Vendor Payments in Business Central

In Business Central ·

Vendor payment runs in Business Central are created by using Suggest Vendor Payments, a batch job on the Payment Journal page that generates payment lines for vendor invoices meeting the criteria you set. The criteria are usually due date and payment discount opportunities, with optional filters by vendor, posting group, or priority.

Each generated line is pre-applied to the originating purchase invoice through the Applies-to Doc. No. field. The application is what links the payment to the invoice and what marks the invoice as paid when the journal posts. Lines for vendors flagged as On Hold are excluded automatically, as are invoices already part of another open application.

The output is a draft payment journal, which is typically followed by a review, approval if configured, and export or printing of the payment instrument.

Configuring and running a payment journal

A payment proposal runs from the Payment Journal page. Open it, select the batch you use for vendor payments, and choose Prepare > Suggest Vendor Payments. The request page has two FastTabs of options.

Options. The Last Payment Date filter sets the cutoff: only invoices with a due date or payment discount date on or before this date are included. The Find Payment Discounts toggle pulls in invoices with discounts still available. Summarise Per Vendor consolidates multiple invoices for the same vendor into a single payment line with the invoices applied as sub-entries. The Available Amount field caps total payments across all vendors, with allocation following the Priority field on the Vendor Card from highest-priority first.

Posting and bank fields. Posting Date sets the date the journal will post. Starting Document No. is the first document number assigned to the generated payment lines. Bal. Account Type and Bal. Account No. point to the bank account that will be debited. Bank Payment Type selects between Computer Check, Manual Check, and Electronic Payment, which determines what happens at posting time.

Run the batch. Business Central populates the journal with one line per invoice, or one line per vendor if you summarise. Each line has the Applies-to Doc. No. filled to the originating invoice.

Reviewing, adjusting, and approving suggested payment journal lines before posting

Before posting, review every line. The Vendor Pre-Payment Journal report shows what each line is paying, including applied invoices, payment discounts, and the bank account each payment will draw from. Print or preview it as the AP team’s checkpoint before any money moves.

Lines that should not be paid this run can be deleted from the journal. Lines that need a partial payment can be adjusted: change the Amount, and the application will reflect the partial amount against the invoice. Lines for the wrong Bank Payment Type can be changed individually before posting.

If your organisation routes payment journals for approval, send the journal for approval rather than posting it directly. The approval workflow on payment journals routes the journal to the configured approver. The approver reviews the proposal and approves or rejects it from the Requests to Approve page. The journal is locked for editing while the request is pending and becomes available to post only after approval is granted.

Payment methods and export formats in Business Central

Two fields work together to set how a payment is sent. Payment Method Code on the Vendor Card sets the default for new transactions. Bank Payment Type on the journal line controls what happens at posting.

For Computer Check, the journal must print a cheque from the Print Check action before posting. For Electronic Payment, the journal batch must have Allow Payment Export enabled, and the Bank Account used must have a Payment Export Format selected on the Bank Account Card. After posting, the Export action on the journal generates the bank file.

SEPA Credit Transfer. Business Central ships SEPA Credit Transfer in pain.001.001.03 and pain.001.001.09 formats for EU bank transfers in EUR. Setup requires the bank account currency set to EUR, the IBAN populated, and a SEPA CT Msg. ID No. Series.

ACH/EFT (North America). These are sent via the Bank Data Conversion Service through the AMC Banking 365 Fundamentals extension.

Other formats. AMC Banking 365 Fundamentals covers format conversion for most local bank file standards globally. The extension is the standard route for non-SEPA, non-ACH payment files.

UK and EU implementations frequently need formats that Business Central does not ship natively. BACS and Faster Payments in the UK are not in the standard release. The common routes are third-party apps such as Yavrio. The choice usually comes down to existing banking relationships and per-transaction cost.

If you are rolling out Business Central and need your AP team to be confident with payment runs ahead of the first month-end, see our employee training plan template.

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