Bill Payments

Overview

The Bill Payments screen in BQE CORE is used to pay the A/P liabilities. These liabilities are mostly the money owed to your suppliers, but can also include reimbursable expenses like airfare that were incurred by employees while performing a specific task for the company. So the Bill Payments screen allows you to manage the payments of all outstanding vendor bills as well as approved reimbursable expenses. You can view the history of all A/P payment transactions here. Click to watch this video on paying vendor bills in CORE.

paying bills reimbursables thumbnail.png

CORE also offers the Pay When Paid feature wherein you can pay your vendor bills on getting paid by your clients for them. Essentially, this feature provides an option to pay the vendors if payments are received by clients on invoices having time or expense entries linked to unpaid vendor bills. CORE detects the unpaid vendor bills associated with the invoices being paid and prompts you to pay them. You can then go ahead and easily pay those bills. It goes one step further and automatically prepares the checks for the vendors.

When you pay a vendor bill, the related expense entries are marked as paid only if the vendor bill is paid in full. CORE does not allow partial payment of system vendor bills. Before paying any bill, you must create a cash account type in the Chart of Accounts screen as it affects the cash basis of accounting. From the accounting view, paying vendor bills decreases your A/P; on the other hand, it also decreases your bank account.

Field Descriptions

How To

Pay Vendor Bills

Pay Reimbursable Expenses

Edit Bill Payments

Apply Vendor Credits as Payments

Add Documents

View Journal

Create ABA Files

Show/Hide Columns in Grid

Print Checks

Export Bill Payments

View Reports

Apply Filters

Mark Screen as Favorite

Field Descriptions

Field Name Field Description
Bill Payments > Create Bill Payments >
Payee Name of the person to whom the bill payment is made. Typically, it is a vendor, but can also be an employee reimbursed for some expenses or a client. You can select Range (From-To) or Individual (Payee) from the drop-down lists.
Account Account you want to use for paying the bills to the vendor (or payee). It can be a bank or credit card account. The ending balance of this account is displayed so that you know whether a payment can be made using that account or not.
Method Payment method to be used for paying the vendor bills. It can be check, credit card or EFT.
Check No. If the payment method is check, you have two options:
  • Print Later: You can print the check later from the Print Checks screen.
  • Assign Manually: If you are writing a manual check for your vendor and want to associate its check number to the payment in CORE, you can choose to assign the check number manually on processing.

Bills:

Bill No.

This is the vendor bill number brought forward from the Vendor Bills screen.
Due Date This is the due date of the vendor bill brought forward from the Vendor Bills screen. For employee reimbursements, CORE uses the most recent expense entry date in the range of approved entries and adds one month to it.
Amount Due Amount owed to the payee (vendor, client or employee). It is the total amount for the service or expense item provided by the vendor.
Pay Amount Actual amount to be paid against the vendor bill after applying discounts and credits. This cannot be a negative amount.
Discount Enter any discount received from a vendor on the bill. It reduces the Pay Amount accordingly.
Credit Available When you have an existing credit with a vendor, you can apply that to the vendor bill to reduce its balance. You can see the available credits here.
Credit If you have any vendor credits available, you can apply them to the bill. The Pay Amount is reduced accordingly.
Type This indicated the type of payment being made, whether bill or reimbursable expense payment.
Ref. Reference number of the vendor bills being paid. It can be used to track a vendor bill. For employee reimbursements, this field displays 'Reimbursable Expense'.

 

Pay Vendor Bills

To pay a vendor bill, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments add new.png

  2. Click Add Bill Payment on the top-right.

  3. On the Create Bill Payments dialog, set the filters for the bills you want to pay. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

    • Select Payee: Range or Individual
    • Show: bills
  4. Click Continue.

  5. On the Create Bill Payments screen, enter the payment details. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

    • Date

    • Account: for paying the bills 

    • Method

    • Check No.: If the payment method is check, you have two options:
      - Print Later
      - Assign Manually

      bill_payments_pay2.png

  6. Under the Bills section, select the bills to pay. This automatically applies full payment to each bill.

  7. You can manually enter or change the Pay Amount. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

  8. If desired, apply a discount or vendor credit to the transaction (you can show these columns via More > Show/Hide Columns, if hidden). The discount should not make the transaction value $0 or negative.

  9. Click Save & Done or Save & Add Another. The vendor bill is paid.

Note: CORE does not allow partial payment of system vendor bills.

Pay Reimbursable Expenses

The Bill Payments screen is used to pay your A/P liabilities, which is mostly the money owed to your suppliers, but can also include reimbursable expenses like airfare and mileage. The entries that make it to the Bill Payments screen are already approved and ready to be paid. However, while reimbursing expenses, you can exclude some of the expenses temporarily for the current session. Their Reimbursable flag stays marked.

Note: Expenses are referred to as costs in the legal industry.

To reimburse an employee for some expenses, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments add new.png

  2. Click Add Bill Payment on the top-right.

  3. On the Create Bill Payments dialog, set the filters for the expenses you want to reimburse. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

    • Select Payee: Range or Individual
    • Show: bills
  4. Click Continue.
  5. On the Create Bill Payments screen, enter the payment details. Check Field Descriptions above for details.

    • Date

    • Account

    • Method

    • Check No.

      bill_payments_pay_reimb2.png

  6. Under the Bills section, select the employee expenses to pay or enter the Pay Amount. Check Field Descriptions above for details. If you see that the amount is higher than expected, you can click dropdown-caret.png and select View Details to view the Bill Details dialog where you can exclude any expense items that are still not due. When you record a payment against the selected reimbursable expense, the Bill Details dialog displays additional columns about the payment, besides displaying totals at the bottom summarizing the details for all linked items. Do note that in this process, the Exclude column is replaced with the uneditable Paid column. 

  7. Click Save & Done or Save & Add Another. The reimbursable expense is paid.

Edit Bill Payments

You can view, enter and edit bill payment details in the detail view. CORE allows you to only view the details of the vendor bills or reimbursable expenses that are paid.

To edit a bill payment or reimbursable expense, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments row batch actions.png

  2. Select the bill payment records on the grid that you want to delete and click Actions > Delete to delete them. Alternatively, you can use the row-action menu to delete them individually.
  3. To edit a single payment, click dropdown-caret.png on that row and select View Details.
  4. Depending on the type of bill payment, you are taken to its Edit > General screen, where you can enter details or make changes, as needed.

  5. Click Save & Done.

Apply Vendor Credits as Payments

After entering vendor credits, you can use them to pay vendors from the Bill Payments screen.

To apply vendor credits, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    Bill Payments.png

  2. Click Add Bill Payments on the top-right.
  3. On the Create Bill Payments dialog, set filters to display the bills you want and click Continue.
  4. On the Create Bill Payments screen, use the Credit column to determine how much vendor credit you want to apply. If you don’t see this column, display this column from the More menu.

    Create Bill Payments.png

  5. Enter the vendor credit amount you want to apply in the Credit column.
  6. Click Save & Done.

Add Documents

To add a document to a bill payment:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments row action.png

  2. In the list view, select a bill payment on the grid and click dropdown-caret.png to select View Details.

  3. In the detail view, go to the Documents tab and click Add.

    bill_payments_document2.png

  4. On the Add Documents dialog, select the relevant tab, depending on the type of attachment.

    • Computer: To attach files stored on your computer, enter its Description and drag your file or click to browse to that location.

    • Hyperlink: To attach an external link, enter its Description and then insert the hyperlink.

    • Dropbox: To link files stored in your Dropbox account, enter its Description and then browse for it.

    • Google Drive: To link files stored in your Google Drive account, enter its Description and then browse for it.

    • OneDrive: To link files stored in your Microsoft OneDrive account, enter its Description and then browse for it.

    • Box: To link files stored in your Box account, enter its Description and then browse for it.

    • Resource Library: To link company resources, select the resource from the library. This option is available only with CORE CRM.

  5. Click Add.

CORE pre-fills some of the information about the attached documents in the grid. You can also check the detailed video on managing documents in CORE.

View Journal

You can understand the accounting behind a transaction by looking at its journal entries. In CORE, you can open the Journal report to view the transaction details, including the accounts being credited or debited.

To view the journal of a bill payment, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments row action.png

  2. Select a payment on the grid whose journal you want to view and click dropdown-caret.png to select View Journal.

  3. The journal opens in the viewer. Preview the journal and then choose to export or print it.

Create ABA Files

ABA (Australian Banking Association) files are used by major Australia and New Zealand financial institutions to allow for batch transactions. ABA is a preferred file format for all the major banks in these countries to automate vendor bill payments. These ABA files follow a strict format that detail the company's bank information (sender), the payee's bank information, along with other important information to carry out a transaction: individual amounts, total amounts, descriptions, etc. You can export a group of vendor bill payments as an .aba file and then download it so that it can be uploaded to your Australia (or New Zealand) bank accounts as a batch payment. A separate ABA file is created for each company bank account. The bank then carries out all the transactions included in the file. The regular and system vendor bills (employee reimbursable expenses) paid by bank and EFT payments are included, but the client retainer transfers and credit card transactions are not included in the generated ABA files. Also, employees and vendors who do not have complete bank details saved in their profiles are not included in the ABA files. This feature is available for Australia and New Zealand regional settings only.

To create an ABA file, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments aba files new.png
  2. Select the bill payments on the grid that you want to export to the ABA format and click Actions > Create ABA File.

  3. You are prompted with an ABA Files Summary dialog that lists the .aba files to be generated or informs you of any missing details, such as bank details. If you want to add the excluded records in the ABA file, you must enter the missing information and repeat the process of creating an ABA file.

  4. Enter a brief Description optionally and click Download All to view the files.

  5. ABA export files (.aba) are created and saved on your system at the default download location, say your desktop. You can now upload them to your bank portal to process the batch payments.

Show/Hide Columns in Grid

You can configure the fields or columns that appear on the grid in the list view. You can hide or show columns and sort the order of columns according to your requirements.

To do so, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments more menu.png

  2. In the list view, click More > Show/Hide Columns on the action bar.
  3. Select or un-select the column names in the drop-down list, say Account.
  4. Next, click the column you want to sort the data by, say Type.
  5. Click once for ascending order (A-Z) and twice for descending order (Z-A).

Note: You can resize the column widths on the grid and then reset them, if needed (More > Reset Column Widths).

You can also check the detailed video on navigation and customizing grids in CORE.

Print Checks

You can pay your bills via checks or credit cards. When paying your bills, if you specify the pay method as check and mark it as 'Print Later', you can then select them for printing directly from the Bill Payments list view.

To print a check, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments print checks new.png

  2. In the list view, click More > Print Checks.

  3. It opens the Print Checks screen from where you can print your checks. Check Print Checks for details on this.

Export Bill Payments

In CORE, you can export bill payments to the Comma Separated Values file format. CORE exports data from all available columns and not just the columns visible in the grid.

To export a payment record to a .CSV file, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments more menu.png

  2. In the list view, click More > Export as CSV.

  3. A .csv export file is created and saved on your system at the default download location, say your desktop. Click to open the spreadsheet.

You can also check the detailed video on exporting data in CORE.

View Reports

You can print A/P payment confirmation slips using this option. Billing users generally need to print A/P payment reconciliation reports.

To view a report, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments reports new.png

  2. In the list view, click More > View Reports.

  3. Select a report from the Report List dialog. It opens in the viewer.

  4. Preview the report and then choose to export or print it.

You can also check the detailed video on running and managing reports in CORE.

Apply Filters

To view selective data on the grid, watch this video or follow these steps:

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments filters new.png

  2. In the list view, click filters-01.png on the right.

  3. On the Filters panel, select a filter from the drop-down and specify individual records or range.

  4. Click Add Filters to specify more filters.

  5. When you have finished, click Apply Filter. You can see selective data now.

  6. In the list view, you can remove the individual filters by clicking remove-01.png on each. To disable applied filters temporarily or remove all filters, click filter_icon.png next to the Filters icon and select Disable Filters or Clear All, respectively.

You can also check the detailed video on applying filters in CORE.

Mark Screen as Favorite

You can mark or flag the most-often used and important screens in CORE as your favorites up to a maximum of ten. These favorite screens then display separately on the side menu under the Favorites list. You can manage all your favorite screens in CORE from User Settings.

To mark this screen as your favorite, watch this video or follow these steps: 

  1. Open the Bill Payments screen from the side menu > Accounting > Payables.

    bill payments fav.png

  2. In the list view, click favorites.png on the top-right.

  3. You can access this screen from the side menu under Favorites.

You can also check the detailed video on marking screens as favorite in CORE.