Overview
Many customers want to start writing checks early in December to payout Deferred Payments or Installment Sale Contracts that are due the first week of January. However, if the Deferred Payment and Installment Sales disposition on the DPR must display the units yet to be paid out for the remaining days of December as if the Checks/Settlements had not been created, a tool is available.
Procedures
Within Agvance, tools are in place to accommodate early payout of Deferred Payments and Installment Sales Contracts while still reporting on the DPR the units for each of these dispositions until the check dates are reached. Follow these steps to achieve the desired DPR dispositions.
Prior to settling Deferred Payments/Installment Sales Contracts early, make sure all grain posting has been completed for all transactions at End of Periods / Grain Posting, Post selecting the All Unposted Entries option. This step ensures nothing is left behind when the preference is changed.
Select the Deferred Payment Period preference found at Grain / Setup / Preferences. This preference means that your company policy allows creation of Settlements to Priced (check or ACH) from dispositions of Deferred Payment or Installment Sales with the Settlement date into the future but to retain the Deferred Payment/Installment Sales units still on the DPR as if they had not been settled. The Post Settlements Live preference must be checked to enable the Deferred Payment Period option.
It is recommended that security is updated so only grain employees doing the early payouts have access to these preferences.
**IMPORTANT: Once the early payouts have begun, this preference should remain on until the date DP/IS checks are paid out. Do not turn it on/off once this process has begun.
Before writing checks, run the Grain / Grain Reports / Settlements / Settlement Destination for all open Deferred Payments and/or Installment Sales. Set the Due Date Range so only the ones being paid now appear in the report. This report will provide the auditors with the dollar amounts required to balance their accounts.
Next when creating Settlements, always date the Settlement the date in which the Settlement Checks will hit the DPR and will post to the ledger. This should be a date in the future; January 2nd for example.
Please be aware that the Settlement date is remembered from the last Settlement if you are in the continuously add mode of the Settlements. If the Add a Settlement window is closed, the next time the user returns to the Add window, the Settlement date defaults to the system date
With the Deferred Payment Period option checked, all Settlements with a future settlement date originating from Deferred Payment/Installment Sale Contracts and are being settled to a Priced disposition, will not be allowed to grain post until their settlement date is reached. Changes have also been made to the DPR to include in the Deferred Payments/Installment Sales positions on the DPR to show both open DPR dispositions for Deferred Payments/Installment Sales plus any non-grain posted priced destination that came from their respected dispositions of deferred payments/installment sales.
With the preference checked, the Grain Posting window (screen shot above) changes its behavior to disallow the Post All Unposted Entries from being performed if there are any future Settlements from DP/IS. To do the daily grain posting, the Post Through Date must be used. Setting the date into the future is also disallowed if the preference is enabled. Attempts to use the Post All Unposted Entries or Post Through to a future date options result in the following message:
It is very important that the grain posting is done by one person during this end of year process so they always remember to use only the Post Through date and not the Post All Unposted Entries option. It is recommended during this time of the year, to set security access to the grain posting window to only users involved with the early Settlements so the grain posting is controlled.
Special Points of Consideration
When Settlements are not grain posted, they can be edited or deleted. This may not be desirable if all users have the capability to delete the Settlements. It is recommended that user securities are updated to limit user’s ability to delete Settlements. To disable the Delete button for certain users, modify their user role, found at Hub / Setup / Users / Roles. Edit users under the Windows Restrictions tab – Agvance Grain / Operations - Settlement Select / Delete Button.
End of Day GL Posting
When running the end of day procedures, a message is visible at the bottom of the GL posting report screen saying that X number of unposted transactions have been entered. This number should equal the amount of future Settlements that have been created. This message will still show until the future Settlement date (for example: January 2nd) and the Settlements have been grain posted.
What is needed to get supporting documents of unposted Settlements?
The normal process to prove out DPR is to run destination reports as open and grain posted status of All. However, the early paid Deferred Payments/Installment Settlements are not grain posted nor are they considered open. To find the Settlements of Deferred Payments or Installment Sales that were settled early, run the Settlement Source Report with source of Deferred Payments or Installment Sales, in the Include To DPR area select Priced, and grain Posted Status of Not Posted. The source report will show all Settlements created earlier that are not grain posted. This report combined with the Settlement Destination report, for Deferred Payment with Status of Open and grain Posted Status of All, will show the balance displayed on the DPR.
How are ACH payments for future ACH payments handled? User wants to create the file on December 31st, not in January.
In Accounting the ACH payments will not process until the date of the check is selected and the Settlements have been grain posted. In the case below, the Settlement Checks were dated January 2nd, 2013 so the Check Date to have them included in the ACH file is set to 01/02/2013. Once the Check Date is selected, the # of untransferred Settlement Checks populates.
It is recommended that on December 31st after Grain end of year is complete, uncheck the Deferred Payment Period checkbox and grain post the Settlements through January 2nd (or whatever the date is on the Settlements). This locks the Settlements so they cannot be deleted and will then update the records so when the next DPR is processed, the Deferred Payments will move to paid company owned. After the grain posting is complete, in Accounting / A/R / Process Grain Settlement ACH, the ACH file can be created using the correct check date of January 2nd (again if that is the check date). This will grab all Settlements dated on the check date that are yet to be transferred and send to an ACH file.
There is no need to create multiple files for early ACH payments and store them if one date is used on the Settlements. The file can be saved anywhere, but we suggest it be a secure folder. It can be sent to the bank whenever the time is right to be sent.
In summary, companies can begin writing their Deferred Payment and Installment Sale checks in December to beat the rush of the first week of January. When creating a Priced Settlement from either a Deferred Payment or Installment Sale Contract; and the Priced Settlement has a future date; and the Settlements are not posted, the checks can be cut in December without hitting the DPR until January.
