Electronic Payments

You can pay your suppliers electronically by using either the Oracle EDI Gateway or by delivering to your bank an electronic funds transfer output file that Payables creates.

o For information on how to use the EDI Gateway for electronic payments (820/PAYORD, REMADV), see: Creating Payments with the Oracle EDI Gateway.

o If you do not use the EDI Gateway for electronic payments, the following discussion describes how you can use Payables to pay your suppliers with electronic funds transfers.

Creating Electronic Funds Transfer Payments without the Oracle EDI Gateway

To create an electronic funds transfer (EFT) payment file that you can deliver to your bank, you follow nearly the same steps as in creating checks in a payment batch. However, instead of printing the checks, you send a softcopy file of formatted payments to your bank so it can disburse the payments directly into each supplier's bank account.

Prerequisites

   You are not using the Oracle EDI Gateway for this payment batch.

   If you are not using a payment file format provided by Payables, customize and register an EFT Payment Program, and create or customize, and register a remittance advice program. See:Automatic Payment Programs , and Setting Up Custom Payment Programs

   Define a payment format with the Electronic payment method that references your EFT payment program and remittance advice program. See: Payment Formats.

   Use the Banks window to define the remittance bank accounts and payment documents you use to create EFT payments. In the Payment Documents window, assign your EFT payment format to the payment document. Enter Computer Generated for the Disbursement Type. See: Defining Banks.

   Define the suppliers and supplier sites that use the bank account to receive electronic payments. See: Entering Suppliers.

   Enter bank information for each supplier site you want to pay. See: Entering Supplier Bank Information

   When you enter the invoices you want to pay, enter Electronic as the payment method.

   Approve the invoices you want to pay and confirm that they have no active holds.

   To create Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payments:

1. Initiate a payment batch using your EFT bank account and payment document associated with an EFT payment format. Follow the steps in Initiating Payment Batches, and enter the following information in the Payment Batches window:Enter the Serial Number, which is the identification number you choose for your EFT tape.

o If you want Payables to include in your EFT file instructions to your bank to give you an audit report, check Audit Required and enter the Interval, which is the number of payments you want to audit. Payables includes in your EFT file the payment interval you want the bank to use for the audit report. When the bank creates the audit report, it will list payments made at this interval.

2. Choose Actions. Depending on whether you want to review and modify the payment batch before formatting, complete one of the following two options:

o If you do not want to modify the payment batch before formatting payments, simply select Format Payments and choose OK.

o If you do want to review and/or modify the payment batch, select the Select Invoices check box, select the Print Preliminary Payment Register check box, and choose OK. Review the Preliminary Payment Register, and optionally continue with Modifying Payment Batches. After you have reviewed and modified the payment batch, continue with Formatting Payments.

3. Review the Final Payment Register that Payables prints during formatting if you have enabled the Print Final Payment Register check box. In the Concurrent Requests Summary, review the output file from the Format Payments concurrent request.4. Print the Separate Remittance Advice if there is one defined for the payment format associated with the payment document you used.

5. Confirm the Payment Batch. If your output file is incorrect, cancel the entire payment batch and initiate a new payment batch.6. Deliver the output file to your bank. When Payables formats the EFT payment batch, it creates an output file that you deliver to your bank for processing. You can locate the output file in the Payables output directory ($AP_TOP/out). The output file name is a concatenation of your AOL userid followed by a period and the concurrent manager request number (for example, SYSADMIN.12345).You can transmit the output file to your bank via modem, or load the file onto tape or to other media to deliver to your bank. Each physical medium you use has its own formatting requirements. Since procedures for loading files onto tape vary greatly, you can contact Oracle Consulting Services at your local Oracle office if you need assistance.