Checks and the ACH file

BudLogix pays invoices two ways: by printing checks on your own stock, or by exporting a file of bank transfers for North Easton Savings Bank's Batch Upload. Neither records a payment by itself. Money is recorded when a person clicks Record payment or Mark as Paid, and the invoice's status follows from that.

Checks

A check is printed for one invoice's balance due, from the detail page or in a batch from the Invoices list. The check shows the payer's name (a vendor's trading name where one is set), the amount in figures and in words, the date, your signature image, and a MICR line made of the routing number, account number and check number saved on Invoice settings.

Check numbers start at the Initial Check Number and count up by one for each check generated. An invoice that already has a check number keeps it. Two layouts exist: Single Check per Page (check plus two stubs) and 3 Checks per Page. Each has its own dimensions in inches so the print lines up with pre-printed stock.

Record the payment afterwards with method Check and the check number; the number then shows in Payment Info on the Paid tab.

The ACH file

The ACH file covers vendors only, because bank details are saved on the vendor record. It is one row per invoice: a vendor with three invoices in the run gets three rows, each repeating the vendor's Unique ID, which is fixed for the life of the vendor so the bank updates the recipient rather than adding a second one.

Each row carries, in order: the name on the account, routing number, account number, the vendor's display name, the amount, the transaction type for the account type, the Unique ID, Discretionary Data, and a Memo. There is no header row and nothing is quoted; a comma in a name is dropped rather than shift the columns.

Discretionary Data is the one value that reaches your own statement: the vendor's Statement label followed by the invoice number, up to 20 characters, with the invoice number winning when both do not fit. The Memo, "INV" and the invoice number, goes to the vendor as remittance detail.

What cannot go in a run

An invoice is left out of the file, and out of a check batch, when it is fully paid, when it is on hold for an unconfirmed delivery, when a payment on it would be a possible duplicate, when it is paid to a payee rather than a vendor, when the vendor has no bank details, or when the vendor's Pays as name is longer than 22 characters. The export dialog lists every exclusion with its reason before a file exists.

The name limit is the bank's, and it is the reason the check happens here rather than at the bank: a longer name is dropped from the upload while the rest of the file is taken, so the invoice would sit under Awaiting ACH with nothing sent for it. Nothing is stamped with the batch reference unless it is in the file.

Batch references and Awaiting ACH

Each export gets a reference: ACH, the date in the store's time zone, and a two-digit run number. The invoices in it are stamped with the reference and appear under the Awaiting ACH filter until they are marked paid. Marking them paid in a batch prefills Wire / ACH and that reference, so the bank's line and the invoices agree.

Where you see this

• Invoices
• Invoice detail
• Invoice settings
• Print checks
• Export the ACH file
• Vendors and brands