You've already paid the suppliers , producers, or shareholders in agrē with an EFT payment type. Now you need to let both your bank and your payees know about it.
agrē has an optional Payment Review Process that allows users to create EFT payments, but an EFT payment file cannot be generated until the payments are approved by someone with a higher level of security.
What you'll find:
I want to read the white paper (with screen shots) on how to setup and make EFT Payments.
I want to read the related white paper on the Cheque/EFT Batch Payment Review Process (also known as the AP Payment Approval Process) to learn how EFT Payments will fit in to my existing supplier payment approval process.
EFT Company Configuration options have been set (if using)
Supplier Notification "email return address" has been set.
The Company value for "Emailed reports are sent from" will be used as the reply address for supplier emails.
Supplier Banks & Branches have been setup
AP Reference Number for EFT Batches has been specified
AP Payment Type for EFT has been setup with your company's banking information
EFT banking details have been added to the Supplier Account
Supplier Payment (or grain or shareholder) specifying an EFT payment type has been made
agrē aggregates the EFT payment information into an export file that you upload to your bank to tell it to take the funds from your account and transfer them to your supplier's accounts. Back in agrē, once you enter the bank's confirmation number into the payment batch you'll be prompted to automatically email payment notification to the suppliers.
This step generates the file that contains the details about each EFT Payment.
Notes
Electronic Funds Transfers are limited to payments from and to Canadian banks only.
Non-ANSI characters will be stripped from the following fields: Customer, Supplier, Shareholder, Short Name, Long Name, OriginatorID, Reference Numbers.
To add an EFT Payment Batch
* indicates a required field
Navigate to Accounts Payable > EFT Payments.
The EFT Payments window opens.
Click Add.
The Add EFT Batch window opens.
Enter a Reference* number, or let agrē generate one for you.
Leave Confirmation No. blank for now.
After you have uploaded the batch to your bank for processing, they'll provide you with a confirmation number that will be added here later.
Select the Lead Date if your bank account requires lead time to process payments
(displayed only for EFT payments made using a TD Canada Trust file format where the Lead Date is flagged as mandatory).
For example most TD Canada Trust accounts require at least 2 business days lead time, meaning if you make a payment today the Lead Date must be at least 2 business days from today, allowing for weekends and bank holidays (which are different from province to province). Remember to add extra days for long weekends, Easter, Christmas & Boxing Day, etc. Your bank may reject the batch if the lead time is not sufficient.
Enter a Comment.
Click Retrieve Payments.
The Payment Search window opens.
Select the Payment Type*.
The default is EFT.
Select the Payment Date or range.
The default is payments made in the last month.
Select the Payment Locations.
The default is all locations. Click to select a single location; Ctrl+Click to select multiple locations.
Click Search.
The Payment Search window closes and the grid is populated with EFT payments that meet the date criteria.
Check Include next to the payments you want to add to this batch.
Click Save.
The Add EFT Batch window closes and the Preview EFT Batch window opens.
Optionally view/print the EFT Payment Batch report.
Tip
Before submitting the EFT Batch file to your bank for processing, compare the Supplier Payments report to the EFT Payment Batch report to ensure no payments were missed (for example, if a supplier’s account contained no EFT info you could still pay them with an EFT Payment Type, but their EFT payments could not be included in an EFT Batch until it was added).
If a batch is rejected because a payment was submitted with invalid data and you want to process the remaining ones, edit the batch, remove the offending payment(s), then submit the batch to your bank. Correct the invalid data, add the previously removed payments to a new EFT Batch, and submit.
Follow your bank's process for manually uploading the EFT batch file to their servers.
Your bank will provide you with a Confirmation Number for your records.
Once the payment batch file has been accepted by your bank, enter the Confirmation Number into the EFT Payment Batch. Saving the EFT payment batch with a confirmation number automatically triggers the supplier notification prompt. Behind the scenes agrē will also set the Payment Tracking Number to match the EFT Confirmation Number for all payments in the batch.
Tip
You can set configuration options to add custom text to the supplier notification email (for example, who to call if they have any questions), and to send a copy of the notifications to yourself for reference.
To add Confirmation Number to EFT Payment Batch and email Supplier Payment Notifications
Navigate to Accounts Payable > EFT Payments.
The EFT Payments window opens.
Select the batch and click Edit.
The Edit EFT Batch window opens.
Enter the Confirmation No. you received from your bank.
Click Save.
The Edit EFT Batch window closes and the Send Notification Emails window opens.
Click Yes to email notifications to suppliers.
The Email Notification window tells you how many notifications were sent.
Tip
This value should match the number of suppliers in the payment batch. If it doesn't, you may have forgotten to enter an EFT Notification Email Address on a supplier's account.
Note
If a valid From email address has not been setup, agrē will notify you that no supplier notifications have been sent. Enter a valid From address, edit the EFT batch again, and save. You will be prompted to send the notifications.
Click OK to close the Email Notification window.
Optionally view/print the updated EFT Payment Batch report.