The Bill Payment process in Farm Focus allows to you export multiple batches to your online banking, and identifies your invoices with a batch number to allow for more efficient matching to bank transactions.
You can print out your list of invoices, and see a running bank balance to see the effect your payments will have on your total balances.
You will find the Bill Payment page in the Actuals > Needs Action by selecting the Bill Payments tab:
Before you start:
Check in your Needs Action screen that your invoice amounts are correct and have the correct Other Party.
You can update bank account information for your Contacts in the Settings. Your invoice numbers will export as the reference on your bank payment, but you will need to enter the Code and Particulars into the Contact information.
Create a New Batch:
The Bill Payment screen will show a list of all of your Invoices in order of their due date. Ensure you have selected the correct bank account in the dropdown menu at the top of the screen.
Select the invoices you want to pay by checking the boxes down the left hand side:
If your Invoice does not have all the relevant details to be able to download a bank file, it will be flagged with the green information icon, and by clicking on the icon you will be notified on what details need updating - Other Party needs to be set up as a contact, No bank account details etc.
If you need to amend any details in the invoice you can choose from the 3 menu dots to edit the invoice directly from the Bill Payments page. This will save and update the information for your Needs Action screen as well.
Once you are happy with your selection, Click to Create new batch, and choose the date you want these to be paid. Choosing a date in the Farm Focus bill payment screen will show you the effect these payments will have on your running bank balance.
TIP: You can also choose to merge payments with the same Other Party so that you pay on the Statement amount, rather than multiple separate invoices. Just check the box at the top of the screen to Merge Payments.
Your draft batch is now created.
(1) Check the batch is correct on screen.
(2) Remove the batch if it is wrong or you no longer want to export it.
(3) Export the batch to create a file to upload to your bank.
(4) Print the Bill Payment report for your records, or to send for authorisation if required.
(5) View what your bank balance would be on completion of the payment of this batch
When you click to Export batch file, the invoices selected will have a Batch number issued to each of them, and this will also be flagged in your Needs Action page and your Quick Matching page with the Batch token to make for an easier matching process.
The batch is now downloaded for you to Upload to your Online Banking.
Troubleshooting:
Re-Export a batch
If you have exported a batch and the file is downloaded, you will be able to retrieve that file from your Downloads folder on your computer.
If this file is missing and you need to create a new file, you will have to delete the batch and re-create the batch again. This will issue a new batch number.
It is recommended that you create a batch as a draft and do not click the export button until you are ready to action the download of the file for your bank payments.
Remove an Invoice from a Batch
You can remove an invoice from a draft batch by selecting
Remove an invoice from an exported Batch. Ensure that you also remove this invoice when you upload your online banking payments.
Create Multiple Batches
You can create multiple batches with different payments, and see your predicted bank balances tracking down the right side of the screen.
Cancel a Batch
Click on Remove for the entire batch to cancel it completely. This can be for exported and draft batches. By selecting this option, it will transfer the invoices back into the main list.
What happens if I get a green icon
This highlights an error and provides hints as to why you may not be able to add this invoice to a bill payment file.
What happens if I match an invoice that has been exported?
If you match an invoice that has been exported in a batch and not yet paid, this invoice will be disabled in the batch. You will need to ensure you delete it from the list when it is uploaded to the bank, or otherwise remove the batch and create a new one without that invoice.
Printing Options
There are several printing options available in the Bill Payments page. You can print a list of the entire page, print only a draft batch, or print only an exported batch. These are helpful if you need to send a list of the invoices to another party for authorisation.
Batch #0001
Our Bill Payments page was released on 1st October 2021. If you had bill payments already exported that hadn't yet been matched at that date, they will automatically be flagged with the Batch #0001 token in the Needs Action and Quick Matching pages.
My payments aren't available to select
Check that the correct bank account is selected within the Invoice that matches the Bank account you have selected in your Bill Payments screen