Accounts Payable Overview

The purpose of Accounts Payable (A/P) is to record and disburse payment for purchases of goods or services. A/P tends to be the final step in the purchasing chain of events and includes the following processing:

  • Payments: Requests payment for goods received and services rendered. This process establishes a payable in the system and, if specified, liquidates the encumbrance.

  • Payment Management: Review pending payments and place payments on hold based on specific criteria and reasons.

  • Cash Management: Review pending payments and schedule payments based on available cash.

  • Special A/P processing:

  • Procurement Card: Supports credit card purchases, typically for small dollar payments.

  • 1099/1042S Reporting: Sets up and collects 1099 data/transactions. Refer to the Tax Reporting User Guide for more in depth information.

  • Retainage: Retains payments based on pre-established contract terms. Some specific contracts, holds percentage of each payment until the terms of the Award have been completed. At that point, final payment is either released to the vendor or a third party, or may be forfeited.

A/P is fully integrated with other areas of Advantage Financial, for example:

  • Advantage Procurement - A/P overlaps with Advantage Procurement in the areas such as Matching and taking retainage on the Payment Request transactions as well as Procurement Card processing. Procurement Folder fields and a View Procurement Folder action added to A/P and Procurement transactions further establish a link between the Accounts Payable and Procurement sub-systems.

  • Accounts Receivable - A/P overlaps with Accounts Receivable in the area of taking warrant intercepts against outstanding receivables and issuing customer refunds.

  • Disbursements - A/P overlaps with Disbursements area when disbursements are issued against outstanding payments, when payments are rescheduled, and 1099 or 1042-S withholding are taken against a payment.