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Payment Receipts

Payment Groups

Business Value

In many industries – such as associations, store networks, franchise systems or group structures – a central customer (the payment group's central account) settles the open invoices of several member customers with a single collective payment. In standard Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, however, a payment reconciliation line can only be applied to entries of a single customer. Collective payments across multiple customers therefore had to be split and applied manually, one by one.

With Payment Groups in 365 business Banking you reconcile such a collective payment through the familiar standard actions of the payment reconciliation journal – just like any other payment. The payment is posted on account to the central customer and, in the same posting, automatically distributed to the open invoices of the member customers.

Feature Description

A payment group consists of a central account (the central customer that makes the collective payment) and any number of member customers whose invoices are settled through the central account.

When a payment reconciliation line is applied, 365 business Banking recognizes a collective group payment by the fact that open invoices of the group's member customers are referenced in the line's transaction text (by document number or external document number). In that case:

1. the line is assigned to the central customer (on account, without a specific entry reference), and
2. the referenced member invoices are pre-selected for application – technically as regular applied payment entries that point to the central account, but internally carry the real member customer number.

When the reconciliation is posted, the payment is first posted on account to the central customer and then – in the same transaction – distributed to and applied against the open invoices of the member customers. After posting, the member invoices are closed and the central customer's balance from the collective payment is settled.

Setting up a payment group

1. Open the Payment Groups list.
2. Use New to create a payment group and assign a Code and a Description.
3. Set the Account Type to Customer.
4. In the Central Account No. field, select the central customer that makes the collective payments.
5. Add the member customers of the group in the lines.

Applying a collective payment automatically

1. Retrieve the bank transactions or import the bank statement into a payment reconciliation journal.
2. Choose the Apply Automatically action (or Apply Selected Automatically for individual lines).
3. Lines whose transaction text references invoices of group members are automatically assigned to the central customer, and the referenced member invoices are pre-selected.
4. Review the result and post the reconciliation as usual.

Applying a collective payment manually

1. Select the relevant line in the payment reconciliation journal and choose Apply Manually.
2. On the Payment Application page, the open invoices of the referenced group members are shown as additional proposal lines (visually highlighted).
3. Set the Applied toggle for the desired member invoices. You can select invoices of several different member customers on the same line.
4. Close the page and post the reconciliation.

Removing an application

Once a collective payment has been posted, you can reverse the application on the customer ledger entries through the standard Remove Application action. The applies-to ID on the member entries is reset as usual.