Electronic Bank Payments
The main features of Electronic Bank Payments are described in the Bank Links section. To use this feature the user must be licensed for Bank Links and have bank software that Trust Accounts can create a file for. At the time of writing only Lloydslink is supported.
Overview
The steps involved in making electronic bank payments are as follows:
Nominal Client Details
A check box is available for Beneficiaries. This must be ticked to switch on Electronic Bank Payments. In some cases the Beneficiaries are the same as those set up in Statutory Database for trusts. If so then tick the setting Link to Stat DB. In other cases, e.g. where the entity is not a trust or where Statutory Database is not in use do not tick Link to Stat DB.
Beneficiaries
When Beneficiaries has been ticked a new option appears on the Nominal Ledger menu. If Link to Stat DB was also ticked then on going into Beneficiaries for the first time all the beneficiaries set up in Statutory Database will be copied into Trust Accounts. Any changes to the beneficiaries’ names should be made in Statutory Database. If Link to Stat DB was not ticked then the beneficiary names are set up manually using the New, Edit and Delete buttons.
Beneficiary Bank Details
However the beneficiaries were set up you can highlight a beneficiary and press Edit. If the beneficiaries are linked to Statutory Database then most of the fields are disabled. But in all cases you can press a button to set up the Bank Details. These include the beneficiaries’ sort code and account number. The beneficiary Bank Details are the payee accounts for the client.
Client Bank Details
In Nominal Client Details there is a Bank A/cs button. Pressing this allows the client Bank Details to be set up. This is a similar process to setting up beneficiary Bank Details. The main difference is that each beneficiary can have only one bank account whereas multiple client bank accounts are allowed. The client Bank Details are the payer accounts.
Data Entry
Once the bank accounts have been set up an extra option is available in Data Entry called Electronic Bank Payments. The screens look the same as for normal Bank Payments except that there is an extra one that requests the Electronic Payment Details. This screen requests the payee account (one of the Client Bank Account Details records) and the payer account (one of the Beneficiary Bank Account Details records). It also requests the payment method, e.g. CH for CHAPS (same day clearing) or BA for BACS (3 day clearing) etc. A message can also be sent with the payment to appear on the payee’s bank statement.
Editing Entries
The Electronic Payment Details on an entry can be edited so long as the payments file has not yet been generated. Entries with Electronic Payment Details can also be deleted and the payments will never be written to the payments file. Once the payments file is generated all the Electronic Payment Details are deleted and cannot be reentered. So editing or deleting an entry after the payments have been written to the payments file has no effect on the payments the bank makes.
Generating the Payments File
The payments file is generated through the option Activities > Global Operations > Electronic Bank Payments. This option creates the payments file for payments made by all clients on the system since the last time the payments file was generated. The option is single-user, i.e. there can be no other users in the system when it is run. First the user runs an Electronic Bank Payments Report. Normally this report is checked, authorised and kept for reference. If any errors are found the entries should be edited in the usual way before proceeding. When the report is correct, the option Create File is used to create the payments file. After creating the payments file the system automatically deletes all the electronic payment fields from the bank payments. This prevents them being paid again and leaves them like normal (non-electronic) payments.
Security
The Bank Details containing the client and beneficiary bank account numbers are sensitive information. It is important that operators cannot make payments into their own bank accounts. So Bank Details can only be edited if the user has the Local User Access right to Edit Bank Details.