Voucher and Payment Processing

This section discusses:

  • Voucher processing.

  • Payment processing.

PeopleSoft Payables provides control over voucher processing and enables you to control voucher header information. The system:

  • Checks for duplicate invoices.

  • Calculates and confirms taxes.

  • Converts the transaction currency to the base currency.

  • Assigns default payment terms and calculates the payment due dates.

  • Validates your suppliers against financial sanctions lists if financial sanctions validation is required.

You also have control over voucher line items. The system assigns numeric line numbers for you to ensure that each has a unique identifier. When you enter merchandise amounts on voucher lines, the sum of the line amounts must equal the gross voucher amount less the sum of freight, sales tax, and VAT entered on the voucher header. You can also define the sales and use tax and VAT at the voucher line level. In the event of an imbalance, you determine how the system responds—either rejecting or recycling vouchers until they are correct.

Approving Vouchers

All vouchers must be approved before they can be paid. There are three ways to approve vouchers:

  • Matching vouchers to purchase order, receiver, and inspection information.

    Matching occurs automatically based on the match rules—a set of rules and tolerances—that you define for a purchase order transaction. If the voucher successfully matches, it is available for payment. If the voucher does not successfully match and requires an adjustment, the system can automatically create a debit memo.

    If a voucher does not pass matching, you can still pay it if you have selected the Pay Unmatch Voucher option on the User Preference - Procurement: Payables page for your user ID. If do not select the Pay Unmatch Voucher option, you can only pay vouchers with a Matched or No Match match status.

  • Routing vouchers through worklists and email using Workflow.

    Workflow approval is most often used for vouchers that are not related to purchase orders, but it is not limited to that use. If you want, you can record a voucher as preapproved. The voucher is not routed for approval, and it is available for payment immediately—provided that it has been matched or that matching is not necessary.

  • Manually approving individual vouchers online.

Posting Vouchers

The Voucher Posting Application Engine process (AP_PSTVCHR) creates balanced accounting entries for vouchers. The system combines information entered for a voucher with other control information—offset accounts stored on the accounting entry templates and ChartField inheritance rules—to create the balanced entries. Vouchers do not have to be approved for accounting entries to be created.

You post vouchers through a batch process that you run periodically using Process Scheduler. You can continue to process new transactions online during posting.

PeopleSoft Payables also enables you to unpost vouchers—that is, you can back out the accounting entries made to accrue the liability and reopen the vouchers for amendment or closure.

Once vouchers are posted, the information created is available for distribution to other business processes, such as the Journal Generator Application Engine process (FS_JGEN), which converts payables accounting entries to general ledger journal entries.

The payment processing included in PeopleSoft Payables enables you to create disbursements for transactions that flow through PeopleSoft Payables.

PeopleSoft Payables supports a number of payment formats: system check, automated clearing house (ACH), electronic funds transfers (EFTs), wire transfers, giros, drafts, direct debits, and letters of credit. The system is delivered with several, ready-to-use EFT formats particular to local needs.

The PeopleSoft Payables Payment Interface also supplies a means for processing payments for transactions outside the PeopleSoft Payables system. This interface is used by PeopleSoft Treasury to make settlement payments and by PeopleSoft Expenses to make expense payments. The interface integrates with the PeopleSoft Financial Gateway functionality, enabling another means of electronic payment processing for EFT, ACH, and wire transfers. You can also use the interface to process payments for other in-house systems.

As part of the voucher entry process, the system schedules vouchers to be paid based on the pay terms and holiday options. If pay terms include discounts, the system also calculates a discount due date. You create pay cycles to group types of vouchers to be paid in a single payment run. For example, you might want to have one payment cycle for regular suppliers and another for employee reimbursements or check requests.

Each pay cycle that you create is essentially a reusable payment selection template that specifies the selection criteria the system uses to determine which approved vouchers should be paid. For example, you can select payments based on business unit, bank and bank account, supplier pay group, pay through date, and payment method, among others.

Note: During payment processing the system validates your suppliers against financial sanctions lists if financial sanctions validation is required. The system does not allow payments to suppliers who are potential matches to the financial sanctions lists.

Payment Posting

The creation of accounting entries for payments occurs during payment posting. As you post payments, the system generates corresponding accounting entries to relieve the liability, account for discounts earned (or lost), and generate an offset either to the designated cash account or to a PeopleSoft Payables clearing account if so designated at the bank account level. Like the Voucher Posting process, the Payment Posting Application Engine process (AP_PSTPYMNT) is a batch process that runs in the background.