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Positive Pay File Forms

This chapter contains the following topics:

Introduction to Positive Pay File Forms

Form Definitions

Entering Positive Pay File Forms

Displaying a Positive Pay Form

Printing a Positive Pay Forms List

Introduction to Positive Pay File Forms

This selection allows you to design a text file that may be used to send to your bank for positive pay following the printing of checks.

Before you start, read the appendix Implement Positive Pay and Direct Deposit for the steps you need to do to use this feature.

A form file can be used with stub header, stub lines and certain check fields.

A/P comes with two predefined positive pay file forms, as listed below. These predefined forms are provided following a new PBS installation. They are available in export files and can be restored for additional companies. Keep in mind that the same file contains check forms, remittance forms and positive pay file forms.

When you enter a bank, using the CTL Banks selection, you must specify a positive pay form ID to be used. The form must exist in the Form file. The bank is associated with a cash account. When you Print checks and post and select a cash account, the form associated with the cash account in the bank will be used.

For a list and details about the predefined forms use the Reports > Positive pay forms selection.

If you select to use a different form you can make a copy of an already existing form and modify the copy. You may also design your form from scratch, but it is probably easier to modify an existing form.

An unlimited number of forms can be defined with this selection. This form designer allows you to print most fields from the A/P open item and vendor files.

We suggest that you first become familiar with the predefined forms provided.

Form Definitions

Described below are definitions for certain terms used in this selection and in this chapter.

Each file consists of three information groups: Header, Check lines, and Totals.

Header

is the first line(s) of the file. There is usually one line per file. This may contain information about your company, your bank, your bank account number and more.

Check lines

are written under the header line. There will be as many check lines as there are checks printed. In other words there is one line per vendor being paid on the check run.

Totals

are written usually as the last line of the file. The fields that are available are similar to the header fields. Normally payment amount totals are included in this record type.

Entering Positive Pay File Forms

An unlimited number of positive pay file forms can be defined with this selection. Positive pay forms allows you to select most of the fields from the vendor and open item files.

Select

Positive pay forms from the Master Information menu.

The following screen displays:

On this screen you identify the positive pay form with an ID, type, and description, You also define its general appearance.

From this screen you can work with both new and existing forms. If a form exists for the form ID and type you specify, that form appears and is available for changes or deletion.

Enter the following information:

1. Form ID

Options 

Enter the ID for this form, or use the options:

2. Description

Enter the description of this form.

3. File type

Enter the character that designates the type of positive pay file that will be used. The types are listed below:

4. File format

This field determines if the positive pay file has line feeds only (LF) or both carriage returns and line feeds (CR/LF) at the end of each line. The choices are different depending on the operating system where PBS is installed.

The choices on a Windows system are 0 = Operating system default - CR/LF DOS file or 1 = Line feed only UNIX/Linux file. In UNIX and Linux the choices are 0 = Operating system default - line feed only UNIX/Linux file and 1 = CR/LF DOS file.

If you are unsure which file format to use, ask someone from your bank the format they prefer. If you are still unsure, select the operating system default and send a test ACH file to your bank using that choice. A representative from the bank will let you know if you need to try the other option.

5. Width (max = 998)

This field will display as (Not applicable) if you selected a CSV form type.

Enter the number of columns that may be written to each record of the text file.

6. Include voided checks ?

Consult with your bank contact person to determine if they want a list of the voided checks in the positive pay file. These are the options:

7. Void format

This field can not be entered if you selected N for field 6.

Select how you want the void check amounts to be written to the positive pay file.

8. Omit header record ?

Consult with your bank contact person to determine if they want have the lines only and have the header record omitted from the positive pay file. These are the options:

Field number to change ?

Make changes as needed. If it is a new file format, after you select <Enter> the Field Definition Screen will display. For an existing form you are then asked the following:

View/change form layout ?

Answer Y if you wish to review or work with any of the fields to be printed on the form. Otherwise select N to remain on this screen with the cursor moving back to the Form ID field. The default is Y.

Field Definition Screen

When defining a new form, or if you specified to view the layout of an existing form, the screen appears as such:

On this screen you determine each field to be written to the positive pay file. Many fields may be selected to written.

For each field, enter the information as follows:

1. Field group

Enter H if the field is part of the Header group, L for the Check lines group or T for the Totals.

Options 

You may also use one of the options:

2. Line number

Enter the line number on which this field is to be generated in the file, or press <F1> to the display the next field on file within this group.

3. Column

or

Sequence number

Options 

Enter the starting column in which to print this field, or use the Option

Your entry may not be greater than the width of the form.

At Field number, the screen displays as follows:

The window that displays at the bottom of this screen shows the 13 fields available for printing from the Header or Totals group.

If you specify a Line group, a window with different fields display.

If you had previously selected any of these fields to print on this form, an asterisk appears next to the field number.

Refer to thePositive Pay Form Fields appendix for a description of each field from each group.

Continue entering the information as follows:

4. Field number

Options 

Enter the number of the field that you wish to select, or use one of the options:

5. Conditional print ?

Answer Y if this field is to print only when some field (to be specified next) meets a specific condition. Answer N if this field should always print.

If you answer Y, these additional fields appear:

When Field-# 999

When the field selection window appears enter the number of the field upon which printing is dependent.

Enter the conditions that this field must meet in order for the field being defined to print.

First, enter one of the following abbreviations:

Then enter the value that the dependent field must contain to complete the condition. Press <Enter> to indicate a value of zero (for a numeric or date field) or spaces (for an alphanumeric field).

Fields With Multiple Conditions

If you need to write a field to the positive pay file when either one condition or another is met, define the field specifying the first condition as described above. Then redefine the field, using the same line number, column number and field number.

After entering the field number the following message displays:

This field is already defined.

Do you wish to define a duplicate ?

Answer Y to define the duplicate field and complete the definition, specifying the other condition under which the field is to print.

This allows printing under one condition or the other. There is no way to request printing when both conditions are true.

Alphanumeric, Numeric, Date, and Literal Fields

The remaining fields control the appearance of data on the form. The fields requested depend on the type of field you selected in Field number (field number 4). There are four different types:

Alphanumeric fields

They may contain any combination of letters, digits, and special symbols.

Numeric fields

They only contain digits, along with any decimal points, minus signs or parentheses (for negative numbers), and commas.

Date fields

They only contain dates. Check date fields may be formatted.

Literal fields

They contain text that you type. Literal fields are defined by pressing <Enter> at Field number, rather than specifying a field number.

Alphanumeric Fields

The following two fields display for each alphanumeric field:

6. Length

Enter the number of characters you want to be written to the file for this field, up to the maximum number shown, or press <Enter> for the maximum length of the field.

7. Justify

Enter R to right-justify the field, or press <Enter> for no justification, to print the characters as entered.

If you specify right-justify, the characters will be aligned with the right-hand margin of the space for this field.

Numeric Fields

The following five fields display for each numeric field:

6. Integer digits

Enter the number of integers (digits to the left of the decimal point) you want to print in this field, up to the maximum shown, or press <Enter> for the maximum shown.

7. Decimal digits

If the field has no decimal places, (Not applicable) displays here.

Enter the number of decimal places you want to print, up to the maximum shown, or press <Enter> for the maximum shown.

8. Commas ?

If the field has less than 4 integer digits, (Not applicable) displays here.

Answer Y to use commas when printing this field.

9. Leading zeros ?

If you specified to use commas, (Not applicable) displays here.

Answer Y to include any beginning zeros when printing this field.

10. Negatives ?

(If the field cannot be negative, (Not applicable) displays here.)

Enter the letter that designates how negative numbers are printed, as follows:

When you complete entry of a numeric field, the print format of the field as you have defined it is displayed on the screen.

Date Fields

The Format field displays for each date or time field.

6. Format

For a date field, select the format to use when printing this field as follows:

Formats 6, 7 and 8 require a separator value.

Separator

The value for this field will display as N/A (Not applicable) if you selected date field formats of 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5. For check formats 6, 7 or 8 select the separator value to print between the day, month and year:

When you complete entry the print format of the date or time as you have defined it is displayed on the screen.

Leading zeros ?

For formats 6 and 7 you must define whether a leading zero is needed for the month using format 6 and the day for format 7.

For example, without a leading zero the date could be 4092012. With a leading zero the date is 04092012. Notice that the first example is 7 digits long and does not start with a zero . The second is 8 digits long and does start with a zero.

Literal Fields

The following three fields display for each literal field:

6. Length (max = 80)

Enter the number of characters to be used when printing this field, up to the maximum shown, or press <Enter> for the maximum shown.

A total of 1000 characters is available for printing all literal fields on a form, with a maximum of 80 characters for each. (A message displays when less than 150 characters are available.)

7. Text

Enter the exact text to be printed, up to the length specified in field # 6.

Testing Forms

A test file can be generated.

To test your form file, at the first Forms screen press <F5>. A window displays where you must enter a bank. Enter your Company ACH bank type as defined in Ctl Banks.

Then select <Enter> and the form file will be generated to the same path as defined in the bank record.

If you are on Windows or Thin client and you have selected to merge data with a form file, the form file will print with the test check form.

In the file it represents Xs for alphanumeric fields, 9s for numeric fields and overlapping fields as question marks.

Copying Forms

You can rapidly produce a new positive pay form by copying an existing form that is similar to the new one. After copying the form, tailor the new form by changing the form and field information as necessary.

To copy a form, at the first Forms screen

Display the existing check form that you wish to copy and press <F6>.

A window displays for you to enter the following information:

Copy to form ID

Enter the ID of the new form. The form ID will be automatically created during the copy process if it does not already exist.

After the copy process is complete you may change the new form as needed.

Displaying a Positive Pay Form

While entering a form you can press <F2> to see what the file output looks like so far. Follow the screen instructions.

Due to the nature of CSV fields, they will never overlap.

In the case of a text file, if one field overlaps another field, either question marks or asterisks appear in the area of overlap.

Question marks display if none of the overlapping fields are conditionally generated, in which case you probably need to change the position of a field.

Asterisks display if at least one of the overlapping fields is conditionally generated. In this case, you may wish to review the definitions of the overlapping fields to ensure that they do not generate a field under the same conditions.

Printing a Positive Pay Forms List

This selection prints a report that lists the positive pay forms you have defined. You may select to print a specific form type or all form types for the forms.

For each form type on the list you are shown general information. The field definitions for each form type may also be optionally printed.

Select

Positive pay forms from the Report menu.

This is the screen you see:

Graphical Mode

Character Mode

On the screen that appears, enter the following:

Starting form ID

Ending form ID

Enter the range of form IDs for which to print the list. Follow the screen instructions.

Options 

You may also use the following option:

Print fields

Check the box to print the information defined for each field on a form. If you uncheck the box, only the general information about a form is printed.

OK or Cancel

Select OK to print the report or Cancel to return to the menu.