Import Payments
Executive Summary
Import Payments brings payments recorded in AlayaCare into the integration so they can be applied to client accounts. Finance staff choose a branch, billing cycle, year and period and start an import. For every funder on that cycle whose period is still open, the system reads the period's transactions from AlayaCare, keeps the payments for clients on the selected branch whose payment method is set up to be included in the import, and creates an open payment for each one that has not already been imported. Client accounts and billing contacts are created or refreshed from AlayaCare along the way. Each import is saved as a job in the list. Opening a job shows the payments, accounts and messages created and lets you export them to Excel.
Key Features
- Start a new import for a branch, billing cycle, year and billing cycle period
- Import only payments for clients on the selected branch, and only for payment methods flagged for the payment import
- Skip payments that were already imported, so an import can safely be re-run
- Automatically create or refresh client accounts and billing contact details from AlayaCare
- Apply a default department (set in the page settings) to every imported payment
- Keep a history of every import with its timing, duration, included count and message count
- Filter the import history by branch (for users allowed to see all branches)
- Review the payments, accounts and messages for an import, with name filters and sort options
- Export an import to Excel (Summary, Payments and Accounts sheets)
Typical Workflow
- Open View Settings or Edit Settings (when permitted) and make sure the default department is set. Start A New Import is blocked until it is.
- Click Start A New Import.
- Confirm the Branch, select a billing cycle, confirm the Year, and select a billing cycle period. Click Ok.
- Watch the progress panel while transactions are downloaded and payments imported. A message at the end reports success, errors found, or that no payments were imported.
- Find the new job at the top of the list. Check the Included and Messages counts.
- Open the job (the edit button in Manage Records, or right-click the row and choose Edit) to review the Payments, Accounts and Messages tabs.
- Click Export to save the job to Excel, then Close.
Configurable Settings
Open View Settings or Edit Settings from this screen (when permitted) to change these options.
| Group | Setting | Type | Purpose |
|---|
| General | Default Department for Payment Import | Dropdown | Department applied to every payment created by the import. Choose from the departments configured in the system. |
The label of this setting comes from the system configuration table.
Available Permissions
The following permissions are available to be assigned to AlayaCare Roles:
| Attribute | What It Controls |
|---|
| View | Open the page, start an import and review job details |
| All Branches | Choose any branch when filtering the list and starting an import. Without it, the page uses your own branch. |
| Settings View | Open View Settings to see the page configuration |
| Settings Edit | Open Edit Settings and change the page configuration |
Main Grid
Lists previous payment imports for the selected branch filter, newest first (12 rows per page).
| Column | Description |
|---|
| ID | Import job number. |
| Branch | Branch the import was run for. |
| Added | Date and time the import was started, shown in the tenant time zone. |
| Added By | User who started the import. |
| Cycle | Billing cycle imported. |
| Year | Billing year. |
| Period | Billing period number. |
| From | First date of the period. |
| To | Last date of the period. |
| Processing Start | Date and time processing began. |
| Processing End | Date and time processing finished. Blank while the import is running or if it did not finish. |
| Duration | How long the import took. |
| Included | Number of payments imported. |
| Messages | Number of messages recorded for the import. |
| Manage Records | Edit button that opens the import details. |
Main Grid Filters
| Filter | Purpose |
|---|
| Branch | Shows the imports for the selected branch. Users without the All Branches permission are limited to their own branch. |
Changing the branch refreshes the list immediately.
Actions
| Button | Description |
|---|
| Start A New Import | Opens the Start A New Import dialog. A warning is shown if the default department has not been set in the settings. |
| View Settings | Opens the page settings in read-only mode (when settings view is permitted). |
| Edit Settings | Opens the page settings for editing (when settings edit is permitted). |
| Edit (button in Manage Records, or right-click a row) | Opens the details of the selected import. |
Dialog Components
Start A New Import
Opens from Start A New Import. Choose what to import and click Ok.
| Field | Purpose |
|---|
| Branch | Branch to import for. Only payments for clients on this branch are imported. |
| Select A Billing Cycle | Billing cycle to import. Only funders assigned to this cycle are imported. |
| Year | Billing year. Defaults to the current year. In January and February the previous year is also offered. |
| Select A Billing Cycle Period | Period within the chosen cycle and year, shown as year, period number and date range. The list fills once a cycle and year are chosen. |
A warning is shown if no billing cycle or no period has been selected. The dialog closes when you click Ok and the import runs in a progress panel.
Details For Import ID
Opens from the edit button or right-click Edit on a job. Close it with Close. The top of the dialog shows read-only totals:
| Field | Purpose |
|---|
| Period | Year, period number and date range of the import. |
| Total Amount | Sum of the payment amounts imported. |
Click Export to save the job to Excel. The file contains three sheets:
| Sheet | Contents |
|---|
| Summary | Import details (ID, cycle, year, period, dates, processing times, duration, included count, added date and user). |
| Payments | One row per payment: AlayaCare payment id, client, billing contact, funder, amount and posting date. It follows the current filter and sort on the Payments tab. |
| Accounts | Client accounts used by the import. It follows the current filter on the Accounts tab. |
Tabs
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|
| Payments | Payments created by this import. |
| Accounts | Client accounts created by this import. |
| Messages | Warnings and errors written during the import. |
Payments — Grid
| Column | Description |
|---|
| Client UID | AlayaCare client ID. |
| Client Name | Client name. |
| Billing Contact Id | AlayaCare profile ID of the billing contact (0 when there is none). |
| Billing Contact | Billing contact name. |
| Funder Id | AlayaCare funder ID. |
| Amount | Payment amount. |
| Posting Date | Payment posting date. |
Payments — Grid Filters
| Filter | Purpose |
|---|
| Client/Billing Contact Name Includes | Shows payments whose client or billing contact name contains the text (not case-sensitive). |
| Sort By | Posting Date, Client Name (default) or Client Name, Posting Date. |
Click Apply Filter to refresh the list. Use Clear Filter to clear the name filter.
Accounts — Grid
| Column | Description |
|---|
| Client UID | AlayaCare client ID. |
| Client Name | Client name. |
| Funder Code | Funder code. |
| Funder Name | Funder name. |
| Billing Contact ID | AlayaCare profile ID of the billing contact. |
| Billing Name | Billing contact last name, first name. Blank when there is no billing contact. |
| Bill Contact Is Client | Checked when the billing contact is the client. |
Accounts — Grid Filters
| Filter | Purpose |
|---|
| Client/Billing Contact Name Includes | Shows accounts whose client or billing contact name contains the text (not case-sensitive). Accounts are listed by client name. |
Click Apply Filter to refresh the list. Use Clear Filter to clear the filter.
Messages — Grid
| Column | Description |
|---|
| Client UID | AlayaCare client ID. |
| Funder Id | AlayaCare funder ID. |
| Type | Warning or Error. |
| Message | Description of what happened. |
Common messages:
| Message | Meaning |
|---|
| Finding Client Details failed - retry | Warning: AlayaCare did not return the client, so the lookup is tried once more. |
| Retry Finding Client Details failed | Error: the client could not be loaded after the retry. The payment is not imported. |
| Local Payment Method not found. name | Error: the payment's method is not set up in the system. The payment is not imported. |
| Payment Method does not have a document type. name | Error: the payment method is flagged for import but has no document type. The payment is not imported. |
Dependencies
The following tables must be configured for lookups on this view to work:
| Table | Description |
|---|
| Billing Cycles | Billing cycles offered in the Start A New Import dialog. Also covers its billing cycle periods: periods offered for the selected billing cycle and year. |
| Branches | Branch used to filter jobs and to select the branch to import. |
| Departments | Departments offered for the default department setting. |
| Funders | Funders assigned to the selected billing cycle. Also covers its funder periods: A funder period must exist for the cycle, year and period and must be open for that funder to be imported. |
| Payment Methods | Each AlayaCare payment method must be set up, flagged for the pre-authorized payment import, and have a document type. |
Processing Overviews
This section describes what happens after you confirm a processing action.
Start A New Import
- A new import job is saved with the branch, cycle, year, period dates, your user name and the start time.
- Funders assigned to the selected cycle are listed. For each funder, the funder period is checked. If it does not exist or is closed, the funder is skipped.
- The transactions for the period dates are downloaded from AlayaCare, and only payments for that funder are kept.
- For each payment, the client is loaded from AlayaCare (tried a second time after a short wait if the first attempt fails; if the retry fails an error is saved and the payment is skipped).
- If the client is not on the selected branch, the payment is skipped without a message.
- The payment method is looked up. If it is missing, an error is saved. If the method is not flagged for the payment import, the payment is skipped without a message. If the method has no document type, an error is saved.
- For payments to be imported, the client account for the client, funder and billing contact is looked up. If it does not exist it is created from the AlayaCare client details (using the year of the client's first service). If it exists, name, address, phone, email, branch and billing-contact-is-client details are refreshed from AlayaCare, with the changes written to the action log. The billing contact's details are saved or updated from AlayaCare at the same time.
- If the AlayaCare payment has not already been imported, it is counted as Included and an open payment is created: the posting date, the amount as a credit, the payment method's document type, the default department from the settings, the payment method description as the note, and whether the payment was cancelled in AlayaCare. Payments already imported are left unchanged.
- If a payment cannot be saved, an error is shown and the import stops at that point.
- When all funders are done, a message reports whether payments were imported, whether errors were found, or that no payments were imported. The job is updated with its end time, duration and number of payments included.