7.2 Completing Payments: Printing, Electronic Confirmation, Bank Acknowledgments, Single Payments, Stops and Voids
Key Takeaways
Printed payments are confirmed by recording the print status; once payments are confirmed, the payment file can't be terminated and problem payments must be voided.
A skipped numbered check is marked Skipped on Record Print Status and later checks are renumbered; a spoiled one is reprinted on a new number or marked Spoiled.
Electronic files are confirmed automatically when formatted or when transmitted, or manually if the profile allows it.
ISO 20022 acknowledgments come at three levels (L0 file syntax within minutes, L1 file and payment status within hours, L2 clearing rejections in 2–3 days), and rejected payments can be voided automatically.
When you void a payment you can cancel the invoices, put them on hold, or leave them available for payment, and Oracle reverses the payment accounting and realized gain or loss.
After a payment process request (PPR) builds payments and creates a payment file, the payment still has to be printed or transmitted, confirmed, and sometimes corrected. These steps complete the published objective Understand the Payment process. Payment approval is covered in section 6.3.
Printed payments
A printed payment file goes through a sequence of statuses:
- Created
- Formatted (or Formatted and ready for printing when printing is deferred)
- Submitted for printing
- Printed
If you print outside Oracle, the file goes to Formatted and ready for recording.
When another payment file has locked the payment document (the check stock), the file waits as Created and ready for formatting or Created and ready for printing.
After printing, record the result on the Record Print Status page:
| Situation | What to do | Result |
|---|---|---|
| All checks printed correctly | Record the print status as printed | The payments are confirmed. Payables is notified and accounts for the payments. |
| A numbered check was skipped by the printer | Mark it Skipped | Later documents are renumbered for your review. The skipped stock can be kept for a later single or manual payment, or destroyed and voided in Cash Management on the Edit Bank Account page. |
| A numbered check was spoiled and you'll reprint | Reprint on the Reprint Payment Documents page, then report the payment as issued on Record Print Status | The spoiled number is noted and the payment gets the new number |
| A check was spoiled and you won't reprint | Mark it Spoiled and destroy it | The number is recorded as spoiled |
Once printed payments are confirmed, you can't terminate the payment file; the Terminate Payment Process action no longer appears. Problem payments must be voided. Positive pay files and separate remittance advice come from the profile's Reporting tab (section 6.2).
Electronic payments
Confirmation
A confirmed electronic payment file is complete. Payments then notifies Payables so it can create the accounting. Confirmation happens in one of two ways:
- Automatically, at the profile's confirmation point: when the payment file is formatted, or when it is transmitted to the payment system.
- Manually, from Manage Payment Files or the Payment File page. This needs an electronic profile with manual confirmation allowed, and a file in the status Formatted, Formatted and Ready for Transmission, Transmitted or Transmission Failed. Manual confirmation suits cases where you wait for a bank notification.
As with printed payments, once a file is confirmed you can't terminate it. You void individual payments instead.
When transmission fails
| Option | When to use it | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Transmit the file again | The failure was temporary, or the setup has been fixed | The file is sent again |
| Ignore the transmission failure | The file reached the bank by other means, or the bank confirms receipt | The status is forced to Transmitted |
| Stop the payment process | The file mustn't be sent | The file is Terminated, its payments are Canceled, and the documents are unlocked for a later run |
ISO 20022 acknowledgments
For ISO 20022 credit transfers, Oracle can retrieve and process the bank's acknowledgment files. Banks can send up to three levels:
| Level | Timing | Content |
|---|---|---|
| L0 | Within minutes | File-level: the schema and syntax are correct |
| L1 | Within hours | File and payment-level status |
| L2 | 2–3 days | Payment-level rejections from clearing; one file can cover several payment files |
The settings are on the payment system account of the predefined ISO20022 Payment System:
- automatic retrieval interval in minutes;
- automatic voiding option for rejected payments;
- acknowledgment format (ISO Disbursement Acknowledgment Format or JP Morgan Disbursement Acknowledgment Format);
- acknowledgment transmission configuration (SFTP, HTTPS or UCM);
- voiding invoice action;
- email of acknowledgment details;
- payment file register format.
When the file is processed, its status is Completed and pending acknowledgment. After the acknowledgment is processed, the file and each payment become Acknowledged or Rejected. For rejected payments, Oracle can void them automatically and put the invoice on hold or cancel it. With no action, the invoice goes back to Unpaid. A payment file register with the acknowledgment details is produced automatically. You can also retrieve acknowledgments manually with Retrieve Acknowledgment on Manage Payment Files.
Single payments from the Create Payments page
The PPR is for batches. The Create Payments page handles one-off payments:
- A Quick payment is created, formatted and printed or transmitted for selected installments of one supplier.
- A Manual payment records a payment already made outside Oracle, such as a handwritten check or a wire sent through the bank's portal, so Payables can account for it and mark the installments paid.
- Supplier refunds are recorded against credit balances.
Remember that payment approval doesn't apply to payments from this page (section 6.3).
Stop payment requests
A stop payment request records when a stop order was placed with, or released by, the bank. Oracle's sequence:
- A supplier says a payment wasn't received.
- You ask the bank to stop it.
- You record the stop payment request with the Manage Payments task. If the bank confirms the stop, you void the payment. If the payment had already cleared, you cancel the stop request.
Voiding payments
You can void individual payments, or a whole payment file once all its payments are voided. When you void, you choose what happens to the invoices:
- cancel them;
- place them on hold;
- leave them available for payment.
Oracle then reverses automatically:
- the payment accounting and payment records;
- realized gains or losses on foreign-currency invoices;
- interest invoices related to the payment, if interest invoices are enabled;
- withholding taken at payment: a reversing invoice to the tax authority offsets the withholding tax invoice.
With budgetary control, a void triggers a funds reservation for the negative payment amount. If that fails, the payment stays Negotiable. Reissue voids the original and issues a new payment in one action.
During a check run, the printer skips numbered check 40012 and prints the payment on 40013. How should the operator record this?
Record check 40012 as Skipped on the Record Print Status page
Terminate the payment file and resubmit the payment process request
Void the payment on 40013 and create a manual payment on 40012
Reprint the whole file on new check stock without recording anything
An ISO 20022 payment file was accepted by the bank's L0 check, but two days later an L2 acknowledgment reports two payments rejected in clearing. The payment system account has automatic voiding enabled with the invoice action Hold. What happens?
Nothing, because once the L0 acknowledgment is processed the file is final
The whole payment file is terminated and all payments are canceled
The two rejected payments are voided and their invoices put on hold
The two payments are resent automatically in the next transmission
A treasury clerk voids a supplier payment that included a realized foreign-exchange gain, with withholding tax taken at payment. Which statement is correct?
The payment accounting is reversed, but the realized gain stays in the ledger
The clerk must cancel the invoices, because invoices on a voided payment can't be paid again
Voiding is blocked until the withholding tax invoice is paid
The gain is reversed too, and a reversing invoice offsets the withholding invoice
Sections you finish are checked off in the contents.