Prepare Electronic Payments window

Hi Tracey, thank you very much for your time. I've now shown our accountant and it has her confused as well. She will be taking further look for me and giving me a solution.

Hi niqueyk1 

Thanks for your post. You're correct that clicking on Bank file will create an AccountRight transaction. If the full pay run is in the Prepare electronic payments window, the first thing to check is what transaction is reconciled. Did you record a separate transaction, eg Spend Money, for the pays? If so you would need to delete that transaction, process the electronic payment and re-do the reconciliation.

Or did you reverse the original electronic payment? In this case, you should have the original electronic payment and the reversal in the Reconcile accounts window which clear each other out. You would then need to process the electronic payment to match with the bank feed.

Please feel free to send screenshots if you're still having problems with this. Make sure sensitive information is removed from screenshots prior to posting on the public Forum.

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Thanks so much for the reply so this is what's happened:

The electronic payment transaction that was originally created as a result of doing the pay run was for approx $19k

I have a $20k daily limit which meant I dropped one of the pays from the ABA file & paid that employee the following day.

So in my bank feeds, there are 2x unallocated transactions, 1x $17K & the other $2k which = the total pay run. If I allocate these via a spend money, it ends up being a duplicate due to the auto transaction that is created, but if I delete the auto transaction, it puts it back into the prepare electronic payments window so I seem to be stuck with duplicate transactions either way.

Hi niqueyk1 

Thanks for the detailed information. Recording a Spend money will create a duplicate transaction so you're right that it's not the correct way to handle this. You've got two options though:

1. Delete the electronic payment transaction - this will put the pay transactions back into the Prepare electronic payments window but as you've deleted the original transaction it won't create a duplicate. When you reprocess the electronic payment only tick the pay transactions included in the ABA file. So you'd process two separate electronic payments, one for $17 and one for $2. You can then match the two bank feeds with the two electronic payments. You don't need to upload the ABA file to your bank as payment has already been made.
2. In the Bank feeds window right click on the bank feed transactions and select Hide transaction. In the Reconcile accounts window manually reconcile the electronic payment by ticking that transaction.

But, one thing I do want to check with you is that you mentioned you dropped one employee from the ABA file. As the ABA file is created when you record the electronic payment, the ABA and EP transaction would be exactly the same so you should have two electronic payment transactions to match with the bank feeds.

Please feel free to send me screenshots so that I can assist further if you still have problems with this. Make sure sensitive information is removed from screenshots prior to posting on the public Forum.

If my response has answered your enquiry please click "Accept as Solution" to assist other users find this information.

Thanks so much Tracey, that helped 90% but a strange thing happened-

So yes most of the pays ended up back in the prepare electronic payments window, apart from the 1 employee I paid separately. So I was able to reprocess those into an ABA to get the correct figure on my bank feeds. However the person I paid separately, their payment did not end up back in the prepare electronic payment window....? This means it is sitting unallocated in my bank feeds with no transaction. It was definitely paid as I checked the bank & it's even in the transaction journal when I search for it.

If I were to just allocate this using a spend money transaction, would that work or is there a better solution? If spend money works best, what account do I use? Electronic Clearing account (asset)? Or payroll liabilities? Or is it a cost of sales account it should be allocated to? 

Hi niqueyk1 

Great to hear you've resolved most of your issue.

You should never record a Spend Money transaction to match with wage payments in the Bank feeds window, that will create a duplicate transaction and issues with your account balances.

In the situation where you've got a bank feed transaction and an AccountRight transaction but the AccountRight transaction doesn't appear to be matched with the bank feed, the first step is to trace where the AccountRight transaction was posted. For your payroll transaction, go to Transaction Journal>>Payroll tab>>locate the pay transaction and click on the zoom arrow to open. Check the Pay from Account. 

When the Pay from Account is the electronic clearing account the transaction will appear in the Prepare electronic payments window for processing. When it's the bank account the transaction will appear as a withdrawal in the bank account. If it's a payroll clearing account or different bank account you'd need to record a Transfer money transaction to move it to the bank account.

In the Find transactions window>>Account tab you can enter that Pay from account in the search field and trace that transaction to see if was moved to another account. For example, if you searched the electronic clearing account you'd see the payroll transactions as credits. The electronic payment transactions appear as debits and clear out the credits so that account should reconcile back to zero.

Let me know how you go with tracing that payroll transaction.

If my response has answered your enquiry please click "Accept as Solution" to assist other users find this information.

thanks so much for your help Tracey, sorry to say Im only half understanding what to do though.

I'm working from home today too so my access is only via Accountright web browser version.

So I've found the transaction & it is listed as the electronic clearing account (see photo 5622) but unfortunately it is not in the prepare electronic transaction window. It also says in this transaction window that an electronic payment was recorded & when I click on this, I can see that the cheque account is listed (see pic 5623)

So in that instance, I'm unsure what to do ? Do I just delete the EP000289 payment (pic 5623) linked to that transaction and that will pop the pay back into the prepare electronic payments window for me to try again? is it as simple as that? 

Hi niqueyk1 

As the electronic payment transaction has been recorded you should be able to match it with the bank feed transaction. Deleting and reprocessing the electronic payment will result in the same transaction being recorded. 

Go to the Reconcile accounts window and make sure EP289 hasn't been ticked. If it has, untick it then go to Bank feeds and it will be available for matching.

If it isn't ticked in the Reconcile accounts window, in the Bank feeds window click on Find and extend the search filters.

Let me know how you go.

If my response has answered your enquiry please click "Accept as Solution" to assist other users find this information.

Hi again Tracey,

The problem is not whether it has been ticked or not ticked in the reconcile accounts window. The problem is that it just isn't there in the first place. If I click reconcile account & do the date range, EP289 is not listed and as a result my reconciliation is out by that payment amount, even though the EP289 payment has been recorded. 

Now if I go into my bank feeds, it's not sitting there waiting to be allocated either.....I think I have gremlins in my system!

Hi niqueyk1 

If you check the previous bank reconciliation report has it been reconciled previously? Does the previous bank rec still balance? Also go to Find transactions and filter by that bank account, can you see it in that window?