documents with the cash discount expired, the discount will be taken anyway. If this check box is selected, the system calculates the cash discount amount by using the credit terms associated with the vendor.
GL Balance	A read-only box that shows the balance of the cash account calculated based on the released GL transactions for the selected period.
Available Balance	A read-only box displaying the available balance of the cash account calculated in accordance with the options selected in the Receipts to Add to Available Balances and Disbursements to Deduct from Available Balances sections on the Cash Management Preferences (CA101000) form.
Selection Total	A read-only box showing the total amount to be paid out on the bills selected in the table below. The total is updated when the documents are paid.
Number of Rows Selected	A read-only box showing the number of documents and lines included in the payment.
Quick Batch Generation	A check box that indicates (if selected) that a new batch payment is created automatically and payments are generated on the current form if both of the following conditions are met: On the Allowed Cash Accounts tab of the Payment Methods (CA204000) form, a number is specified and can be incremented in the AP/PR Last Reference Number column, and the AP/PR - Suggest Next Number check box is selected for the cash account selected on the current form. At least one generated payment has the Pending Print status. All payments generated with the Pending Print status are added to the created batch payment that opens on the Batch Payments (AP305000) form. For each payment added to the batch, the system generates a Payment Ref. number by incrementing the number specified in the AP Last Reference Number column on the Payment Methods form for the payment method. This check box appears on the form and is available if both of the following conditions are met for the payment method on the Payment Methods form: The Create Batch Payments option button is selected on the Settings for Use in AP tab. The Quick Batch Generation check box is selected on the Allowed Cash Accounts tab for the corresponding cash account.

Documents to Pay Tab

On this tab, you can select the bills or other documents to be paid. The table lists the bills and debit adjustments that match the selection criteria specified in the Selection area of the form. If the Payment Application by Line feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form, the table lists the lines of the documents that have the Pay by Line check box selected in the Summary area on the Bills and Adjustments (AP301000) form.

If the Projects and Payment Application by Line features are enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form, and a project is selected in the Selection area of the current form, the system displays a bill related to the selected project on the Documents to Pay tab depending on the following settings specified for the bill in the Summary area on the Bills and Adjustments form:

If the Pay by Line check box is selected in the bill, each line of the bill that contains the project that matches the project selected in this box is displayed on the Documents to Pay tab with the value in the Amount Paid column related to the selected project.
If the Pay by Line check box is cleared in the bill and the bill lines have multiple projects, these bill lines are displayed on the Documents to Pay tab if at least one line of the bill contains the project that matches the project selected in this box.
The lines of retainage documents for which the Pay by Line check box is cleared are shown if the project specified in this box is the same as the project specified for a line of the retainage bill.

If the Joint Payees check box is selected in a bill, the system shows separate joint payment lines and main vendor lines regardless of the state of the Pay by Line check box in the bill.

Note: A bill with the Pay by Line and Joint Payees check boxes cleared is always shown as one aggregate line. If such a bill has multiple projects specified in its lines, when you filter bills by project, near the line with this bill, the system displays a warning message indicating that the value in the Amount Paid column refers to the whole bill and all projects of its lines.

You click Process on the form toolbar to initiate payment generation for the selected documents and document lines. Alternatively, you can click Process All to initiate payment generation for all documents and document lines.

Table 1. Table Columns
Column	Description
Included	An unlabeled check box that you select to include this document or document line for payment if you click Process. Click the check box in the column header to select all documents or document lines for payment.
Document Type	The document type: Bill, Credit Adjustment, Debit Adjustment, or Prepayment.
Reference Nbr.	The reference number of the Accounts Payable document that will be paid. You can click the link to view the details of the selected document on the Bills and Adjustments form. Note: Only the documents of the vendors that have the Active or One-Time status are available in the selection window.
Vendor ID	The identifier of the vendor.
Line Nbr.	The number of the document line of the document that has the Pay by Line check box selected on the Bills and Adjustments form. If the Pay by Line check box is cleared for a document, the document is listed with the 0 value in this column. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Vendor Name	The name of the vendor.
Project	The project associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line and Projects features are enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Project Task	The project task associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line and Projects features are enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Cost Code	The cost code associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line and Cost Codes features are enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Account	The account associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line and Projects features are enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Inventory ID	The inventory ID of the item associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line and Projects features are enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Location	The vendor's location ID.
Supplied-by Vendor	The vendor that supplied goods or services. This is a vendor that has been specified in a purchase order or receipt if these documents are involved in your purchasing workflow.
Retainage Document	A check box that indicates (if selected) that the document is a retainage document (that is, a bill or debit adjustment to pay a retained amount from the original bill or debit adjustment). This box is available only if the Retainage Support feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Original Document	The reference number of the original document if the document is a retainage bill or debit adjustment. This box is available only if the Retainage Support feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Pay Separately	A check box that indicates (if selected) that the document should be paid for separately. When multiple documents are being processed at a time, the system will prepare a separate payment for each document that has this check box selected, and a consolidated payment for the rest of the documents selected for processing that have this check box cleared. When multiple document lines (that is, the lines of documents that have the Pay by Line check box selected in the Summary area on the Bills and Adjustments form) are being processed at a time, if the Pay Separately check box is selected for at least one line of a document, the system will prepare a separate AP payment for this document that includes all the document lines that have been selected for processing, and a consolidated payment for the rest of the document lines and documents selected for processing that have this check box cleared. For more information, see Vendor Payments for a Project: General Information.
Pay Date	The pay date of the AP document, which is either the due date or the cash discount date for the document, depending on the vendor settings.
Due Date	The due date of the AP document.
Cash Discount Date	The day when a cash discount from the vendor is available.
Date	The date of the document that was specified in the Date box on the Bills and Adjustments form.
Amount Paid	The amount of the document. For each line of the joint payee bill, the system automatically distributes the maximum available payment amount among all joint payee lines. The remaining payment amount is distributed among the main vendor lines. If needed, you can adjust the amounts to be paid both for main vendor lines and for joint payee lines.
Joint Payees	A check box that indicates (if selected) that the line relates to a document in which the Joint Payees check box is selected in the Summary area of the Bills and Adjustments form. This column appears on the form only if the Construction feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Joint Payee Name	The name of the joint payee (if the line relates to a payment for a joint payee vendor) or the name of the main vendor (if the line relates to a payment for the main vendor). This column appears on the form only if the Construction feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Joint Amount Owed	The total amount to be paid to the joint payee for this bill. In the main vendor line, this amount is 0. This column appears on the form only if the Construction feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Joint Balance	The remaining amount to pay to the joint payee for the bill. This column appears on the form only if the Construction feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Cash Discount Taken	The amount of the cash discount taken. The amount may be adjusted manually.
Balance	The amount after the cash discount is taken.
Cash Discount Balance	The unused amount of the cash discount in case of partial payment.
Currency	The currency of the document.
Vendor Ref.	The original ID of the document as specified by the vendor.
Description	The description of the document.

Exceptions Tab

On this tab, you can view the bills or other AP documents and document lines for which a payment has been applied, but the documents are not closed due to incomplete payment processing. Namely, applied payments have one of the following statuses: On Hold, Pending Approval, or Rejected. Thus, the listed AP documents or document lines are excluded from the preparing payments process.

The table toolbar includes only standard buttons. For the list of standard buttons, see Table Toolbar.

Table 2. Table Columns
Column	Description
Included	An unlabeled check box that you select to include this document for payment if you click Process. You can click the check box in the column header to select all documents on the page for payment.
Document Type	The document type: Bill, Credit Adjustment, Debit Adjustment, or Prepayment.
Reference Nbr.	The reference number of the AP document that will be paid. Note: Only the documents of the vendors that have the Active or One-Time status are available for selection.
Vendor ID	The identifier of the vendor.
Line Nbr.	The number of the document line. If the Pay by Line check box is cleared for a document, the document is listed with the 0 value in this column. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.
Vendor Name	The name of the vendor.
Project	The project ID associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line and Projects features are enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Project Task	The project task associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line and Projects features are enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Cost Code	The cost code associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line and Cost Codes features are enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Account	The account associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Inventory ID	The inventory ID of the item associated with the document line. This column appears on the form only if the Payment Application by Line feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Location	The vendor's location ID.
Pay Separately	A check box that indicates (if selected) that the document should be paid for separately.
Retainage Document	A check box that indicates (if selected) that the document is a retainage document (that is, a bill or debit adjustment to pay a retained amount from the original bill or debit adjustment). This box is available only if the Retainage Support feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Original Document	The reference number of the original document if the document is a retainage bill or debit adjustment. This box is available only if the Retainage Support feature is enabled on the Enable/Disable Features form.
Pay Date	The pay date of the AP document, which is either the due date or the cash discount date for the document, depending on the vendor settings.
Due Date	The due date of the AP document.
Cash Discount Date	The day when a cash discount from the vendor is available.
Date	The date of the document that was specified in the Date box on the Bills and Adjustments (AP301000) form.
Amount Paid	The amount of the document.
Cash Discount Taken	The amount of the cash discount taken. The amount may be adjusted manually.
Balance	The amount after the cash discount is taken.
Cash Discount Balance	The unused amount of the cash discount in case of partial payment.
Currency	The currency of the document.
Vendor Ref.	The original ID of the document as specified by the vendor.
Description	The description of the document.