Question

ACH Setup

  • 13 March 2023
  • 6 replies
  • 286 views

Userlevel 3
Badge +7

Hello, 

I have been asked to set up automatics ACH payments in IFS. Is there any resources out there on how to do this? I am not finding anything. Please keep in mind that Finance is not my area of expertise when answering. 

Thanks.


6 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +14

The pay format & type need established and connected to the pay institute/cash account.   The electronic pay information needs to be on the related supplier (or customer) records.   The pay proposal (suppliers) will create an output file that will likely need formatted to fit the pay institute’s requirements.

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi, 

Setting up ACH is same / similar to other electronic payment files such as BACS (for example). 

The difference would be the country specific / payment specific data elements. For ACH you would have a slightly different supplier set up.   

You will first enable the payment format (pay format per company), then create a payment method, then enable the payment method for the payment institute, then enable the payment method for a given supplier. 

See the attached PPT. 

The best ACH solution would also consider the emailing of the remittance advice.  That’s a different topic. 

Best regards, 

 

Badge +2

How do I clear an ACH payment against an open invoice?

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi, 

Typically, we use the automatic supplier payment process to select invoices for payment.  In doing this the invoice drives the payment amount and the payment (ACH, Check, BACS, ISO20022, etc.) is created and that payment amount is applied to the invoice. Other than completing the payment, nothing is really done after that,  

If the event that the ACH was manually created - for example request an ACH payment at a bank's web site (or other outside IFS), you can use a variety of processes to report the cash transaction and mark the invoice as paid. In older versions a common process was to use the manual supplier payment process where we manually enter a supplier payment. I believe the screen was called supplier payment.   In IFS Cloud that screen no longer exists - we do the same process in mixed payment via a enter supplier payment transaction.   Mixed payment was always possible, but now, it is the way. 

Best regards, 

Thomas

Badge +2

Thomas,

 

Thank you, however, I have a follow up question.

I’m currently using Aurena for Cloud but just unsure about the steps to clear each payment.  Are you saying, essentially, that once the ACH is created and processed it should clear automatically?

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +18

Hi, 

 

How is the ACH created?  What IFS process flow?    

 

I ask because a user can easily log into a banks web site and request an ACH payment.    Unless you have some flavor of bank integration IFS will never know about that ACH payment. It was done outside IFS. You then must manually report the payment and match that with invoices. 

 

If you did an automatic payment proposal, IFS will then create the payment and match the payment with the invoice. That’s all part of the normal process flow for any automatic payment including checks. 

Basically, the only difference for ACH and a traditional check payment flow is you need to perform another step for the payment order. The exact last step is something like create payment.  You can do that from the acknowledge payment order screen. That last step creates the cash side of the entry and marks the invoice as paid. But you have no matching step as that was done via IFS in the traditional payment flow. 

 

This is from apps 10.   The last step is create payment. Do that after you know the bank made the payment.  Up till that last step is done, you can roll everything back easily. You can still roll back after create, but it’s a bit more involved. 

 

Best regards, 

Thomas

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