Defining an accounts payable company

An Accounts Payable company can represent a physical location, processing center, or other entity for your business. You define invoice entry options, default codes, and other default invoice and payment processing options at the company level. This procedure describes the process for defining an Accounts Payable company.

Before defining an Accounts Payable company, you must have set up a tax company, tax code, and tax rate in the Tax application.

Procedure flow: Defining an accounts payable company

Define an accounts payable company

  1. Access Company (AP00.4).
  2. Assign the company to a vendor group and a pay group. The company number must already be defined in General Ledger.
  3. Select invoice release and approval options on the Main tab.
  4. Specify this information:
    Batch Release

    Select Yes in the Batch Release field to assign work in batches or to use batch control. If you select No, you must select Yes in the Invoice Approval field.

    Voucher Required

    If your company requires an internal approval record for each invoice, select Yes. You can further define your use of vouchers in the fields that follow, indicating whether you will use numeric vouchers, allow duplicate vouchers, or use auto numbering.

    Invoice Approval

    To control the release of invoices by requiring individual approval, select Yes. If you select No, you must select Yes in the Batch Release field.

  5. If you would like to enable the Distribution Approvals (AP36.2) form, you must select the ProcessFlow form and select both ProcessFlow and Distribution Adjustments.
  6. If you use payment approval, click the Approval Button to access Company Approval (AP00.6) and define amounts that require approval.
  7. Specify this information:
    Amount

    Specify transaction amounts that require approval. For example, you may only want to require approvals on invoices greater than $10,000. If you require approvals and you do not define a minimum approval amount, you are essentially requiring approval for all transactions greater than $0 and must approve all released invoices.

  8. To define accounts payable processing codes or select a default cash code at the company level, use the Codes tab.
  9. Specify this information:
    Invoice Accrual Code

    Define or select an invoice accrual code for the company. This field represents the default general ledger accrual account for the company. A unique entry in this field creates a record in Invoice Accrual Code (AP05.2).

    Accrual Account

    Select a valid general ledger accrual accounting unit for the invoice accrual code.

    Income Withholding Code

    Define or select an income withholding code for the company. This field represents the general ledger income withholding account for the company. Used to track reportable withholding for vendors. A unique entry in this field creates a record in Income Withholding Code (AP05.8).

    Posting Company

    Specify or select a valid general ledger company. Used for posting vendor withholding to the general ledger. If left blank, the Company defaults.

    Accrual Account

    Select a valid general ledger accrual accounting unit for the income withholding code.

    Withholding Rate

    Specify the reportable income withholding rate for the company. The system applies this rate to payments for vendors marked for income withholding.

    Discount Code

    Define or select a discount code for the company. Represents a general ledger discount account. A unique entry in this field creates a record in Discount Code (AP05.7).

    Posting Company

    Specify or select a valid general ledger company. Used for posting discount entries to the general ledger. If left blank, the Company defaults.

    Discount Account

    Select a valid general ledger discount accounting unit for the discount code.

    Cash Code

    Select a valid cash code for the company. This represents a bank account. Valid relationships must be defined between the cash code and both the Company and the posting company assigned to the company's pay group. If left blank, the cash code assigned to the pay group defaults on invoices specified for the company.

    Retainage Accrual Code

    This is the default accrual code of invoices, payments, and distributions for vendor agreements with retainage. If you are using Contract Management, you can specify data on this field.

    Before you can assign a retainage accrual code to an Accounts Payable company, a contract group must already exist in Contract Management.

  10. To define posting and processing options at the company level, select the Options tab.
  11. Specify this information:
    Posting Option

    You can specify if you post distribution information to the general ledger in summary or detail. Regardless of the posting option you select, you can open detailed invoice distribution information in the Accounts Payable application. Posting in summary versus posting in detail

    Audit Invoice Changes

    Select whether the system creates audit records when you change released invoices. If you select Yes, run Vendor-Invoice Audit Report (AP135) to list recorded changes.

    Employee Expense Reconciliation

    If you use the Employee Expense application, select an employee expense reconciliation option.

    • Select Open to reconcile employee advances and expenses against the employee's open balance. With this option you do not have to apply advances to specific expenses.

    • Select Matching to match employee advances to expenses. All credit memos that are generated when an employee advance is paid are assigned the prepayment hold code. That hold code is automatically removed when the advance is matched to an expense and the expense is released.

      How Accounts Payable setup affect employee expense

    Tax Recovery Discount

    If discounts are to be taken for the company exclusive of tax, you can select whether tax recovery is required when discounts are taken.

    Terms Calculation

    Select which date to use in calculating the best terms: Invoice Date, Receipt of Invoice Date, Earliest Receipt Date, Latest Receipt Date, or Ship to Arrive Date.

    Float Days

    Specify the number of days to add to the best terms calculation if the vendor allows a specific number of days for payment to reach them and still receive the discount.

    Best Terms

    Select whether or not to recalculate the terms during matching.

    Note: Terms calculation, float days, and best terms are used primarily in Invoice Matching.
    Status

    You can select whether the company is active. Select Delete for a test company you want to delete using AP305 (AP Company Purge).

    Audit Setup Changes

    If this flag is set to Yes, changes made to the AP Company and AP Process Level is audited. Those Audit results will display on Company Audit Inquiry (AP89).

    Invoice Date Edit

    Specify a date range if you want to edit against invoice dates at the time the invoice is specified. If the invoice date falls outside the dates specified at the company level the user will receive an edit. These parameters are not required.

  12. To create transit distributions when adding invoices, use the Options 2 tab. Select Yes to create transit distributions. This option lets you specify transit invoices and record the company's tax liability quickly. If you select this option, you must also specify a default distribution code that is used to assign invoice expense to a transit expense account.
  13. To set up accounting unit structures for a company select the Distribution Reporting link to access Distribution Reporting Set Up (AP00.7). The benefit of setting up accounting unit structures is to allow the user to run distributions at a location or business unit level during Invoice Distribution Closing (AP175). Closing invoice distributions
  14. Specify this information:
    AP Company

    Select an Accounts Payable company that you want to set up accounting unit structures for. An Accounts Payable company can have multiple account structures.

    Account Structure

    Define an account structure for the Accounts Payable company. An account structure can have multiple General Ledger company, accounting units, and accounts.

    GL Company

    Required. Select the General Ledger company you want to create an account structure for.

    Accounting Unit

    Required. Select the accounting unit you want to create an account structure for.

    Account

    Required. Select the account, and optionally, the subaccount, you want to create an account structure for.

  15. To store additional information about invoices or distributions use the User Fields tab to define user fields.
  16. Use the Tax Tolerance tab to select a tax tolerance amount, tax code, and tax rounding account.

    The tax tolerance amount is used to compare tax on PO invoices. You cannot release or match an invoice if the tax difference is greater than the tax tolerance amount specified here.

    The Tax Code and Tax Rounding Account fields are used to create tax distributions for tax out of balance amounts. For more information about the "tax out of balance" condition, see the Invoice Matching User Guide.

    Note: You must set up a tax company and tax code Tax Calendar Maintenance before setting up an Accounts Payable company.

Related reports and inquiries

To Run or Access
List Accounts Payable companies Vendor Group, Company Listing (AP200)
Display relationships between a pay group, Accounts Payable companies, and process levels Pay Group Company Relationship (AP01.4)