Overview of Federal Payment Schedule Processing
U.S. Federal agencies use payment schedules (also called Treasury schedules) to group vouchers in batches that the system pays all at once. You establish rules to make those batches of payments on time, based on invoice, receipt of goods and services, and acceptance dates.
Payment scheduling by due date helps U.S. Federal agencies fulfill their Prompt Payment Act obligation to bundle payments with shared characteristics when sending them for processing by the Department of the Treasury.
In PeopleSoft Payables, the Pay Cycle Application Engine process (AP_APY2015) selects payments during a pay cycle run and assigns them to the appropriate payment schedule. The Pay Cycle process then produces a transaction file of the payment schedule for you to deliver to the Department of the Treasury. A voucher is known as a warehoused payment until it is selected for a schedule, generated as a transaction file, and transmitted to a Treasury Disbursing Office (TDO).
The Pay Cycle process groups payments for submission to the TDO when they share the following characteristics:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
|
Agency Location Code (ALC) |
A numeric symbol used to identify accounting reports and documents prepared by or for agency accounting stations and disbursing offices (for example, eight-digit agency location station code, four-digit checking account symbol, and three-digit Treasury office number). For more information, see Application Fundamentals: Defining Agency Location Codes |
|
Payment schedule type |
The field that indicates whether payments cover transportation expenses or other expenses. |
|
Payment method |
The physical means of payment, such as a check or electronic funds transfer (EFT). |
|
Treasury Account Symbol |
An alphanumeric field, 27 characters in length representing the fund that the payment is drawn from. For more information, see PeopleSoft General Ledger: Defining Component TAS and BETC Elements in Compliance with Federal Reporting Requirements |
You can also set up payment schedule processing so that it generates a new schedule after the current schedule reaches a defined number of payments and appropriations. You perform this setup for each payment method and EFT layout combination used for payment schedules, using the Payment Schedule Restrictions page.