Payment Methods

Introduction to Payment Methods

opentaps uses Payment Methods to handle two different things in the system:

• First, the Payment Methods used by your company to make its own payments are defined in one configuration area that involves one or more bank accounts (such as EFT accounts), and one or more general ledger (financial) accounts used to keep your accounting records for payments you make.
• Second, the Payments made to the Virtual Store, or the online Web Store are defined and configured in a different process using different system screens as we will descirbe.

About Your Bank Accounts, for Example

Regarding the first type of Payment Method, think of the financial account as the one you are using for your own accounting purposes internally, and think of the EFT account as defining the Bank, and the bank-account that is defined at the bank. Then you associate these two things as described below to make one complete configuration for making payments. Your records of transactions are always kept in the financial account, which you must keep reconciled with the statements you receive from the bank for your EFT account.

The financial account refers to a general ledger account and you can set up one that corresponds to the EFT bank account such as the one with GL account number 111100 in the opentaps demo data that you might have installed. You can also see the demo data on the demo servers with the links provided here:

http://www.opentaps.org/products/online-demo

Use the specific ID and password listed at the bottom of the page for the
area you wish to visit on the demo site.

Associating EFT Accounts and Your Financial Accounts

The way you must associate the EFT account (created in [Party] > "Payment Method Information" box, [Create New EFT Account] link) with the general ledger account that it operates with is to use the screen [Financials] > [Configure] > [Payment Methods] button.

Regarding the initial deposits corresponding to a Bank account balance for example, you make those deposits into your financial account which corresponds to the bank (EFT) account. The EFT is a payment method, while the financial account is what keeps all your records and produces your reports or reconciliations.

In the following two sections we will discuss configuration of the two types of Payment Methods.

Creating Payment Methods for the Internal Organization

Payment Methods are set up for the internal organization, enabling it to make payments to all of the other businesses where transactions are done, is a two step process. In order to setup one Payment Method, these two steps are used:

• First, the account information for a bank (EFT type) account, or credit card (credit card type) account, or other resource is captured in the system and given an identification number so that it can become part of a Payment Method.
• Second, an internal financial account (general ledger account) is setup to handle your accounting, and then it is associated with the bank or other account captured in the first step, thus completing the Payment Method definition.

Configuring Organization Unit Payment Methods

To accomplish the first step we have described, the following screen is used, Create Payment Methods. Refer to that link for more details.

To accomplish the second step we have described, the following screen is used, Payment Methods Screen. Refer to that link for more details.

When new financial accounts are setup, there is often the need to enter an initial balance. For the initial deposits corresponding to a Bank account balance for example, you make those initial entries into your financial account which corresponds to the bank (EFT) account. The EFT is a payment method, while the financial account is what keeps all your records and produces your reports or reconciliations.

For more information about initialization of account balances, please refer to this page: Initial_Values_and_Importing_Accounting_Balances

Using Payment Methods

Once the Payment Methods are set up, the following reference provides information on making a payment, for example to a business party such as a vendor. Refer to this documentation page, Payment Methods Screen.

Configuring Payment Methods for the Virtual Store(s)

Payment methods for use in the company's Store sales (customer sales in the CRM/SFA area), or the Web Store Sales (check-out in the online store) are set up as described in the docs wiki page,

Configure the Store Payment Processing Services

Check-out in the Web Store(s)

For information about how the Web Store check-out works, refer to the page: Identifying the Payment Method at Checkout

Billing Accounts and Other Payment Options in Stores

A number of other Payment Methods are available for use in opentaps including the credit account for Customers called the Billing Account, which is discussed in the following page, Billing Accounts