Submit Pre-Authorized Payments
Executive Summary
Submit Pre-Authorized Payments prepares the electronic file that is sent to the bank to collect pre-authorized debit payments from clients. Billing staff start a submission for a branch, a date range, and a PAP account (the agency's bank account and originator setup). The system collects the pre-authorized payments dated in that range, checks that each client's bank details are complete, and builds the bank file in the format required by the PAP account's bank. Every submission is kept in a list so staff can reopen it, review its payments and its activity history, export it to Excel, or download the bank file again. The screen uses AlayaCare to find the signed-in user's branch.
Key Features
- Start a submission for a branch, date range, and PAP account, either as a live submission or as a test
- Add all qualifying pre-authorized payments to the submission, optionally limited to the departments linked to the PAP account
- Skip payments that are already in this submission or in another live submission for the branch
- Validate each payment's bank number, transit number, and account number before submitting
- Remove individual payments from the submission before the file is created
- Build the bank file for BNS, CIBC, RBC, TD, or BMO formats, save it with the submission, and download it
- Use the next file control number automatically for live files, and "TEST" for test files
- Reopen a submitted submission
- Review the history of everything done to a submission, with counts and values
- Export a submission, its payments, and its history to Excel
- Filter the submission list by branch (when the user may see all branches)
- Choose in the page settings whether submissions are made by department
Typical Workflow
- Confirm the Branch shown above the list.
- Click Add New Submission, choose the branch, date range, and PAP Account, tick For Testing Purposes if this is a test, and click Ok. The submission opens automatically.
- Click Refresh Transactions to add the qualifying payments.
- Click Validate Transactions. Use the Status filter set to Failed to find payments with incomplete bank details, fix the client accounts, and validate again. Use the remove icon to take a payment out of the submission if needed.
- When every payment has passed, click Submit. The bank file is created, saved with the submission, and downloaded.
- Use Export to save a summary to Excel, or Reopen to return a submitted submission to Open.
Configurable Settings
Open View Settings or Edit Settings from this screen (when permitted) to change these options.
| Group | Setting | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| General | Submit By Department | Yes/No | When on, each submission is limited to the departments linked to the chosen PAP account, payments are added one per department, and a Department column is shown. |
The bank, originator, and file control number details used to build the bank file are maintained on the PAP accounts, not in this dialog.
Available Permissions
The following permissions are available to be assigned to AlayaCare Roles:
| Attribute | What It Controls |
|---|---|
| View | Open the page |
| Settings View | Open View Settings to see the page configuration |
| Settings Edit | Open Edit Settings and change the page configuration |
| All Branches | Choose any branch in the Branch filter and when adding a submission. Without it, the page is limited to the user's own branch. |
Main Grid
Lists the submissions for the selected branch, newest first (14 rows per page; the first three columns stay in view while scrolling).
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| ID | Submission number. |
| Branch | Branch the submission belongs to. |
| Added | Date and time the submission was started, in your time zone. |
| Added By | User who started the submission. |
| From | First day of the payment date range. |
| To | Last day of the payment date range. |
| Test | Shows Yes for a test submission. |
| Status | Open or Submitted. |
| Submission Filename | Name of the bank file, once it has been created. |
| PAP Account | PAP account the submission was made for. |
| By Department? | Ticked when the submission is made by department. |
| Manage Records | Download icon (shown only when a bank file exists) and edit icon. |
Main Grid Filters
| Filter | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Branch | Limits the list to one branch. Shown as a dropdown (Select A Branch) only for users with the All Branches permission when more than one branch exists; otherwise the user's branch is shown and cannot be changed. The list refreshes as soon as a branch is chosen. |
Actions
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Add New Submission | Opens the dialog to start a new submission. |
| 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). |
| Download icon in Manage Records | Downloads the saved bank file. Hidden when no file has been created. |
| Edit icon in Manage Records | Opens the submission details. |
| Edit (right-click a row) | Opens the submission details. |
| Download (right-click a row) | Downloads the saved bank file. Disabled when no file has been created. |
Dialog Components
Start A New Submission
Opens from Add New Submission. Click Ok to create the submission.
| Field | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Branch | Branch the submission is for. Defaults to your branch. Can be changed only with the All Branches permission. |
| Choose a Range | Date range of the pre-authorized payments to include, by document date. |
| PAP Account | The PAP account (bank and originator setup) the file is built for. Required: "Please select a PAP Account" is shown otherwise. |
| For Testing Purposes | Makes the submission a test. Test files use the file control number "TEST" and do not use up a live file control number. |
Submission Details
Opens automatically after a new submission is created, and from the edit icon or Edit on the right-click menu. The title shows the submission ID and its status. The top of the dialog shows the date range (From, To), Transactions, Passed, Failed, and Total Amount, followed by the PAP account and, when submitting by department, the departments. A submitted submission also shows the Filename, Submit Date/Time, and Submit User. A reopened submission shows Reopen Date/Time and Reopen User.
Buttons depend on the status:
| Status | Buttons |
|---|---|
| Open | Refresh Transactions, Validate Transactions, Submit, Export. Submit is available only when the submission has at least one payment and every payment has passed validation. |
| Submitted | Reopen, Export. |
Tabs
| Tab | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Transactions | The payments in the submission, with their validation results. |
| History | A log of everything done to the submission. |
Transactions — Grid
Lists the payments in the submission (9 rows per page; the first four columns stay in view).
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Document Date | Date of the payment. |
| Type | Document type of the payment. |
| Client Name | Client the payment is for. |
| UID | AlayaCare client ID. |
| Billing Contact Name | Billing contact on the client account. |
| ID | Billing contact ID. |
| Department | Department name and number. Shown only when submitting by department. |
| Amount | Payment amount. |
| Validation Status | Passed or Failed. Blank until validated. |
| Message | Reason a payment failed, for example "Account details not complete". |
| Funder AC ID | Funder of the client account. |
| Transaction ID | Transaction number of the payment. |
| Validation Date | When the payment was last validated. |
| Manage Records | Remove icon. Shown only while no bank file has been created. |
Transactions — Grid Filters
| Filter | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Client/Billing Contact Name Includes | Limits the list to payments where the client name or billing contact name contains the text entered (not case-sensitive). |
| Status | All, Passed, or Failed. |
| Sort By | Document Date, Client Name or Client Name, Document Date. |
Click Apply Filter to refresh the list. Use Clear Filter to reset the name and status filters.
Transactions — Grid Actions
| Button | Description |
|---|---|
| Remove Transaction (remove icon, or right-click a row) | After you confirm "Are you sure you want to remove this transaction from the batch?", takes the payment out of the submission. The payment itself is not changed. Not available once a bank file has been created. |
History — Grid
Lists every action taken on the submission (9 rows per page; the first three columns stay in view).
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Action | Start Session, Refresh Transactions, Validate Transactions, Submit, Remove Transaction, or Reopen. |
| Action DateTime | When the action was performed. |
| Client ID | Client, for a removed transaction. |
| Client Last Name | Client last name, for a removed transaction. |
| Client First Name | Client first name, for a removed transaction. |
| Transaction ID | Payment transaction, for a removed transaction. |
| Document Date | Document date of the removed payment. |
| Credit Amount | Amount of the removed payment. |
| Added By | User who performed the action. |
| Processing Start | When the action started. |
| Processing End | When the action finished. |
| Duration | How long the action took. |
| Transactions Added | Payments added by a refresh. |
| Checked | Payments checked by a validation. |
| Passed | Payments that passed validation. |
| Failed | Payments that failed validation. |
| Submitted | Payments included in a submitted file. |
| Submitted Value | Total value of the payments in a submitted file. |
Dependencies
The following tables must be configured for lookups on this view to work:
| Table | Description |
|---|---|
| Branches | Branches offered in the Branch filter and in the new submission dialog. |
| Departments | Departments linked to the PAP account, used when submitting by department. |
| Document Types | Payment document types flagged as pre-authorized decide which payments qualify. |
| Funders | Funder codes shown in the Excel export. |
| PAP Accounts | PAP accounts offered in the dialog. Each holds the bank format, client number and name, originator details, return and settlement account details, and the next file control number used to build the file. |
Client accounts must also carry the pre-authorized bank number, transit number, and account number (and optionally the account holder's name and comments) for payments to pass validation.
Processing Overviews
This section describes what happens after you confirm a processing action.
Add New Submission (Ok)
- Requires a PAP Account. The dialog closes and a progress panel appears, with the option to cancel.
- Creates the submission with status Open for the chosen branch, date range, test setting, and PAP account, copying the PAP account's bank format and originator details into the submission.
- When submitting by department, records the departments linked to the PAP account.
- Adds a Start Session entry to the history, refreshes the list, and opens the submission details.
Refresh Transactions
- Finds the payments for the submission's branch whose document date falls from the start of the first day to the end of the last day of the range (in your time zone) and whose document type is flagged as pre-authorized.
- Leaves out any payment already in this submission, and for a live submission any payment already in another live submission for the branch. Test submissions only check against themselves. When submitting by department, only payments in the submission's departments are kept.
- If nothing is left, shows "No New Qualifying Transactions Found".
- Adds each remaining payment to the submission, copying the client account's bank number, transit number, and account number. When submitting by department, the payment's EFT message (the first 15 characters of its supplemental notes after "EFT Message: ") is also kept.
- Records the number of payments added in the history.
Validate Transactions
- Re-reads the bank number, transit number, and account number from each payment's client account.
- Marks a payment Failed with the message "Account details not complete" when the bank number is not 3 or 4 digits, the transit number is not 5 digits, or the account number is blank. Otherwise marks it Passed.
- Records the validation date for each payment, and the numbers checked, passed, and failed in the history.
Payments whose client account can no longer be found are not validated and stay blank, which keeps Submit disabled until they are removed.
Submit
- Checks that every payment has passed. If not, "Not all transactions have been validated." is shown and nothing is created.
- Builds the bank file in the format of the PAP account (BNS, BNS (EFT1464), CIBC, CIBC (EFT1464), RBC (STD152), TD (EFT80), or BMO (EFT80)). For a live submission the next file control number from the PAP account is used; for a test the file control number is "TEST".
- Saves the file (encrypted) with the submission, named PAD-{file control number}-{year}-{day of year}, and downloads it to your computer.
- For RBC (STD152) files, marks the submission Submitted with the submit date, time, and user. For the other bank formats the file is saved and downloaded and can be downloaded again from the list, and the status is not changed.
- Records the number and total value of the payments submitted in the history.
Reopen
- After confirmation ("Are you sure you want to reopen this Submission?"), changes the status of a submitted submission back to Open.
- Adds a Reopen entry to the history and shows "Submission Reopened".
Export
- Builds an Excel workbook with three sheets. Summary lists the submission's ID, date range, status, system type, branch, department settings, transaction counts and value, last submission date, user and filename, and who added it and when.
- Transactions lists every payment with its client, billing contact, account holder name and comments, department (when submitting by department), amount, validation result, funder, funder code, transaction ID, and validation date.
- History lists every history entry.
- Downloads the file, named papsubmission_{submission ID}_{date and time}.xlsx, and shows "Exported Successfully".