AP Positive Pay

Purpose of this document

Positive pay export file processing is a parameter driven process that allows the finance user to create export files of your AP Check data in various formats. It is a flexible process because different financial institutions require different file layouts so they can process positive pay data. Ceres provides the capability to create the transmission files; it does not transmit or upload the files to your financial institution. That is a manual process and varies by bank. Ceres supports multiple bank accounts with positive pay by providing the ability to specify the destination directory and file name for each bank account.

Ceres Object release 6.00.00 is required for the functionality described in this document.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Setup Bank Accounts
• Defining the Export File Specifications
• Creating the Positive Pay Export File

Setup Bank Accounts

1. Bank Accounts can be accessed by selecting “Search” from the Dynamics 365 Business Central Banner and entering “Bank Accounts” in “Tell me what you want to do” then selecting “Bank Accounts” from the results in the Go to Pages and Tasks section OR by selecting the “Bank Accounts” menu action (if present) from your Role Center home page.

2. The fields associated with Positive Pay functionality can be found on the General FastTab and the Transfer FastTab of the Bank Account Card as shown below.

3. Update the fields on the General FastTab as needed.

Bank Branch No.: Five-digit number which represents the branch of your bank.

Bank Account No.: Account number assigned to you by your bank.

4. Update the fields on the Transfer FastTab as needed.

Pos. Pay File Format Name: This field can be selected from a drop-down list of available formats. The format specification is the parameter driven capability that allows Ceres to create files in various formats.

Last Pos. Pay Export File Name: This field should be started with a valid file name to begin the process. After the initial setup value is entered, Ceres will automatically increment the file name as each subsequent file is created. It is important to include and number as part of the file name for Ceres to increment. For example, we have specified NPP00001 as the file name, Ceres has now created numerous files for this bank account and the last file name currently shows NPP00008 as the last file name.

Transit No.: Transit number used by your bank to route transactions.

4. To access the positive pay format specifications, click on the down arrow to the right of the on the Pos. Pay File Format Name field and then click Select from full list.

Defining the Export File Specifications

1. The positive pay format list is displayed. From here you may select an existing format, edit an existing format or create a new format. To create a new format, select New. To select an existing format, click on the file name.

2. To edit the format specification, highlight the desired format file name and then click on the ellipses, Related/Format/Sections.

3. The Sections Page will be displayed. On this Page you may specify the different sections required in the file format. For example, many positive pay export files contain a header section, a detail section and a footer section.

4. The following fields are available on the section page. Your file format may not require all sections.

Line No.: System assigned to uniquely identify each line.

Section Type: This field indicates the type of section. The available choices are Header, Detail and Footer. You may have as many Header or Footer sections as needed but each Header and Footer section defined will only appear once in each file created. The detail sections will repeat in the file once for each check record exported.

Sequence No.: This field indicates the position in the file that the section will appear. If you have multiple sections of the same type. The Header sections will always appear first in the file and the Footer sections will always appear last in the file, however if your file specification requires 3 header records, the sequence number will determine which header record appears first and so on. If you only have one of each section type in the format, the sequence number is inconsequential.

Detail: This field is controlled by Ceres and indicates whether the section has any detail format specifications defined in this section.

5. To access the detailed specification for a section, click on Related/Section/Detail Lines.

6. This will display the detail lines page for the selected section.

7. The following fields are available on the detail lines page. Each section may contain as many detail lines as necessary to define the structure of the detail line.

Description: This field is strictly informational and does not affect the file creation. Its purpose is to define the purpose of this detail line and what information it contains.

Start Position: This field designates the starting position of this data element in the record. Care must be taken to ensure that data elements do not occupy the same position in the export file record (i.e., two detail lines with the same start position number).

Field Length: This field indicates the number of characters the data element will occupy in the export file record.

Field Type: This field indicates the type of information this data element will contain. The available selections for this field are as follows:

1. Text – Contains alpha-numeric characters (example: Payee Name).
2. Number – Contains only the digits 0-9 (example: Check Number).
3. Amount – Contains digits 0-9 and may contain a decimal point if specified. (Example: Check Amount).
4. Date – Contains digits 0-9 for a valid date and is formatted as specified by the fields Date Format and Date Separator fields.

Value Type: This field specifies the source of the data element. The available selections for this field are as follows:

Literal – this indicates that the data element is a fixed data element (non-variable) and will be the same on every record exported. The value exported in this data element is specified in the Literal Value field. (example: The word TOTAL is required in positions 1 through 5 of a footer record).

Field – this indicates that the data element will be extracted from the database as defined by the Table No. and Field No. fields for the line. This is variable data type that allows Ceres to extract the required data element from the database.(example: Any of the information associated with the bank account or check ledger entry, including but not limited to, check number, check date, check amount, payee name, bank account number, etc.).

Counter – this indicates that the data element is a record counter and is normally used in the footer section as a control check to ensure that the export file is complete. (Example: this field can be used to indicate the total number of records in the file. It is normally specified in the footer section of export files).

System Date – this indicates that the data element should contain the system date from Ceres when the file was created. The system date should be Field Type = Date and the Date Format and Date Separator fields should be completed to insure the correct formatting of the data element. (example: Used to designate the date the file was created).

Literal Value: This field is used to specify the actual data to be populated in the data element when Value Type – Literal is specified on the detail record.

Table No.: This field indicates which database table object ID the data is to be extracted from for this data element. The data must come from tables associated with the bank check ledger entry tables. At this time, the only 2 tables supported are the following:

270 – Bank Account – this table can be used to access any data related to the bank account the check ledger entry was drawn upon including but not limited to the bank account number, transit number, institution number, etc.

272 – Check Ledger Entry – this table is used to extract the data elements related to the specific check entry including but not limited to the check data, check amount, payee, check date, void status, etc.

Table Name: This field will fill in automatically when the Table No. field is populated.

Field No.: This field is used to define the source field for the data element when the data is to be extracted from a database table. This field is used in conjunction with the Table No. field to specify the actual data field in the table needed for this data element.

Field Name: This field will fill in automatically when the Field No. field is populated.

Include in Total: This field is used to indicate to Ceres that the amounts on this record should be accumulated for use in a total record normally residing in the footer section. (example: used to total all the check amounts in this file – which may be required by the financial institution as a control check to verify the integrity of the export file).

Justification: This indicates whether the data element needs to be left or right justified in the space allotted for the data element. Some file formats require that the check amount be right justified in the field. If this field is left blank, the data element will default to left-justified.

Fill Character: This field is used to specify the character that any empty characters should be filled with for this data element if it is not to be Spaced filled. By default, the empty space in the data element will contain spaces. (example: Your bank required all check numbers to be 12 characters all numeric; you may enter 0 in this field to ensure that a check number 12345 is formatted as 000000012345in the data element).

Uppercase: This field is used to indicate that any alpha data characters in this data element are mapped to uppercase characters. (example: John Smith would be exported as JOHN SMITH).

Remove Spaces: This field indicates that any spaces in the data element should be removed from the exported data element. This will be most used to remove spaces from dates fields requiring no spaces (example: 10172013 instead of 10 17 2013 or 10/17/2013).

Include Decimal: This field is used for Field Type = Amount and indicates that the decimal point should appear in the data element. If this is unchecked, then the amount is exported with 2 decimal places implied but no decimal point. For example, the amount $123.40 will be exported as 123.40 if this field is checked but as 12340 if this field is unchecked. Most banks used the assumed decimal point.

Include Comma: This field is used for Field Type = Amount and indicates that the comma should appear in the data element. If this is unchecked, then the amount is exported with no commas. For example, the amount $1,230.40 will be exported as 1,230.40 if this field is checked but as 1230.40 if this field is unchecked. (CERES4.01.98).

Date Format: This indicates the data format required when the Field Type = Date is specified for the data element. The available options are as follows:

1. MM DD YY
2. DD MM YY
3. YY MM DD
4. MM DD YYYY
5. DD MM YYYY
6. YYYY MM DD

Date Separator: This field indicates what character is used to separate the components of the data field in the format specified. The available options are:

1. {Blank} - the separator will be a space – results in 10 17 2013
2. – {dash} – results in 10-17-2013
3. . {period} - results in 10.13.2013
4. / {slash} – results in 10/17/2013

Void Indicator: This field is used to specify a one-character designation that indicates to the financial institution that the record being transmitted is to indicate that the specific check has been voided. If your financial institution requires more than one character for the void indication, it can be accomplished by specifying several void indicator data elements on the detail section.

Creating the Positive Pay Export File

1. To export the check ledger data into a positive pay export file, you must access the check ledger entries page for the bank account. From the Bank Account Card, click on Bank Account/Check Ledger Entries.

2. The check ledger entries page for the selected bank will be displayed.

3. From the Check Ledger Entries Page, click on Related/Check/Create Positive Pay File.

4. The Export Positive Pay page will be displayed. Complete the filter criteria as required and press OK. The Include Sent Entries field can be toggled on to re-create a file from any period if the need to re-transmit or re-create a prior file becomes necessary. Please consult with your financial institution on the requirements or issues associated with transmitting records that have previously been sent to them.

5. Once the file has been successfully created, Ceres will respond with the following message indicating that fact.

6. The file should now be in your downloads directory. Transmission of the file to the financial institution is not done from Ceres; this is a manual function. Typically, the transmission to the bank is via some sort of web portal. Check with your financial institution(s) for the process and the file layout requirements.