Account Payments
An Account Payment records money leaving one of your bank accounts (or cash accounts) that posts directly against ledger accounts — usually expense accounts — instead of being applied against a vendor bill's balance. It's how you record payments that don't come from a bill: minor expenses, services, advances, payroll paid by transfer, or any bank outflow you distribute yourself across the accounts it belongs to.
What is it and what is it for?
Unlike a payment you apply against a vendor bill's balance (that's the separate Payments screen, applied to bills), an Account Payment is never applied to an outstanding document: you choose, line by line, which ledger accounts are affected and how much goes to each one. That makes it a good fit for expenses that don't go through the purchasing cycle — for example, paying a utility account, a tax, or a minor expense directly — or for paying someone who doesn't even need to be registered as a contact in the system.
You can start an Account Payment from a blank form, or open it from another screen so it copies data for you: from a vendor bill or an expense (copies the vendor), from a payroll run (copies subsidiary, location, department and the payroll-period reference), or from an imported bank transaction pending reconciliation (copies the date and amount, and suggests the ledger account most commonly used for similar transactions). In every case, you still choose the final ledger accounts affected.
When you save it, if your company enabled posting unauthorized payments to accounting, the system generates the corresponding accounting entry right away (debit to the accounts you entered, credit to the bank account); otherwise, the entry is generated once the payment is authorized.
How to use it step by step
- Open the list and click New. You need the "add" level of the Payments permission; if you don't see the button, ask your administrator for access.
- Choose the bank account the money comes from. Only active accounts are listed when creating a new payment; the payment's currency is determined by that account.
- Enter the beneficiary. It can be a registered contact — a vendor, employee or other relationship — or simply a free-text name in Beneficiary if you'd rather not register it as a contact.
- Select the payment type (check, transfer, etc.); this determines whether the document can generate a bank transfer file and whether it needs a check number.
- Add the ledger account lines on the Accounts tab: the account to affect, its own currency and rate, the amount, and — depending on what your company has enabled — Division, Department, Item Class, Location and Project. The payment's total is calculated automatically from these lines.
- Attach supporting documents (invoice, receipt, voucher) on the Files tab, if applicable.
- Save the document. It stays in "Pending" status until someone with authorization rights approves it.
Key fields
| Field | What it's for |
|---|---|
| Bank Account | The bank or cash account the money comes from. Determines the document's currency; only active accounts are listed when you create or duplicate a payment. When you edit a saved payment it keeps its account even if the account was made inactive afterwards, but you can't switch it to a different inactive account. |
| Beneficiary / Relationship | Who is being paid. Can be a registered contact (vendor, employee, etc.) or a free-text name in Beneficiary when there's no matching contact. |
| Payment Type | Check, transfer or another method; enables or disables bank-transfer-file generation and the check number. |
| Check Number | Required unless the payment is flagged to print; can't repeat within the same bank account. If you flag it to print, the number is assigned when the check is printed. |
| Requested by | The employee requesting the payment; defaults to whoever creates the document. |
| Currency and exchange rate | The currency is fixed by the bank account you chose; the rate must be greater than zero and consistent with your company's functional currency. |
| Accounts to affect | One or more lines with the ledger account, its own currency/rate and amount. You can enter a negative amount to credit the account instead of debiting it. Depending on your setup, each line can also carry Division, Department, Item Class, Location and Project. |
| Location / Subsidiary | Which subsidiary and location the payment belongs to, with subsidiaries enabled. |
| Fiscal sequence (NCF) | Only visible if your country handles fiscal documents for this document type; it can't use an electronic sequence type, because the Account Payment is not a signable fiscal document. |
| Reference and Notes | Free-form information to identify the payment (for example, the invoice number it's covering, even though it isn't formally applied to it). |
| Attachments | Supporting documents for the expense or payment, subject to your plan's file limit. |
Validations when saving
- Open accounting period for the payment's date.
- Bank account, payment type and currency required.
- Beneficiary required: if the free-text Beneficiary field is empty, a contact (Relationship) must be entered, and that contact can't be inactive or void.
- Exchange rate greater than zero and consistent with the company's functional currency.
- At least one line with a valid, active ledger account; it can't be a group (header) account.
- Cost centers required depending on the account or your company's setup: Location, Item Class, Department or Division, when the affected account is a results account and your company requires them.
- Project required on work-in-process accounts, if your company uses the Projects module.
- Relationship consistent with the account type: for example, an accounts-payable account requires the relationship to be a vendor; a receivables account requires a customer or an employee.
- Check number can't repeat within the same bank account.
- Valid source document when the payment comes from another transaction (payroll, invoice, etc.): it must exist and not be void.
- Budget limit not exceeded, if your company validates budgets.
- Fiscal sequence (NCF) can't be electronic, in countries where this document handles fiscal documents.
Managing the document
From the details of an already-saved Account Payment you can, depending on your permissions:
- Authorize, reject, mark as pending or as draft the payment, and assign an authorizer (who gets an email notice and an in-app notification).
- Void the payment; a voided payment can no longer be edited.
- Delete the payment, if it doesn't have linked records (for example, a bank reconciliation).
- Duplicate the payment to create a new one from its data.
- Print the payment with the default format or with a custom HTML template you created.
- View the generated accounting entry, if your company uses the Accounting module.
- Generate the bank transfer file to send to your bank's own portal, if your company has this feature enabled and the account's bank supports it.
- Mark the check as not printed, if you need to print it again.
Additional features depending on your setup
- Import a receipt with optical character recognition (OCR): when creating the payment from an image or PDF, the system can automatically prefill the vendor, the fiscal ID/document, the date and the currency, if your plan includes this feature.
- Bank transfer file generation: available for Dominican banks (Banco Popular, BHD León, Banreservas, Scotiabank, Promerica and Banco Caribe), once your company enables the corresponding feature.
- Automatic SFTP processing with BHD León: an additional feature that adds a status indicator for the payment's submission to the bank, if your company has it enabled.
- Custom fields: you can add your own fields to the form if your plan includes this feature.
- Per-line cost centers (Division, Department, Item Class, Location, Project): the corresponding columns only appear if your company has those modules and settings active.
- Column customization on the list: save your own configuration of visible columns on the list screen.
Availability and permissions
- Access is controlled by the "Payments" permission of the Banking module, with separate levels for view, add, edit, delete, void, authorize and reprint.
- Reprinting an already-printed payment requires the additional reprint permission for Payments.
- Available on every AdmCloud plan, starting with the Billing plan. On the Enterprise plan, it requires the Accounting module to be active.
- With subsidiaries enabled, each payment belongs to a specific subsidiary.
- The fiscal sequence (NCF) field only appears if your country handles fiscal documents for this document.
- Bank transfer file generation and SFTP processing with BHD León require your provider to enable the corresponding feature for your company.
Tips and common mistakes
This isn't the place to pay an outstanding vendor bill. If you want to apply a payment against a recorded bill's balance, use the Payments screen (applied to documents) instead; an Account Payment always posts directly against ledger accounts, without reducing any bill's balance.
Open it from the source document whenever you can. Creating the payment from a vendor bill, an expense, a payroll run or a bank transaction pending reconciliation saves you from typing the beneficiary, date and amount again.
A voided payment cannot be edited. If you need to correct a mistake after voiding a payment, record a new one instead.
Looking for all your payments pending authorization? The list screen links to "Pending Authorization", which groups account payments together with other payment types you have waiting for approval.