Bank Feeds - clearing purchases payments

[matt786]

Hi,

Accountant here trying to get the recs process running for a business which has never completed this process previously. I am using bank feeds for the first time and trying to match off purchase payments.  These payments originated from electronic transfers so I am surprised that these arent matched automatically already?

When I am in the bank feeds screen, all the payments are showing as separate individual line items (as per the bank statement) but when i try and find a match for the amount, there is nothing to match it off against.  If i widen the search I can see the overall Electronic total of the full payment for all creditors but it doesnt allow me to apply the amount to this total.

What is the correct order of events which a client should follow once the payments have been sent off? 

So they go to reconcile accounts - select the electronic clearing account and then hit the reconcile button assuming the balances all net off (i do have situations where these do not due to what looks like pre-payments).  I tried this thinking that this will then create the balances into the cheque account but still no luck.  

Is someone able to offer any help?

Thanks

[LRBooks61]

Hi

If your client is using electronic payments there are a few steps to take to transfer the payment to the main bank account from the electronic clearing account

For each 'batch'ents a prepare electronic payment needs to be done to create this entry to the myob bank account and generate an aba file which is usually uploaded to the bank

I would suggest that you have a deeper look into the electronic clearing account first and see which bank account the payment entry is being allocated to

The clearing account should be reconciled to zero to ensure all payments are processed

The little blue arrow that sits on the left hand side of the transaction will open it up to display the detail.

If the entries aren't ending up in the correct account there may be an issue with linked accounts

Hope this helps

Lisa

[matt786]

Thanks Lisa for the response.

The client is using this to make payments there is no issues with creating the equivalent ABA file for NZ payments via BNZ.

I have looked at the electronic payments account under account information and this looks correct as per instructions under the Guide

2. Set up an electronic clearing account - MYOB AccountRight - MYOB Help Centre

Both the profile and linked accounts is ok based on the above.

When I look at the transaction under the Electronic clearing account they show them with a credit against the suppliers and an opposing debit agaisnt an Electronic Payment memo. Both the GL account entries go against 1-0190 which is the Electronic clearing account.

[LRBooks61]

The payment should be going to the BNZ account. I think that may be the problem 

there has to debit from the electronic clearing account should produce the credit (withdrawal) from the bank account 

if you go into the payment from the electronic clearing account the bank it is coming from should be the BNZ account

Lisa

[LRBooks61]

Hi

I have attached a document

shows the electronic clearing account

THe payment EP0014 is allocated to the bank that the payment is paid from

Thats what you are looking for.

If they are incorrectly coded you need to go to edit ( on the top ribbon ) and then delete the electronic payment and then redo to the correct bank account

Hope this is useful

Lisa

[matt786]

Thanks Lisa for the response.

I have looked at the screen shots you have sent and they look consistent. 

The first screen shot i do see both side of the entries when looking at the reconcile accounts for the elec pymt account.

The 2nd screen shot your showing "Spend Money" but my is showing as a "Pay Bills" screen where both are showing as under the Pay from account being Electronic clearing account.

As for the third screen when i hit the "Prepare Electronic Payments" button it shows it coming up with the correct 1-0100 Cheque Account which represents the BNZ current account (this i have asked the client to confirm that this isnt changed on further processing)

[Tracey_H]

Hi @matt786 

I just wanted to jump in and add to the great assistance Lisa ( @LRBooks61 ) has been giving you. You mention in your first post, all the payments are showing as separate individual line items (as per the bank statement) and If i widen the search I can see the overall Electronic total of the full payment for all creditors. If I understand that correctly you've got one lump sum payment transaction in AccountRight but individual payments on the bank statement.

That sounds like your client isn't uploading the bank file to make the bulk payment, but is transferring the payments manually. If the bank file was uploaded to the bank you'd see one lump sum withdrawal on the bank statement which could be matched with the AccountRight transaction.

In this situation you'd need to hide the bank feeds transactions by right clicking on the transaction and selecting hide. Then manually reconcile the AccountRight transaction in the Reconcile accounts window by ticking it.

Going forward, the options would be to upload the bank file so there's one bulk payment. Or not using the electronic payments function, when processing Pay bills transactions untick the Electronic payment option and select the bank account as the Pay from account.

Please let me know if I've completely misunderstood your issue or you need further help.

[matt786]

Thanks Tracey that is very useful information.

I think my client preferred to see the individual transations within the bank statement for audit purposes (i believe there is an option within BNZ to display these as separate transactions)

If I go with your suggestion of hiding the bank feeds transactions and manually reconciling the AccountRight transaction in the Reconcile accounts window, will this allow me to correctly reconcile the bank account on the bank feeds screen or is the Reconcile accounts window the main underlying place where it needs to be done? Sorry I have yet to journal a correction balance to tie up the bank account.

The going forward option of "not using the electronic payments function, when processing Pay bills transactions untick the Electronic payment option and select the bank account as the Pay from account." Is this still possible to create an electronic payment for this? I just tried this option on a test file and when i select "Prepare Electronic payments" there is no option to select the customer and corresponding amount? I assume this is only useful for cheque payments? If this isn't a viable option I think the one above should be ok.

Again thanks for your help

Cheers

Matt

[Tracey_H · Accepted solution]

@matt786 

Hi Matt

Bank feeds is a tool to make reconciliations easier. How it works is, the bank transactions are brought into the file by the bank and matched with the AccountRight transactions. When an AccountRight transaction is matched and approved it is automatically ticked in the Reconcile accounts window. You would then go to the Reconcile accounts window and complete the reconciliation. Manually reconciling a transaction just means that you tick the AccountRight transaction instead of the software automatically ticking it. 

When you record a Prepare electronic payment transaction two things happen. One is the bank file is created. The other is an electronic payment transaction is recorded, the electronic clearing account is debited and the bank account is credited the Total Payment Amount. You then match the electronic payment transaction with the bank feed transaction.

If your client is choosing to have the payments displayed as separate transactions on the bank statement you will need to hide and manually reconcile the electronic payment transaction. If you don't use electronic payments the payments will have to be manually transferred in internet banking.

Please let me know if you need further help.

[matt786]

Hi Tracey and Lisa,

Huge thanks in helping solve and understand the issue, much appreciated.

Cheers

Matt