Disbursement Printing Process

Once the AD transactions have been processed, all accepted AD transactions get passed to a printing process (Disbursement Printing Process), where a hard copy check (or warrant) is generated.  

Advantage supports printing checks on plain as well as preprinted check stocks. The Advantage Disbursement Printing batch process is used to generate a check file that is Ftp'd onto the BIRT Print Server. The BIRT Print Server picks up the check file and merges the data into a form design as specified in the instruction (json) file that is Ftp'd along with the check file. The checks are then printed on the specified printer.

As stated earlier, the Disbursement Printing batch process will summarize stub lines in addition to detailed stub lines for submitted AD transactions based on the Consolidated Check Stub at the Vendor Invoice Line level application control parameter.

To print checks with detailed information, the parameter 'Consolidated Check Stub at the Vendor Invoice Line Level' on the Application Parameter (APPCTRL) table must be set to False. In this case, the Disbursement Printing process generates a single stub line for each AD accounting line as well as each adjustment (for example, discount, intercept) applied to every disbursement transaction accounting line (for example, adjustment amount is not $0) with the following information:

  • Payment Request Number (Transaction Code, Transaction Dept, Code, and Transaction ID)

  • Vendor Invoice Number

  • Vendor Invoice Line Number

  • Invoice Date

  • Check Description on AD Accounting Line or Adjustment Description (for example, Discount, Intercept, Backup Withholding, and 3402(t) Contract Withholding)

  • Line Amount on AD Accounting Line or Adjustment Amount (for example, Backup Withholding Amount, Contract Withholding Amount, Discount Amount, Intercept Amount)

To print checks with summarized information, the application parameter must be set to True. In this case, the Disbursement Printing process summarizes the accounting lines of an AD transaction by the Vendor Invoice Number, Vendor Invoice Line Number, and Payment Request Transaction ID then generate a single stub line for each summarized line as well as each adjustment (for example, discount, intercept) applied to summarized disbursement accounting line (for example, adjustment amount is not $0) with the following information:

  • Payment Request Number (Transaction Code, Transaction Dept Code and Transaction ID)

  • Vendor Invoice Number

  • Vendor Invoice Line Number

  • Invoice Date

  • Check Description (the first non-blank Check Description) or Adjustment Description

  • Summarized Line Amount or Summarized Adjustment Amount

For non-zero dollar checks, this printing process posts up to 35 stub lines per page and posts the remainder stub lines on subsequent pages. The process prints the actual check at the bottom of the first page and a voided check at the bottom of each subsequent page. The process also prints the payer and payee addresses information on the back of each page to mail them separately, if desired.

The printing of $0 checks is driven by the setting of the 'Print $0 Amount Check' field on System Options (SOPT). If this field is set to Yes , then the printing process will post up to 35 stub lines per page and post the remainder stub lines on subsequent pages. The process will print a voided check at the bottom of each page including the first page along with the payer and payee addresses information on the back of each page. Zero-dollar check printing can be suppressed with a Disbursement Printing batch parameter or with the Update Print Status of Zero Dollar Checks batch process. Refer the Accounts Payable Run Sheets guide for details on these features. 

The process also prints Remittance Advices for the eligible EFT payments. Remittance Advices can be printed and mailed or sent as an Email Attachment or as an Email with embedded HTML based on the Remittance Advice Transmission Mode defined on Vendor Customer. Please see batch parameters, system options, and application parameters for additional remittance advice options.

Long check description printing will vary based on the Use Stub Detail (USE_STUB_DET) setting on Application Parameter (APPCTRL). The system determines the maximum line length from the Description Width in Stub Line (STUB_LINE_DESC_WIDTH) parameter on Application Parameter (APPCTRL), which is delivered as 60. When the parameter is set to True, only one stub line will be printed with the defined length to avoid overflowing the data to the next stub line, and adjustments are printed on a separate stub line, if any. The complete check description text is displayed on the Disbursement Stub Detail (STUBDET) page for reference.

The Description Width in Stub Line (STUB_LINE_DESC_WIDTH) parameter on Application Parameter (APPCTRL) works along with the batch parameter NEED_LONG_DESC_STUBLN from the Disbursement Printing process. When the batch parameter is set to N, stub line is printed with the defined length to avoid overflowing the data to the next stub line even when Use Stub Detail (USE_STUB_DET) setting on APPCTRL is set to False. If the batch parameter is set to Y, additional stub lines can be created accommodating the number of characters indicated via the STUB_LINE_DESC_WIDTH parameter until the description is completely covered. 

When the Use Stub Detail (USE_STUB_DET) parameter is set to False, the long check description will be printed on multiple stub lines. Adjustments will be printed on a separate stub line, if any. The length of the stub line is defined by the Description Width in the Stub Line (STUB_LINE_DESC_WIDTH) parameter on Application Parameter (APPCTRL).

The STUB_LINE section of the XML files generated through both the offline and online Disbursement Printing processes contains eight attributes (PYMT_AL_FLD1 to PYMT_AL_FLD8), which are populated with values from associated disbursement transactions, if present. Any attributes with blank values in the respective disbursement transactions are not included in the output XML file. While intended to capture information needed for specialized ACH file layouts, these fields can be used to pass along information to a vendor.

When the Include Disbursing ABA Number in Disbursement Printing XML option in System Options (SOPT) is set to Yes, the disbursement printing XML includes the attributes BANK_BRN_NO and FRST_FOUR_DGT_ABA_NO under the STUB_HEADER_CHECK_INFO section. BANK_BRN_NO is populated with the Bank Branch Number from the Bank and FRST_FOUR_DGT_ABA_NO populated with the first four digits or characters of the bank’s ABA number.