Create Pre-Authorized Payments
Executive Summary
Create Pre-Authorized Payments creates the payment entries for client accounts that pay by pre-authorized debit. Billing staff start a session for one funder and one billing cycle period. For every client account of that funder that is set up for pre-authorized payment and still owes a balance at the end of the period, the system records a payment dated on the funder's pre-authorized payment date for the full balance owing, and reconciles it against the open charges on the account. Each session is kept in a list so staff can open it to see the payments it created and any errors, or export a session to Excel.
Key Features
- Start a session for a funder and billing cycle period, after checking that the funder's pre-authorized payment date, message, and period are ready
- Create one payment per eligible client account for the balance owing at the end of the period, split by department when the balance is spread across departments
- Automatically reconcile each new payment against the account's open transactions
- Skip accounts that have a negative department balance, and record an error message for any account that could not be processed
- Review past sessions with the funder, period, duration, number of payments created, warnings, and errors
- Open a session to see the payments created (with their department breakdown) and the messages recorded
- Export a selected session, with its payments, to Excel
Typical Workflow
- Make sure the funder's period has a pre-authorized payment date and message set up, and that the period is not closed.
- Click Create New Session.
- Select a billing cycle, year, funder, and billing cycle period, then click Ok.
- When processing finishes, a message reports how many transactions were created and the new session appears at the top of the list.
- Use the edit icon in Actions (or right-click the session and choose Edit) to review the payments on the Invoices tab and any problems on the Messages tab.
- Select a session and click Export Selected to save the session and its payments to Excel.
Available Permissions
The following permissions are available to be assigned to AlayaCare Roles:
| Attribute | What It Controls |
|---|---|
| View | Open the page and its session details |
Main Grid
Lists every session that has been started, newest first (14 rows per page).
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| ID | Session number. |
| Added | Date and time the session was started, in your time zone. |
| Added By | User who started the session. |
| Cycle | Billing cycle of the session. |
| Year | Year of the period. |
| Period | Period number within the cycle. |
| Funder ID | Funder the session was run for. |
| Funder Name | Name of that funder. |
| From | First day of the period. |
| To | Last day of the period. |
| Start | When processing began. |
| End | When processing finished. Blank if the session did not finish. |
| Duration | How long the session took ("< 1 minute", "1 minute", or "n minutes"). |
| Payments Created | Number of payments created. |
| Warnings | Number of warnings recorded for the session. |
| Errors | Number of errors recorded for the session. |
| Actions | Edit icon that opens the session's details. |
Actions
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Create New Session | Opens the dialog to start a new session. If any account transaction is missing its client account record, an error is shown instead (see Dialog Components). |
| Export Selected | Exports the selected session to Excel. Exactly one session must be selected; otherwise nothing happens. |
| Edit icon in Actions | Opens the session's details. |
| Edit (right-click a row) | Opens the session's details. |
Dialog Components
Start A New Report
Opens from Create New Session. Click Ok to check the selections and begin processing. Ok is disabled while the checks run.
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Select A Billing Cycle | Billing cycle for the session. Choosing it fills the funder list. |
| Year | Year of the period. Defaults to the current year. Choosing it fills the period list. |
| Select A Funder | Funder to run the session for. Lists the funders on the selected billing cycle. A funder is required: "Please select a Funder" is shown if none is chosen. |
| Select A Billing Cycle Period | Period to run, shown as year, period number, and date range. Lists the periods for the selected billing cycle and year. |
Before processing starts, the system checks the funder's period and shows a warning if any of these fails:
- The funder has no period set up for the selected cycle, year, and period ("No Funder Period").
- The period has no pre-authorized payment date ("Preauthorized Payment Date for this Funder and Period has not been configured.").
- The period has no pre-authorized payment message ("Preauthorized Payment Message for this Funder and Period has not been configured.").
- The period that contains the pre-authorized payment date is closed, or cannot be found ("Period closed", "Period not found", "Funder Period not found").
Error
Opens in place of the start dialog when Create New Session is clicked and the system finds an account transaction with no matching client account. It reads "The system has detected that an account transaction is missing a corresponding client account record. Please contact ACIntegrations support for assistance." Click Ok to close it. No session can be started until support resolves it.
Session Details
Opens from the edit icon in Actions or from right-clicking a session and choosing Edit. Use the back arrow beside the title to return to the list. The top of the page shows the session's billing cycle, year, funder number and name, and period number (this field is labelled Year on screen). These cannot be changed.
Tabs
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Invoices | The payments created by this session. |
| Messages | Errors and other messages recorded while the session ran. |
Invoices — Grid
Lists the payments created by the session, newest first (10 rows per page). Expand a row to see its department breakdown when the payment is split across departments.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Date | Payment date, which is the funder's pre-authorized payment date. |
| Number | Transaction number. |
| Client UID | AlayaCare client ID. |
| Client Name | Client the payment belongs to. |
| Billing Contact ID | AlayaCare ID of the billing contact on the account. |
| Billing Contact Name | Billing contact on the account. |
| Type | Document type of the payment, taken from the client account's pre-authorized payment setting. |
| Department | Department the payment is applied to. Blank when the payment is split across departments. |
| Notes | The document type description, and the "EFT Message" from the funder's period. |
| Status | Transaction status. |
| Credit | Payment amount. |
The expanded department breakdown lists Department and Amount.
Messages — Grid
Lists the messages recorded for the session (14 rows per page).
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Invoice ID | AlayaCare invoice ID, when the message relates to one. |
| Invoice Number | AlayaCare invoice number, when the message relates to one. |
| Client UID | Client the message relates to. |
| Funder Id | Funder the message relates to. |
| Type | Message type, for example Error. |
| Message | Description of the problem. |
Dependencies
The following tables must be configured for lookups on this view to work:
| Table | Description |
|---|---|
| Billing Cycles | Billing cycles offered when starting a session. A funder's billing cycle decides which funders are listed. Also covers its billing cycle periods: periods offered for the selected billing cycle and year, and used to confirm the pre-authorized payment date falls in an open period. |
| Departments | Departments on each client account, used to work out balances and the payment split. |
| Document Types | Document type description printed in the notes of each payment, taken from the client account's pre-authorized payment setting. |
| Funders | Funders offered in the dialog and shown in the grid. Also covers its funder periods: pre-authorized payment date, pre-authorized payment message, and closed status for each funder and period. |
Client accounts must also be marked as pre-authorized, with a pre-authorized payment start date (and optional end date) and a payment document type, for the account to be included.
Processing Overviews
This section describes what happens after you confirm a processing action.
Start A New Report (Ok)
- Requires a funder, then checks the funder's period setup as described under Dialog Components. If any check fails, a warning is shown and nothing is started.
- Closes the dialog and shows a progress panel (the session cannot be cancelled once started).
- Creates the session record for the funder, billing cycle, year, and period.
- Finds the funder's period. If it has no pre-authorized payment date or message, nothing is processed.
- Finds the funder's client accounts that are marked as pre-authorized for the period end date and that owe a balance as of the end of the last day of the period (in your time zone).
- For each account, loads its open transactions up to that date and works out the open balance for each department.
- Skips the account, without a message, if any department has a negative balance.
- If the total balance owing is greater than zero, creates a payment (a credit) for that amount, dated on the funder's pre-authorized payment date, using the document type set on the client account and the funder's pre-authorized payment message in the notes. When only one department has a balance the payment is applied to that department; otherwise it is split across departments by their balances.
- Reconciles the new payment together with the account's open transactions so they are cleared against each other.
- If anything fails for an account, that account's changes are undone and an Error message is added to the session's Messages tab. Other accounts continue.
- Saves the end time, duration, and Payments Created count, shows "n Transactions created" (or "Process Finshed - No transactions created"), and refreshes the list.
Export Selected
- Requires exactly one session to be selected.
- Builds an Excel workbook with two sheets. Home lists the session's ID, added date and user, cycle, year, period, from and to dates, start, end, duration, and payments created.
- Transactions lists each payment created by the session with these columns: Client Name, Client UID, Funder Name, Funder AcID, Billing Contact Name, Billing Contact ID, Document Date, Type, Department, Notes, Supplemental Notes, Premium Id, Status, Qty, Rate, Debit, Credit, Balance, Transaction Id, Document Reference, Deposit Id, Reconcile Id, Reconcile Date, Add Source, Add User, Entry Date, and Payment Processor Client Account ID. Department breakdown lines appear beneath payments that are split.
- Downloads the file, named papdetails_{session ID}_{date and time}.xlsx, and shows "Exported Successfully".