Jo’s Did You Know “You Can Set Up and Use EFT in Dynamics GP” You Can Send Funds AND Receive Them! A Game-Changer! Part 1

In this post we’ll cover how to Set Up EFT’s for Payables and Receivables, in the next post, found HERE we’ll take a look at how to use them and the best practices around that!

You can set up and use Electronic Payments in Dynamics GP by setting up and using the EFT functionality that’s already part of your GP install!

EFT stands for Electronic Funds Transfer and it is meant to streamline the process of sending electronic payments to your vendors and receipts from your customers through whichever bank you currently use.

The process of creating and choosing payments in Payables Management is only a little different than cutting standard checks and the process of receiving funds from Customers is also only slightly different as well.

How Do You Begin Setting Up EFT Functionality?

The absolute first step is to talk to your banking contact. Most business accounts must be activated in order to use electronic funds payments which means planning and working out the security for sending and/or receiving electronic funds on your account is the very first step.

The second step is to obtain the file format that your bank uses for electronic funds transfers so that you can set GP up to mimic that format to then successfully send or receive the payments. Most banks will send an informational packet with the format to you which can then be utilized to customize the format output from GP.

Speaking of the File Format – Let’s Let GP Know What to Do.

At Financial>Cards>EFT File Format

The format window contains two areas, the header area that contains setup and text information and the Field Detail area where once you have selected the Line Type to use (discussed later) you can tell GP very specifically what each of the digits or groups of digits represent in your file.

Header Area Options:

EFT Format ID:

First assign a unique ID for the EFT Format ID. In the format it would be a good idea for you to indicate if this format is for Purchasing or Sales and perhaps even more indicators in the event you may need several EFT Format ID’s.

Description:

Be even more specific in the Description if you’d like

Format Type:

Next, we’ll setup the Format Type. As you can tell from the screenshot below there are a good number of pre-formatted US File Types (there are also pre-formatted Canadian Types) that are setup for you right out of the box. Most banks will use one of the formats which means you will, possibly, only need to tweak it a bit to get it setup!

If your bank does not happen to use one of these pre-formatted types, you do have the option of using the “User-Defined” file format!

The format for IAT NACHA is specifically for use when paying international payments.

File Type:

This will auto fill if you selected one of the pre-set Format Types. However, the choices are either a Flat file or an XML file.

Format Class:

If you select one of the pre-formatted types, many of the rest of the options will auto-fill for you except for Format Class – here you may choose whether it is a “Not Specified” or one of the following options:

• Business Account
• Corporate Account
• Personal Account
• Foreign Account

Max Line Length:

                The established maximum number of characters allowed per line of data in the file

Line Type:

Ah, now it gets interesting. Each file contains sections in it. The sections needed will be dependent upon your banks requirements.

As you use the drop down and select sections you can note that the bottom section of the window, the Field Detail area, changes to allow for the different data types that will be in the section.

Your section choices are:

• Header Label 1
• Header Label 2
• File Header
• Batch Header
• Detail
• Addenda
• Settlement
• Batch Control
• File Control
• Trailer Label 1
• Trailer Label 2
• IAT Batch Header
• IAT Detail
• IAT Addenda 1
• IAT Addenda 2
• IAT Addenda 3
• IAT Addenda 4
• IAT Addenda 5
• IAT Addenda 6
• IAT Addenda 7
• RBC IAT Address Record 1
• RBC IAT Address Record 2

Again, you do not need to fill each of these out – only the ones required by your bank! For instance, the US-NACHA-PPD only uses these sections:

• File Header
• Batch Header
• Detail
• Batch Control
• File Control

Add Pad Blocks:

You can select this in the event you are setting up a User-Defined Format Type. Tell GP what the Pad Character is, the Number of Pad Characters and the multiple of pad lines in your file.

Delimit Fields:

When setting up a User Defined Format Type, select what the field delimiter is in your file

• Comma
• Tab
• Space
• Other

You may also select the text qualifier which identifies text in the field by single or double quotes. The text qualifier is not required but if you select an option other than none, you can further let GP know which lines use the text qualifier using the scrolling window.

Generate Auto-Settlement for each Detail:

Select if you need GP to automatically generate settlements for each detail

Detail Line Addenda:

Select if you need detail line addenda

Field Detail Area Lines

In this section of the setup window you will let GP know what every character of the number of characters entered in the Header Field “Max Line Length” means.

In the header area of the EFT setup window, in Line Type, use the drop down to select which of the lines of detail you require to setup and then let GP know what each of the fields and number of characters represent.

Field:

A unique numeric representation of the number of fields in this Line Type Row.

Length:

How many digits does this particular field in this row contain?

Start-End:

The starting character number to the ending character number which should total the Length of the characters in this field.

Description:

A description of what this particular group of digits represents

Maps To:

Here you tell GP more information of what this group of digits in this line represents. Use the expansion arrows to the right of the column names to open up the setup choices for the fields. Your choices are:

• Constant – a constant character that does not change
• Data Field – a field that will come from the GP data once the file in generated.
  • In the drop down area select the table name and field name that this data field will represent.
  • Other options for Date Format will open up if the field you selected is a Date Field.
  • If you select a field that is an Amount field you the options to Remove Decimal Places and Decimal Places number will open up.
• System Date – This will pull the System Date of your computer and place it in the file at generation.
  • In the drop down you will then have the option to select the format of the date in the file
• System Time – This will pull the system time of your computer.
  • There is no format option for this
• Transmission Date – This is the date that you will enter when you generate the file
  • In the drop down you will then have the option to select the format of the date in the file
• Calculation: Use the drop down to determine the calculation type, the choices are:
  • Addenda Record Indicator
  • Batch Count
  • Block Count
  • Hash Total
  • Detail Count
  • Addenda Count
  • Line Count
  • Total Credit Amount
  • Total Debit Amount
  • US-NACHA Trace Number
  • Total Number of Credits
  • Total Number of Debits
  • Detail + Addenda Count
  • US-NACHA Entry Sequence No
• XML Grouping
• Settlement Date (use the dropdown to set the format of the date)

Once you have setup each Line Type that your bank requires you are ready to go to the next step: Keep in Mind that most banks in the US use the US-NACHA or US-NACHA-PPD + formats, so you may not have to adjust the lines that much or at all.

*Remember that if you will be using EFT for both Payables and Receivables that you will need to set up a Format ID for each of those.*

My File Formats Are Complete, What are the Next Steps?

Now you’ll need to “teach” GP which bank account to use and how and where to send the files for the EFT Payments

Bank Setup

Go to Financial>Cards>Checkbook and select the checkbook you want to use, then click on EFT

• Choose your bank’s Country/Region
• Input the Routing Number (Careful if you’re testing, GP will check to make sure it’s a legit Routing Code)
• Input the Bank Account Number
• Input any other information the bank may require!
• For multi-currency this will include the Country Code and ISO Currency Code, etc.
• NOTE the communication type and that, if your bank allows it or has the functionality you can auto link up to an application that is external to GP or automatically upload to an external internet link to send the file.

Next, Click on Payables Options or Receivables Options, they are similar, but require separate setups to use both. If you only intend to use one of them, the other is not required!

Payables Setup

Here is where you teach Dynamics GP how you want the EFT to work and where you would like the output files saved.

Your options are:

• EFT Payment Numbers:
  • Do you want the payment numbers in GP and the output file to use the “Next Check Number” from the bank setup OR do you want it to use it’s own self-generated “Next Number?
    • If the selection is to Use EFT Numbers, enter in the Next EFT Payment Number
  • EFT Payables Option:
    • Let GP Know if a Payables Prenote is required, and if so, what is the prenote grace period?
  • File Format:
    • Here is where you tell GP which of the EFT File Formats that you have setup to use for Payables.
      • If a Single Format for all vendors – choose that single format
      • If you need to have several different EFT File Formats and the pay based on the Type of Format you can code each of those in to the “Based On Vendor” section. Your Options Are:
        • Business
        • Corporate
        • Personal
        • Foreign
        • Default Output Files:
  • When you generate the EFT payments, GP will place the generated file in your choice of location and by what name you choose.
    • You may have separate locations and or files (or both) for Foreign Payments
    • You will also be able to let GP know where to save the prenotes that you may need.

Receivables Setup:

The only difference in this setup from the Payables Options are that you cannot choose whether to use the Next Check Number from the Checkbook setup. Otherwise, see the above section for setup information

Are We Ready To Start Using EFTs Now?

Not quite yet….

There is also setup at the Vendor and Customer level to complete.

*Keep in mind while reading this that these setups can be done with a Mail Merge Macro, which takes the pain out of changing each one individually – you can find information on using Mail Merge Macros by David Musgrave Here*

Vendor Setup:

For both Customers and Vendors, the EFT Setup is controlled at the Address Level.

This is great as it opens up the flexibility to pay the vendor via EFT by selecting the address with the EFT information on transactions or not selecting it. Those transactions with the EFT address will be paid ONLY by EFT and those transactions that do NOT have the EFT address code will be paid as usual!

Once you have decided which Address ID to use for the EFTs, you’ll want to consider using that Address ID in the Remit To field on the Vendor Card.

To begin the setup, click on EFT Bank in the lower right-hand corner!

You will now see an image much like the Bank Setup for EFT

• Choose your bank’s Country/Region
• Input the VENDOR’s Bank Name
• Input the VENDOR’s Routing Number (Careful if you’re testing, GP will check to make sure it’s a legit Routing Code)
• Input the VENDOR’s Bank Account Number
• Input any other information the Vendor’s bank OR your bank may require!
• For multi-currency this will include the Country Code and ISO Currency Code, etc.

VENDOR AND CUSTOMER SETUP IS ALMOST IDENTICAL: with the exception that on vendor setup you may utilize the field for “Building Society Roll No”

Now you are setup and ready to use EFT to Pay Vendors or Get Receipts from Customers!

The Next Post on How to Use EFT’s in Dynamics GP Can Be Found Here!