Electronic Bank Payments – Manage Electronic Banking

Payment file processing 

After setting up and enabling features, payment files can be processed. 

Payment files can be processed for: 

1. Vendor bill & Employee expenses 

2. Customer refunds 

3. Customer payments 

Vendor bill and employee expenses processing 

Vendor bank set-up 

• Under the Bank details tab in the vendor records, check ‘EFT Bill Payment’. On enabling, the vendor’s bill will be listed on the Bill payments page where we generate payment files. Click Save. 
• Click on the ‘New bank details’ button. 
• The Bank details form will appear. Select payment file format [the exact fields depend on the file format selected; it depends on the bank and the country] 
• Enter bank details: 

1. Name 
2. Type – Primary and secondary [Primary assigns these bank details as default in transactions; only one bank account can be used as primary but multiple accounts can be used as secondary] 
3. Bank account number 
4. Bank number – Bank’s transit or routing number [used by bank specifically for electronic payments] 
5. Bank account type 

Generate payments for vendor bills 

• Navigate to Payments -> Payment Processing -> Bill Payment processing  
• Select the company bank account where payment transactions should be posted 
• Select A/P account 
• Select transaction type, due date filter range, vendor, and employee – to filter the search result 
• The date to be processed is by default today and the posting period is by default the current period. This can be changed if needed. 
• EFT File Reference note- to display in the header of the generated EFT file. 
• Aggregate by payee – group payments for the vendor, customer, or partner into a single payment transaction 
• If needed, we can select a department, class, and location 
• Beside Payee, select the ‘Pay’ checkbox. Click on Mark All if all payees are to be selected. 
• The number of transactions and total payment amount would automatically be updated based on our selection. 
• Review the payment amount against the Payee and adjust if needed. 
• Click Submit. 

On the Payment File Administration page, the file processed will be in queued status. Click Refresh to update the file processed field until it displays ‘processed’. 

Click download near file reference to save a copy of the payment file.  

Note: NetSuite does not automatically send the payment file to Bank. The user must upload the file to the bank’s electronic payment portal to be processed. 

Customer Payments and Refunds 

Enable Electronic Bank Payment for customers: 

Before proceeding with customer transactions, ensure that the customer records contain: 

• Customer bank details 
• Direct Debit – enabled [under Bank Payment details – Debit subtab] 
• EFT Customer Refund Payment – enabled [under Bank Payment details – Credit subtab]  

NOTE: Customer bank details should be added after enabling the direct debit and EFT customer refund payment checkbox. 

Adding customer bank details:

1. Click on ‘New Bank details’ under the Bank Payment details – Debit subtab. 
2. The bank details form will open. 
3. Enter details similar to the vendor. 
4. Click Save. Approved invoices can now be processed. 

Follow a similar process to add customer bank details for bank refund under the Bank Payment details – credit subtab. 

Customer payments 

We can generate payment files for customer payments using the Electronic Bank payments feature.  

Payment file – contains payment instructions and key information such as company bank details, customer bank details, and transactions. 
We can accept payments from multiple invoices and apply credit memos to corresponding invoices in a single payment file. Invoices must be approved before these can be processed. 
This payment file is then manually uploaded to the bank’s electronic portal. NetSuite does not automatically upload files to the bank portal. 
The bank processes the payment file so that the payment amount is debited from the customer’s bank account and deposited into our company’s primary bank account. 

Payment File Administration [PFA] 

When we create a payment file using Electronic Bank Payments, NetSuite creates a Payment file administration record or PFA. The PFA record contains bank details, a download link to the payment file, and a list of NetSuite payment records per payee. 

NetSuite also gives direct access to file management features directly from a PFA record, including payment rollback, payment reversal, recreate files, and reprocess payment. 

Access PFA 

• Navigate to Payments -> Payments processing -> Payment File Administration 

NetSuite displays a list of all PFA records and provides the ID, payment type, file process status, and creation date. The download link to the payment file is also provided for each PFA record. 

• Click View to see the record details. 
• Payment types – EFT for payment to vendors and employees; Direct deposit or DD for customers; Positive Pay 
• File processed – current status of the file 
• Timestamp – indicates when this record was processed 
• Status summary – identifies the number of transactions in the payment file, including, marked transactions, paid transactions and credits applied. 
• The company bank account used 
• Total amount paid 
• Process date 
• Under the Payments subtab, NetSuite payment records included in this PFA record is shown 
  Both the date and document number link back to the originating payment record. 
• In the File Reference field, we can preview, download, or edit the payment file. If the payment file was canceled or encountered errors, this field will be blank.  The payment file contains instructions that tell the bank to perform an electronic funds transfer.  The payment file must be uploaded to the bank portal to complete processing. [ This task is handled outside of NetSuite.] 

Payment Rollback – cancel a recent payment 

If the bank has not yet processed the payment file, we can roll back payments up to 24 hours after generating the PFA record. If we do not perform a rollback within this time limit, then we must perform a payment reversal. 

To rollback a payment: 

• Locate the PFA record and click View. 
• Review fields that will be affected. 
• The file reference field provides a link to the payment file. Once the rollback is clicked, this file will be deleted. 
• We can only click Rollback within 24 hours of time mentioned in the Time stamp field. 
• The payment records under payment subtab are also deleted when we do rollback. 
• Click OK in the popup window. 
• The file processed field shows the current status of the rollback. Click refresh until it displays cancelled. 
• Any associated vendor bills are reopened for us to modify. After updating, we can process the PFA again. 

Payment reversal 

Use the NetSuite reverse payments feature to avoid all or selected payments.  We can use reverse payments if rollback is no longer available and the bank has yet to process the payment file. When we reverse an entire payment, NetSuite creates a reversal journal entry to avoid payment records, deletes the payment file, and reopens all associated transactions for editing and processing. 

For entire payment reversals, NetSuite does not automatically reprocess or recreate the payment file. Instead, NetSuite makes the Reprocess button available on the payment file administration record. If we reverse selected payments only, NetSuite creates a reversal journal entry for the selected payment records, automatically reprocesses and recreates the payment file for the remaining transactions, and reopens the transactions associated with the voided payments for us to edit or process later. 

To reverse a payment: 

• locate the payment file administration record and click View.  
• Before you click Reverse Payments, review fields that will be affected by the reversal.  
• In the File Processed field, the current status is processed. This means that the bill payments have been processed in NetSuite and a payment file was created for them. 
• We can access the file from the file reference field. If we reverse all payment records, the payment file is deleted. But if we reverse only selected payments, NetSuite automatically creates a new file for the remaining payment records we did not reverse. 
• Under the multicurrency Payment details sublist in the Payments subtab, select the payments to be reversed and click the Reverse Payments button.  
• On the Payment reversal form, enter a reversal reason. 
• Review the reversal date and the reversal posting period fields. Adjust it if necessary. 
• Select transactions to reverse or use ‘Mark all’ for selecting all payments. The amount selected field automatically updates based on our selection. 
• Click Submit. 
• Refresh until the file processed field displays processed. 

Navigate to the Payment subtab, then the Multicurrency Payment Details sublist.  Notice that the reversed bill payments are no longer listed here.  

In the case of partial reversal: The bill payments are still recorded in NetSuite but are now voided because NetSuite automatically created reversal journal entries for each. Also, the vendor bills are reopened for us to edit and process later. 

In the case of complete reversal: NetSuite does not recreate a payment file because there are no bill payments to include.  Instead, all bill payments are voided, and NetSuite makes the reprocess option available to you. Click Download in the file reference field to save a copy of the new payment file to your local drive. Then manually upload the payment file to the bank’s payment portal for processing. 

Recreate payment files  

Use the NetSuite Recreate File feature to delete the current payment file and recreate a new one. We can recreate files for any payment file administration record that was successfully generated in NetSuite. Recreating a payment file deletes the current payment file and replaces it with a new one. This feature does not affect the NetSuite payment records associated with  the file. 

• To recreate a payment file, click view beside the PFA record 

When you use the Recreate feature, payment records are not affected. Only the payment file will be recreated.  

• Click Recreate file 

The File Processed field displays as queued. Click Refresh to update the file process column until it displays Processed. NetSuite generates a new payment file. Click Download from the file reference field to save a copy of the payment file to the local drive. 

• After saving, we can upload the new payment file to the bank’s payment portal. 

Reprocess payment files 

Use the NetSuite reprocess feature when a payment file administration record fails to process and results in errors or when we need to reprocess canceled payments. The feature reprocesses the PFA record and recreates the associated payment file. NetSuite also recreates payment records automatically. 

To reprocess a payment, locate the payment file administration record and click View.  Before clicking Reprocess, review the fields that will be affected by reprocessing the payment.  Note that the status in the File Processed field is canceled. We can reprocess any PFA record that has a status of either canceled or failed. 

A payment file is not available because the payment file administration record was canceled.  Go to the Payment subtab and then the Multicurrency Payment Details sublist. There are also no bill payments in this record.   

Click Reprocess. NetSuite displays a notification message that a new payment file and new payment transactions will be created. Click OK. 

The File Processed field displays as queued. Click Refresh to update the file process column until it displays processed.  

Navigate to the Payment subtab, then the Multicurrency Payment Details sublist, where you can see the new bill payments listed. The File Reference field provides a link to the new Payment file. Click Download to save a copy of the payment file. We can now upload the payment file to our bank’s payment portal.