Payment proposals (SEPA)
Payments are carried out in the ’Payment proposal’ screen shown below. This screen shows all open Customer transactions.
Note: that the word ’Payment’ is also used in this article to describe payments approved via mandates and drawn from the Customers’ bank accounts.
The following table gives a description of each column:
| Column | Read/Write | Description | Note |
| Payment status | R | Payment status. | The payment status column is updated automatically but can also be edited manually. For a more detailed description see the section below on the ’Change status’ button. |
| Date sent | R | The ’date sent’ is the date/time upon/at which the payment request was sent. | |
| Account | R | Customer number. | |
| Account name | R | Customer name. | |
| Date | R | Posting date for the transaction. | |
| Due date | R | Date after which the payment is past due. | |
| Payment date | W | Payment date. | The Payment date is automatically set to the Due date unless the Due date is exceeded. If the Due date is exceeded, then today’s date is automatically entered in the Payment date field. Uniconta will take account of bank holidays, if activated (read about activation here).
The Payment date is the banking day upon which the transaction occurs in both your and your Customer’s accounts. |
| Text | R | Transaction text. | This text will not be entered in the payment file. |
| Invoice | R | Invoice number. | |
| Amount | R | Transaction amount. | |
| Remaining | R | Amount remaining. | The remaining payment if the ’Partial payment’ field is not filled out. |
| Partial payment | W | Partial payment amount. | Must only be filled out if the full amount is not requested. If a Cash discount is given, then this field will automatically deduct said discount. |
| Transaction type | R | Transaction type | |
| Status information | R | Status information | A chronological log of all activities performed on the transaction. |
| Comment | W | Internal comments | Information provided in this field is for internal use only and will not be printed on the payment file. |
| Message | W | Message to Customer. | This text will be printed on the payment file. |
| System info | R | System information | This column includes system information on the transaction. For example, error messages etc. |
| Invoice text | R | Not used | Only used for the Danish ‘Nets’ solution. |
| Payment format | W | Format (File format for methods of payment). | This column shows which method of payment has been selected for the payment. |
| Voucher | R | Voucher number | |
| Payment | R | Payment terms | |
| Currency | R | Currency code | Direct Debit SEPA only allows payments in EUR. |
| Payment reference | R | A unique ID for the payment. | A unique payment ID is generated upon sending. |
| Merge payments | R | An ID for merged payments. | Merged payments use an ID for the grouping. |
| Cash discount date | W | Cash discount date | Invoices paid before this date will trigger a cash discount. |
| Cash discount | W | Cash discount amount | |
| Cash discount used | W | Used cash discount | Cash discount amount to be applied. |
The following section describes the buttons in the local menu.
’Validate’ button
This button runs a set of validations for the selected transactions according to their payment formats. The system checks deadlines, for example, whether there is an active mandate and performs a list of several other validations.
The result of the validation can be viewed in the ‘System info’ column. Only the payments with ’OK’ in this column will be sent.
’Export’ button
All selected payments with a Payment status of <Blank>, Resent or Stop will be sent upon pressing this button. Validation will automatically be run before sending. Read more about file creation below.
’Import’ button
Not used
’Merge payments’ button
Payments with the same Payment date can be merged. Read more about this function below.
’Expand All’ button
This button becomes active upon using the ’Merge payments’ function.
’Collapse All’ button
This button becomes active upon using the ’Merge payments’ function.
’Change status’ button
The payment status is automatically updated, however, it can also be updated manually using this button. The table below gives a detailed description of the various status options. It is possible to change the status of a transaction, with some limitations (see the last four columns in the table below in this regard).
| Status | Description | Change -> <Blank> | Change -> Resend | Change -> On hold | Change -> Stop |
| <Blank> | Default status showing that the line is awaiting action. All lines can be edited to show this status independent of the line’s current status. However, it will not always be appropriate. | No | No | Yes | No |
| Sent | The payment has been sent (the file has been created). | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| In progress | Not used | Yes | No | No | No |
| Unregistered | Not used | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Rejected | Not used | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Reversed | Not used | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Error | Not used | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Received | Not used | Yes | No | No | No |
| Difference | Not used | Yes | No | No | No |
| Resend | Not used | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| On hold | This payment status can be entered manually. | Yes | No | No | No |
| Information | Not used | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Stop | Not used | Yes | No | Yes | No |
’Transfer to journal’ button
This button transfers the selected transactions to a general journal. The following dialogue box will appear:
The dialogue box will automatically be filled out with the default values entered in the ’File formats for methods of payment’. In the above example, the payments will be transferred to the ‘SEPA’ journal and posted to the offset bank account 1010.
‘Layout’- ’Other fields’
Other fields (for example, from the mandate table) can be obtained using the ‘Layout’ button and by selecting ‘Other fields’. In the screenshot below the user has added the fields: ’Mandate’, ’Status’, ’Registered’, ’Scheme type’. The user can then filter for the active mandates.
Searching for payments
Payments can be selected by Due date, using the date delimitation fields as shown in the screenshot below.
Uniconta’s various filter functions are particularly useful here. In the example below, the user has set a filter in the ’Account’ column.
Note: Payment files are only sent for the listed/filtered payments shown.
Tip: Use the ’Comment’ field to filter for payments you wish to make.
In the example below, the user has typed an ’x’ in the ’Comment’ field for the payments that they wish to make. The user then filters for all fields with an ’x’ in the Comment field before sending.
Status ’On hold’
Status ‘On hold’ can also be used to search for payments. Use the ’Change status’ button to edit the status on the selected payments. Payments set to ’On hold’ will not be sent.
’Merge payments’ button
’Merge payments’ allows the user to merge payments by Customer and Payment date, enabling both efficiency and cost savings where the user needs to collect several payments from the same debtor on the same date.
Payments are merged using the ’Merge payments’ button. Uniconta will now attempt to merge the payments according to the conditions described above. We recommend sorting the payments to exclude those that the user does not wish to send at this time. This can be done using Uniconta’s filter functions.
All payments will be validated before they are merged. Any payments containing errors will be placed in an ’Excluded’ group. Read more about this group below.
Merged payments can be unmerged by clicking on the same button again (which is now called ‘Cancel merged payments’).
Credit notes etc.
Credit notes and other negative transactions are also included in the merged payments.
’Expand All’ button
This button is activated when ’Merge payments’ is used. All groups are expanded when this button is selected.
’Collapse All’ button
This button is activated when ’Merge payments’ is used. All groups are collapsed when this button is selected.
’Show/Hide Status information’ button
Status information is shown in the ’Status information’ column, but can also be shown at the bottom of the screen for a better view by using this button.
’Show/Hide Text’ button
Only used for the Danish ’Nets’ solution ’Payment service’.
’Validate’ button
Validates each payment in the group. If an error occurs on one of the payments, then it will not be merged with the other payments. A description of the error can be viewed in the ’System Info’ column.
The payments in the example above have been merged into six groups.
The first five groups will result in six payments. The last group ’Excluded’ contains all of the payments that will not be included in the payment file.
The following is a description of the groups. The groups are categorized by their ‘Merge payments’ ID. This ID is a combination of the unique key: (<Customer number>-<Payment date>) which identifies the payments in the group.
Merge payments: –
Payments in this group will be handled one at a time. This means that two payment requests will be made. One for each of the two Customers.
Merge payments: 50001-20190807
Customer 50001 has seven amounts due with a payment date of 07.08.2019. One merged payment will be created for the total of 2,990.50 DKK. The payment will be drawn on 07.08.2019.
Merge payments: 50002-20190729
Customer 50002 has two amounts due with a payment date of 29.07.2019. One merged payment will be created for the total of 1,847.27 DKK. The payment will be drawn on 29.07.2019.
Merge payments: 50002-20190807
Customer 50002 has four amounts due with a payment date of 07.08.2019. One merged payment will be created for the total of 1,322.40 DKK. The payment will be drawn on 07.08.2019.
Merge payments: 50005-20190729
Customer 50005 has eight amounts due with a payment date of 29.07.2019. One merged payment will be created for the total of 18,452.92 DKK. The payment will be drawn on 29.07.2019.
Note that two of the transactions are credit notes which will be deducted.
Merge payments: Excluded
All payments that contain one or more errors or do not fulfil the criteria for any other reason, will be placed in the ‘Excluded’ group. These payments will not be included in the payment file.
Transfer to journal
Uniconta keeps track of which payment lines were merged when they are transferred to the general journal.
The example above shows that 6 lines will be transferred to the journal. The ’Settlements’ column shows the transactions that are paid. These invoices will automatically be settled upon posting the journal.
File archive
All payment files that have been created will be archived in the ‘File archive’. The file archive can be opened directly from the local menu in the payment proposal screen.
The following is a description of the columns in the file archive.
| Column | Read/Write | Description | Note |
| Created | R | Date upon which the file was received/sent. | |
| Vendor account number | R | Vendor account number | Unique company ID. |
| Export | R | A tick here represents the receipt/sending of the file. | Files created in Uniconta will receive a tick mark here. |
| File name | R | The name given to the electronic file. | The file name is created using
the following information: |
| File-ID | R | A unique file ID | |
| Payment format | R | Format (File format for methods of payment) | Indicates which payment method the file relates to. |
| Status | R | The status column can be one of the following: Pending The file has not been read yet. Ok The file has been correctly processed. Error Indicates that this payment/mandate needs to be reviewed. |
|
| Status information | R | A log of all activity. |
The following is a description of the buttons in the local file archive menu:
’Show/Hide Status information’ button
The status information can be seen in the relevant column. However, it is also possible to see the information at the bottom of the screen for a clearer view.
’Export file’ button
It is possible to export files if the user wishes to review their content.
‘View’ button
This button can be used to view the contents of each file.