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Configuring E-automate for EFT

Using e-automate, you can create the files necessary for your financial institution to process vendor payments electronically. To use this functionality, both your financial institution and the financial institution(s) of the vendor(s) you want to pay by electronic funds transfer (EFT) must support EFT transactions.

To begin preparing for processing EFT transactions, you obtain from your financial institution the information necessary to create an EFT charge against the account from which you will process EFT transactions. You use this information to configure the cashbook account from which to process EFT transactions.

Once you have configured in e-automate the cashbook account from which you will process EFT transactions, you can turn on EFT options. The EFT options are part of the company-wide e-automate accounts payable options.

After you have configured your cashbook for EFT transactions and have enabled the EFT options, you can configure the vendors who are to be paid by EFT. This process requires obtaining from the vendors the information necessary to process EFT transactions to their accounts via their financial institutions and then using this information to configure the payment method portion of the vendor profiles for these vendors.

After you have configured the cashbook account you want to use for processing EFT transactions, enabled the EFT options, and configured the applicable vendor profiles, you can generate an EFT file containing prenotes to send to your financial institution for processing. A prenote is a zero-dollar electronic funds transfer from your account to the vendor's account that allows the applicable financial institution(s) to verify the transaction is occurring as expected. After you generate the EFT file and deliver the file to your financial institution for processing, you wait a specified number of days for any errors to be reported. If the number of days elapses and no errors are reported for a vendor's prenote, signaling that the configuration settings are working as expected for EFT from your cashbook account to the vendor's account, the system automatically makes the vendor eligible for EFT payments to be processed from your cashbook account. If your financial institution reports any errors involving one or more of the prenotes, you can correct the applicable configuration setting(s), generate a new EFT file containing a new prenote for each vendor for whom a payment processing error occurred, deliver the EFT file to your financial institution again, and repeat this process as necessary until no additional errors are reported.

Until the setup process is complete, you cannot pay a vendor via EFT using the Pay Vendors window. You can still pay the vendor using a different payment method (e.g., check). Once the setup process is complete, and a vendor's profile lists on the Payment method tab a payment method of EFT - Electronic Funds Transfer along with an Active as of [date] that is in the past, you can generate an EFT payment to the vendor via the Pay Vendors window. You can disable EFT for a vendor should you decide to stop paying by EFT.

Configuring a Cashbook Account for EFTConfiguring a Cashbook Account for EFT

To configure a cashbook account for EFT, do the following:

Contact a financial institution and ensure that they offer EFT services.

From the financial institution, obtain the following information:

Immediate destination: Routing number (required)

Destination name: Name of financial institution.

Immediate origin: 10-digit number assigned from financial institution when approved to originate ACH files. Sometimes includes federal tax ID. (required)

Origin name: Name of company as listed on statements from company’s financial institution.

Company ID: 10-digit number assigned to financial institution to create ACH files, same as Immediate origin. (required)

Company name: Name of company as listed on statements…..same as “Origin name”

Determine from your financial institution whether or not your EFT file should contain an account debit record.

Determine from which account you intend to draw funds electronically.

From the Accounting menu, select Cashbook Accounts to display the Cashbook Accounts window.

Select the account you intend to use in conjunction with EFT transactions.

Click [Edit] to open the Edit Cashbook Account window.

On the Edit Cashbook Account window, click the EFT tab to bring it forward.

On the EFT tab, do the following:

Check the Use EFT payments checkbox.

Using the information you collected in Step 2 above from the financial institution, complete the following fields:

In the Immediate destination field (required), enter the value provided for Step 2.a. above.

In the Destination name field, enter the value provided for Step 2.b. above.

In the Immediate origin field (required), enter the value provided for Step 2.c. above.

In the Origin name field, enter the value provided for Step 2.d. above.

In the Company ID field (required), enter the value provided for Step 2.e. above.

In the Company name field (required), enter the value provided for Step 2.f. above.

If your financial institution required the debit record, check the Include account debit record in the EFT file checkbox.

Click [OK] to save your changes to the cashbook account.

Configuring EFT OptionsConfiguring EFT Options

To configure the EFT options, do the following:

From the e-automate Tools menu, select Options to open the Options window.

In the left pane, click on Accounts Payable to display the accounts payable options.

Click the [EFT options...] button to open the EFT Options window.

Check the Use EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) checkbox to enable the system to generate electronic funds transfer (EFT/ABA) files, which are then delivered to your financial institution to initiate the transfer described in your EFT file.

In the Wait the following days after sending pre-note to activate vendor for EFT field, enter the number of days the e-automate system should wait after sending a pre-note to activate the vendor’s EFT capability. ACH rules state that you cannot send EFT payments until six banking days have elapsed after a pre-notification.

In the EFT file output location field, enter the location on your local computer or network where the system should store the generated EFT/ABA files.

Note: You must have write access to this directory. Use the […] button to browse for an EFT file location.

In the Cashbook account field, enter the cashbook account used for EFT transactions.

Note: If you have not configured any cashbook accounts for EFT, none are available. You must configure your cashbook account first.

Click the [OK] button to close the EFT Options window.

Click the [OK] button to save your changes and to close the Options window.

Note: If you made any changes, e-automate displays an Attention window, indicating that all users must restart e-automate in order for these changes to take effect. Do the following:

Click the [OK] button to acknowledge the message.

Restart e-automate so that these changes will take effect.

If you are running e-agent, restart e-agent as well.

Configuring a Vendor for EFTConfiguring a Vendor for EFT

For each vendor that you want to configure to be paid by EFT, do the following:

Contact the vendor to obtain the following information, which the system will use to electronically transfer funds to this vendor's account:

Account type (required)

Account number (required)

Routing number/BSB (required)

Contact name (required)

Phone

Email (required)

BCC

From the e-automate toolbar, click [Vendors] to open the Vendors window.

From the Vendors list, select a vendor for whom you have collected EFT information.

Click [Edit] to open the Edit Vendor window.

On the Edit Vendor window, click the EFT tab to bring it forward.

On the EFT tab, do the following:

Check the Pay by EFT checkbox.

Do one of the following:

To indicate an EFT file containing a prenote for this vendor has not yet been sent to your financial institution to verify the EFT file has been created correctly for this vendor, or to indicate the financial institution reported an error when attempting to process a prenote for this vendor, select the Pending pre-note radio button.

Tip: When you are configuring a vendor for EFT for the first time, ECI recommends—as best practice—leaving the Pending pre-note radio button selected (the default setting). When you use the system to create the EFT file containing a prenote for this vendor (which you must send to the financial institution for processing), the system automatically selects the Active as of [date] radio button and populates the Active as of [date] field with the prenote creation date plus the number of days listed in the EFT options' Wait the following days after sending pre-note to activate vendor for EFT field. Using this method, the vendor is automatically configured to begin using EFT when the Active as of [date] field's date has passed, and you do not need to make any manual changes to the vendor's profile for EFT to begin working. For more information, see the "Configuring EFT Options" section of this topic.

Note: A prenote is a zero-dollar entry that precedes the first live entry. The purpose of a prenote is to verify account information is correct. Vendors that have prenotes pending cannot be paid electronically.

To indicate you have sent an EFT file containing a prenote for this vendor and the financial institution did not report any errors when processing the prenote for this vendor, do the following:

Select the Active as of [date] radio button.

In the Active as of [date] field, enter the appropriate date.

Note: When you use the system to create the EFT file containing a prenote for this vendor (which you must send to the financial institution for processing), the system automatically selects the Active as of [date] radio button and populates the Active as of [date] field with the prenote creation date plus the number of days listed in the EFT options' Wait the following days after sending pre-note to activate vendor for EFT field. For more information, see the "Configuring EFT Options" section of this topic.

In the Account type field, use the drop-down menu to select the type of account used by the vendor for EFT transactions (provided in Step 1.a. above).

In the Account number field, enter the account number of the account to which EFT payments are to be deposited (provided in Step 1.b. above).

In the Routing number field, enter the routing number of the financial institution used by this vendor for EFT transactions (provided in Step 1.c. above).

Note: This field has a nine-digit validation to verify the authenticity of the routing number. Routing numbers must meet specific criteria. E-automate verifies the routing number before allowing it to be saved.

In the Name field, enter the name of the vendor's contact person who is to be notified when EFT payments are processed for this vendor (provided in Step 1.d. above). This notification includes an e-mail containing the invoices paid by the EFT file.

In the Phone field, enter the phone number of contact person associated with this vendor’s EFT transactions (provided in Step 1.e. above).

In the Email field, enter the email address the system should send email notifications to when payments are electronically processed in e-automate for this vendor (provided in Step 1.f. above).

In the BCC field, enter an email address, if desired, to which the system should send a blind carbon copy of the payment notification when EFT payments are processed for this vendor (provided in Step 1.g. above).

Click the [OK] button to save your changes to this vendor profile.

Creating an EFT Prenote FileCreating an EFT Prenote File

To create an EFT prenote file (using the NACHA file format) that includes a prenote for each vendor that you have set up to be paid by EFT and that has the Pending prenote radio button selected in the Vendor record, do the following:

From the Accounting menu, select Accounts Payable > Pay Vendors to open the Pay Vendors window.

Verify the list of vendors to pay is empty. If the list is not empty, select each vendor on the list and click [Remove]. Repeat until all vendors are deleted.

Note: E-automate can only create EFT prenotes when the Pay Vendors window does not list any vendors with EFT in the Method column. You can use the Windows keyboard shortcuts Shift + Click and Ctrl + Click to select and remove multiple vendors at once.

Click the [Create EFT] button. The system displays the message, "Current EFT queue is empty. Use vendor payment list before creating an EFT file. Would you like to create an EFT file for prenotes only?

Do one of the following:

To create prenotes, click [Yes].

To cancel creating prenotes, click [No].

If you clicked [Yes] to create prenotes, the system displays the Create EFT File window. Using the Create EFT File window, do the following:

In the Transaction date field, make no change to use the system date displayed.

In the Effective date field, make no change to use the date displayed, or enter the date to use as the effective date.

Tip: ACH rules state that this date must be at least one banking day after the transaction date. The banking system determines if there is a weekend or a United States Federal Holiday and moves the Effective date accordingly to the following banking day from your Transaction date. You can roll it forward as necessary. As a best practice recommendation, this date should not be set to within one banking day of the Transaction date.

In the Cashbook account field, make no change to use the account displayed, or use the field's drop-down menu to select your EFT cash account. You can select a different EFT account as necessary.

Note: Only cashbook accounts configured for EFT are available for selection from this field.

In the File output location field, make no change to use the location displayed, or enter the path to the location where the system should store the EFT file after creating it. You can click [Browse] to select a different location on your computer or network.

Note: By default, this field displays the path defined on the EFT Options window. For more information, see the "Configuring EFT Options" section of this topic.

Click the [OK] button.

Do one of the following:

If the system can create the EFT prenote file:

The system does the following:

For each vendor for whom the Pending prenote radio button is selected in the vendor profile record, the system:

Changes the radio button selection on the Payment Method tab of the vendor profile from Pending prenote to Active as of [date].

Sets the Active as of [date] to the Active as of date you specified on the Create Prenote File window.

Places the file in the specified File output location. By default, the file's name is based in part on the current system date and a number that is incremented for each such file generated on that date (e.g., 20230928-0-2.eft for the second EFT file generated on September 28, 2023).

Displays a message similar to the following: "Attention Required: The EFT file was created successfully at [File output location]\[FileName]." Do the following:

Do the following:

Click the [OK] button to acknowledge the message and to close the Create EFT File window.

Deliver the prenote file (located in the specified output folder) to your financial institution.

Wait until the Active as of [date] to see if you receive any notifications from your financial institution, indicating that processing of the EFT file did not work as expected.

If you do not receive any notifications that processing of the EFT prenote file did not work as expected, then the system considers any vendors included in this process to be active for EFT payment processing as of the specified Active as of [date]. You can now use the Pay Vendors window to make an EFT payment to any vendor included in the process.

If you do receive one or more notifications, such as a Notice of Change (NOC) or Return, that processing of the EFT prenote file did not work as expected, then do the following:

If none of the prenotes could be processed as expected, do the following:

Verify the cashbook account is configured correctly. Review the steps in the "Configuring the Cashbook Account for EFT" section of this topic.

For each vendor included in the process, reselect the Pending prenote radio button on the Payment Method tab of the vendor's vendor profile, indicating a new prenote needs to be generated for the vendor before the vendor can be paid via EFT.

Return to Step 1 of this section (the "Creating an EFT Prenote File" section), and repeat the steps as necessary to create a new EFT prenote file.

If only some of the prenotes could not be processed as expected, for each vendor for whom a prenote could not be processed as expected, do the following:

Reselect the Pending prenote radio button on the Payment Method tab of the vendor's vendor profile, indicating a new prenote needs to be generated before the vendor can be paid via EFT.

Verify the vendor is configured correctly for EFT. Review the steps in the "Configuring a Vendor for EFT" section of this topic.

Return to Step 1 of this section (the "Creating an EFT Prenote File" section), and repeat the steps as necessary to create a new EFT prenote file.

If the system cannot create the EFT prenote file:

'The system:

Does not make any updates to the vendor profiles.

Displays an appropriate message (e.g., "The specific file output location was not found. Do you want to create this folder?").

Do the following:

Review the message.

If applicable, take any corrective action listed in the message (e.g., click [Yes] to create the folder and follow any additional prompts that may be necessary to resolve the issue).

When finished, return to Step 5.e. to have the system try again to create the EFT prenote file.