How to: Automatically Apply Payments with Open Documents

Article
12/11/2013

After you have entered or imported payment lines in the General Journal window, you can use the Apply Automatically function to apply each payment to its related open invoice or credit memo before you post the general journal lines.

On general journal lines where the payment has been applied automatically with an open document, the Account Type and Account No. fields are filled, and the Applied Automatically and Applied check boxes are selected. The fields that were used to provide the automatic application, such as the Description and Amount (LCY) fields, will be colored green.

Note

If the Account Type field was already filled, then the application function will not analyze the payment line.

The automatic payment application function is based on prioritized criteria: First the function tries to match text in certain fields on payment lines with text found in certain fields on open documents, in prioritized order. Then it tries to match amounts on payment lines with amounts on open documents.

Note

Text matching is only possible for text longer than four characters.

The following table shows, in priority order, which four payment fields on general journal lines may be matched with fields on open documents.

Priority group	Field on the general journal line	Priority within group	Field on the open document	Comment
1	Description	1	Document No.	Will match if the description text is identical or almost the same in any of the three fields.
		2	Customer No. or Vendor No.
			External Document No.
			Customer Name or Vendor Name
	Payer Information	1	Document No.	Will match if the payer information text is identical or almost the same in any of the three fields.
		2	Customer No. or Vendor No.
			External Document No.
			Customer Name or Vendor Name
	Transaction Information	1	Document No.	Will match if the transaction information text is identical or almost the same in any of the three fields.
		2	Customer No. or Vendor No.
			External Document No.
			Customer Name or Vendor Name
2	Amount (LCY)		Remaining Amt. (LCY) or Remaining Amt. (LCY)	Will match if the amounts are identical.

In addition to the matching criteria in the table above, the following applies concerning the sign of the payment amount:

For negative amounts, a match is made first against customer invoices and then against vendor credit memos.
For positive amounts, a match is made first against vendor invoices and then against customer credit memos.

Warning

Customer payments in your bank are in positive figures. However, in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, they are inserted into journal lines as negative figures, because customer payments are debit transactions. Vendor payments in your bank are in negative figures. However, in Microsoft Dynamics NAV, they are inserted into journal lines as positive figures, because vendor payments are credit transactions.

To handle the payments that could not be applied automatically, you can set up maps between text and accounts in the Account Mapping window that map payments with debit or credit accounts and a balancing account according to text found in the Description, Payer Information, and Transaction Information fields on the general journal line. For more information, see the “To map payment text to accounts and then automatically apply payments to new records” section in this topic.

For detailed information and examples about text-account mapping, see the Account Mapping window.

To automatically apply payments to open documents

In the Search box, enter General Journals, and then choose the related link.
Fill the general journal with payments lines, either manually or by importing a bank statement file. For more information, see How to: Import Bank Statements.

The Bal. Account Type and Bal. Account No. fields are filled according to your setup of the general journal batch, such as BANK.

The Amount, Description, 1221 Payer Information, and 1222 Transaction Information fields are filled according to information on the bank payment.

You can view the imported bank statement values in the Bank Statement Line Details by selecting a journal line and then choosing the Bank Statement Details button in the ribbon.
On the Home tab, in the Application group, choose Apply Automatically. On all general journal lines that can be applied, the Applied check box is selected.

The Account Type and Account No. fields are filled with the account information of the open invoice or credit memo that warrants the payment, or according to values defined in the Account Mapping window.

You can now proceed to post the automatically applied payments to update the related customer, vendor, and bank ledger entries.

For general journal lines that are not applied automatically, because no documents exist to apply to, you can choose to fill the Account Type and Account No. fields manually and then use the Apply Manually function in the General Journal window. For more information, see How to: Apply Customer Ledger Entries.

Alternatively, you can use the Account Mapping window to map keywords that are in payment descriptions with specific debit or credit accounts. Then, when you choose the Apply Automatically function again, new invoice or credit memo records will be created and shown as new general journal lines that are automatically applied. This is explained in the following procedure.

To map payment text to accounts and then automatically apply payments to new records

In the General Journal window, select a general journal line.
On the Home tab, in the Application group, choose Map Text to Account. The Account Mapping window opens.
In the Mapping Text field, enter any text that you read from the description of a payment that cannot be automatically applied, such as “Fuel”. You can enter up to 50 characters.
In the Bal. Source Type field, specify if the payment is from a vendor or for a customer.

If you select Vendor, depending on the sign of the payment amount, either a vendor invoice record or a vendor credit memo record is created.

If you select Customer, depending on the sign of the payment amount, either a customer invoice record or a customer credit memo record is created.

If you leave this field blank, then no new invoice or credit memo record is created that the payment can be applied to. Instead, the G/L account specified in the Debit Acc. No and the Credit Acc. No. fields is inserted in the Account No. field on the general journal line, and the value in the Account Type field is filled with G/L Account.
In the Bal. Source No. field, specify which vendor or customer the payment is to be applied to.

If you leave this field blank, then no new invoice or credit memo record is created that the payment can be applied to. Instead, the G/L account specified in the Debit Acc. No and the Credit Acc. No. fields is inserted in the Account No. field on the general journal line, and the value in the Account Type field is filled with G/L Account.
In the Debit Acc. No and the Credit Acc. No. fields, enter the accounts that you want payments to be posted to as applied documents.

Tip

Populate these fields according to your needs. For example, if you typically receive payments from a customer using a specified mapping text, you should first fill the Credit Acc. No. field.
Repeat steps 3 through 6 for all texts in payment descriptions that you want to map to accounts. For more information, see Example - Automatic Payment Application Based on Account Mapping.
Close the Account Mapping window.
In the General Journals window, on the Home tab, in the Application group, choose Apply Automatically.

General journal lines that contain payment description text that is defined in the Account Mapping window will now be applied automatically and a new general journal line is created under each payment. The new general journal line represents the new invoice or credit memo record that the payment is automatically applied to.

The fields that were used to provide the automatic application, such as the Description and Amount (LCY) fields, are colored green, and the Applied Automatically check box is selected.

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How to: Automatically Apply Payments with Open Documents

To automatically apply payments to open documents

To map payment text to accounts and then automatically apply payments to new records

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