Payment Manager services enable businesses to send their payables to the bank, where the bank will handle them.

The Payment Manager process operates similarly to the ACH process, involving the batching of records, sending them to a file, and committing the batches once the file is submitted. The new file format will currently include ACH and APC (Pay Card).

While we plan to expand this feature for scalability in the future, the only service and format supported at this time is with Wells Fargo.

Pre-Requisites

To create payment manager files, we will need:

1. Security Access to:

   • Banks

   • Vendors

   • The Voucher Payments Feature (ACS specifically). 

2.  Configured Payment Types

Configuring Banks to Perform Payment Exports

Master → Miscellaneous → Bank Accounts

When adding or updating a bank, a new tab for "Payment Manager" Settings will be available. Configuring these settings will enable users to create Payment Manager files for the selected bank.

• Enable Payment Manager: Setting this will make this bank account appear in the bank drop down for payment manager batches.

• Export File Destination Path: This is the where the file will be placed.

• APC Payment Type: This is a drop-down menu of payment types. Select the option that will be exported in the file as payroll card payments.

• Pay Card Disbursement Number: Similar to check numbers, this number is determined in the bank configuration and will increase by one with each pay card disbursement sent from this account.

  According to the file specification requirements, this number must be unique for a minimum of 60 days.

Open

Configuring Vendors to Perform Payment Exports

Master → Payables → Vendor

Vendors can be paid through the Payment Manager Export when their configured payment type settings are set up on a bank. To specify a vendor's payment type, select the "Payment Type" drop-down menu located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.

If the vendor's ACH settings tab is configured to "Enable ACH," the payment type drop-down will be restricted to ACH. Ensure all ACH configurations are completed for this vendor, and their ACH payments will be included in the batch lookups.

Vendors will only be included in Payment Manager batches for the banks they are assigned to.

To ensure a vendor appears in the batches, set the Default Bank for the vendor to a bank that has Payment Manager configurations, or add a bank account for a bank with these configurations on the "Bank Accounts" tab.

Performing a Payment Export Batch

Payables → Voucher Payments

Once vouchers are available for our configured vendors, we can create a payment batch. Open the Voucher Payments screen and click the "New Pay Manager Batch" button.

This will display the "Open Voucher List" screen. First, select a bank from the lower left corner. Similar to ACH batches, this list of bank accounts is filtered to include only those banks that are configured for Payment Manager exports.

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The list shows only banks with valid Pay Manager configurations. After selecting the appropriate bank, you can enter search criteria at the top of the form to load our vouchers. For Payment Manager batches, the ACH Checkbox and Payment Type filters are disabled; instead, the payment types configured on the bank will determine which payment types appear in the search results.

Once we have identified the records we want to process, click "OK."

This will direct you to the Payment Batch Maintenance screen, where we can review the outgoing payments one final time. If everything looks good, click the "Pay Mgr. File" button to finalize the batch and generate the file.

Similar to previous ACH files, the Payment Manager does not effectively notify the user when the file has been completed or where it can be accessed. This limitation is a known issue with Powerbuilder that we hope to address in future improvements and updates to this process.

The file can be regenerated at any time by reopening the batch and clicking the "Pay Mgr. File" button. If the file has been generated before, it will be overwritten. If the previously generated file is open or in use, an error may occur.

Once the process is complete, the file will be accessible at the destination path specified in the bank settings.

Looking Up Existing Payment Manager Batches

Payables → Voucher Payments

Existing Payment Manager Batches can be searched for and reloaded from the "Payment Batch Maintenance" screen. They can be identified by their payment type labeled as "Pay Manager."

The Payment Manager File

The file is a pipe-delimited flat file.

Field Details:

https://getaeros.atlassian.net/wiki/x/oYoRAg

The file will always follow the naming convention: PayManager_[Batch Number]_[Batch Create Date].txt

• Batch Number: This corresponds to the APSPmtBatch.apbbatchno.

• Create Date: This corresponds to the APSPmtBatch.apbcreatedt.