Dynamics NAV (Navision) – export vendor payments to the bank

Microsoft Dynamics NAV (Navision) provides for the companies functionalities which allow an optimum management of financial flows. One of them makes possible to create automatic payments of the vendors, payments which can be transmitted electronically to the company’s bank.

For this purpose, it is used a special journal named “Payment Journal”. It can be accessed in  Dynamics NAV using the following path: Departments->Financial Management->Cash Management->Payment Journals

At first sight, payment journal looks as any other general ledger journal in Dynamics NAV (Navision). The difference is made by a special function, named ”Suggest Vendor Payments”. This function opens a window (see picture bellow) which allows us to fill in journal lines with payments we want to made for vendors:

First, in this window we establish the due date for vendor payments. Also, we can have an amount available for payments, and the application will generate payments  until the amount available is fulfilled. We have an option to select vendors according to a priority rank – the priority may be settled on the vendor’s card.

In the same window, we can choose if a payment line will be generated for each vendors’ invoice, or one line for all the invoices of the vendor, and we can setup our bank account the payments will be made from. After all options are  selected and the “Ok” button is pushed, payment lines will be created.

Payment lines contain all the necessary information to be transmitted to the bank. The file for the bank will be generated by clicking on the button “Export Payments to File”.

Next, the file is sent to the bank. When bank statements arrive, an additional check is made and then payment journal lines are posted, as any general ledger journal line

Payments export is traceable in the system. When each payment export file is generated, payment journal lines are marked as exported and a register is created, and when a new payment file is exported, the lines already export may be omitte  in order to avoid doubled payments. Yet, if necessary, lines can be re-exported.

Some mentions to be made: what we have presented till now is a standard Dynamics NAV functionality. To implement it for your company, some customization is needed, because each bank has its own  payment file format to import.

Moreover, the payment export will not work unless the information into the system is correct and complete. For example, each vendor must have the proper setup of its bank account where the payment will be made. The functionality has checks regarding payment file generation, as the sent file to be without missing information or errors.

Do you want to explore other functionalities in Dynamics NAV?  Check here: Dynamics NAV (Navision) Resources