AP Cheque Prep is used to reconcile and pay Suppliers by EFT,
Credit Card or Cheque. This process will produce remittance advices that can
optionally be automatically emailed to suppliers paid via EFT (contact the
Support Desk to set this up). If no bank account details exist on the suppliers
account, the system will pay the suppliers by Cheque and assign the cheque
numbers. If all the bank account details are completed on the suppliers account,
the system will pay the supplier by EFT.
Note: If multiple
suppliers are paid via EFT in the one payment run, the system assumes that they
are paid out of your bank account as a 'multi transfer' and one total comes out
of your bank account to be distributed to the multiple suppliers.
Reconcile Suppliers
The first step in paying suppliers is to reconcile to the
statements received from the suppliers to the balances you have in your COSTAR
system. This ensures that your processing is correct, will pick up on any
mistakes your supplier may have made and ensure that your stock is as accurate
as it can be.
From
the Suppliers menu.
Click
on AP Cheque Prep.
If
you already have an icon set up, highlight it and click Properties.
If you need to create a new icon, click on New.
Set
the Cheque Run Date. This is the date you will be paying the
suppliers. If you are unsure of when you will be paying simply set a date
and it can be changed later. I.e. If you write a cheque, what date would
you write on it?
Set
the Pay documents due on or before date to indicate which
documents to consider in this payment run. For example, if you are paying
documents that are due to be paid by the end of March set the Pay
documents due on or before to the end of March. I.e. 31 March
Tick Preview
Run as you simply want to reconcile at this point.
Select
the Bank Account the suppliers will be paid out of.
Tick Show
details on cheque register.
Optionally,
in Selections (bottom LHS) you can select certain Suppliers only for this
Payment Run.

10. Click on Pay Status. This displays each
supplier in this payment run.
11. Reconcile the balance displayed on the screen to the Suppliers
statement. If it matches, nothing else needs to be done in the reconciliation
process. if a total doesn't match click on the + next to the supplier to expand
that supplier to show the transactions that make up the Amount.

At this stage you may need to process extra documents that have
been missed, put accounts on hold or change due dates. You can come out of and
go back into the Pay Status screen as many times as you need to.
If there are too many transactions on a Supplier to reconcile on
the screen, ensure Preview Run is ticked back on the properties screen, Ok and
then Prepare. You will be shown a Pay Status screen as a report. This can be
printed for you to reconcile against.
Processing a
Payment run
Once the supplier accounts are reconciled and you want to finalise
the payment run:
From
the Suppliers menu
Click
on AP Cheque Prep
Highlight
and click Properties on the appropriate AP Cheque
Prep icon
Ensure
the Cheque Run Date is set to the correct date that the
payment will be made
Untick Preview
Run
Click Assign
Next on the Cheque Number (if you are paying by Cheque type in
the next cheque number from your cheque book)
Click Pay
Status and double check the amounts to be paid one last time
Click Back
Click Ok
Click Prepare
Select
the Accounting Period that you are making the payments
in, not the month of the invoices that you are paying. (For example, if
you are paying the suppliers in February select February regardless of the
dates of the transactions you are paying)
Click Ok
The system will:
Pay
each supplier selected moving the paid transactions to history in AP
Inquiry.
Update
the Bank Reconciliation with the payment amount/s.
Email
any remittance advices to suppliers paid by EFT if your eCommerce Centre
is set to do this (contact the Support Desk for more details).
If
you are configured to use electronic files with your online banking
software the EFT Transfer file will be created in
Financials>>EFT Batches is ready to be exported. To export
them, from Financials>>EFT Batches, select the file to export and
then click Export on the top toolbar.
Setting up Payee
Supplier
A supplier can be flagged as a Payee Supplier meaning that you pay
this supplier for several suppliers. This feature is used in the case of a
buying cooperative, such as Capricorn.
On the Payee suppliers account, tick the Can be payee for
multiple supplier’s tick box.
Now set this supplier as the A/P Cheque Prep will pay this
supplier field on any of the suppliers you pay through the payee
supplier

If you need assistance with this or any other feature of COSTAR please contact our Support Team.