Overview

The Fisherman Balances table keeps a running tab of amounts owed and due to vendors with a “Vendor Type” of Fisherman, Tender, or Fisherman/Tender. The balances are appropriately adjusted automatically by Adjustments, Balance Transfers, Cash Receipts, Credit Memos distributed to fishermen, Delivery Tickets, Fisherman Sales, Invoices distributed to fishermen, Tender Sales, and Transfers. From the Settlement Balance, users may process checks to pay remaining balances.

Prerequisites

Required Prerequisites

Vendor Setup
Financial Account setup
Fisherman Check Format

Optional Prerequisites

Set the purchasing preference for “Default Account – Settlement Accrual”.
- This will ensure that transactions will still post if the settlement account has not been manually configured for each fisherman or tender.
- Set the integration setup for Checkbook transaction to immediate or timed.
  - This user guide assumes the integration to be on. If the integration setup is set to none, then the integration components described in Steps 4 and 5 will not occur.

Understanding the data flow

Once payments are processed in Fisherman Balance, a Payables Transaction Entry is created for each check in the host system’s Purchasing module as an invoice.

To view the data flow of Settlement Check payments, click here.

Step 1: Viewing settlement balances.

From NorthScope, expand the Purchasing module on the navigation menu and select “Fisherman Balances.” This will open a list view, which displays all settlement balances for fishermen, tenders, and fishermen/tenders. These fisherman balances are displayed with the following details:

Account: Displays the name of the vendor the balance is owed.
Activity: Displays a hyperlink that will open the Fisherman's activity with all transactions that are New, Approved, Ready to Post, or Posted, Voided and Replaced; excluding those that have been deleted by default.
Batch: Displays the batch the payment belongs to. This field auto-populates after a payment has been entered and processed.
Open PO's: Displays the fisherman's balance resulting from all open Purchase Orders.
Open Transactions: Displays the fisherman's balance resulting from all open transactions. Negative balances will appear within parentheses.
Payment: Enter the amount to pay the vendor. This is the only editable field.
Posted Balance: Displays the remaining balance from posted transactions. Negative balances will appear within parentheses.
Net Balance: Displays the sum total of the vendor’s balance. Negative net balances will appear within parentheses.
Statement: Displays a hyperlink that will open the fisherman's statement report.

Step 2: Entering settlement payments.

From the Fisherman Balances list view, enter the amount being paid to the vendor(s) in each vendor’s line item “Payment” field. All settlement payments entered must be greater than 0. Once all payments have been entered, click the “Process Checks” toolbar icon.

This will automatically populate the “Batch” field on each paid vendor’s line item to display a batch name reflecting the user’s name and the batch number (if it is the first batch being made by the user, no number will appear).

Also, clicking “Process Checks” will open the Process Checks window.

Step 3: Processing checks.

The Process Checks window will open with the following header fields:

# of Checks: This field auto-populates to display the number of checks for processing.
Batch ID: Select the batch the payments for processing belong in. This field auto-populates to include the “Batch” selection created in the Settlement Balance list view.
Checkbook: Select the checkbook from which to make the payments. This field defaults to the checkbook ID indicated on the “Default Checkbook ID” Purchasing preference. The selected Checkbook will auto-populate the Next Check #.
Check #’s From/To: This field auto-populates to display the check numbers that will appear on the processed checks.
Check Date: This field defaults to today’s date but can be edited. In order to print and approve the check(s), the check date must reside within an open fiscal period.
Next Check #: Displays the next check number available. This field auto-populates but can be edited. In order to print and approve the check(s), the check number must not have been previously used for a printed check.
Status: This field auto-populates to display the status of the payments including: New, Printed, Approved, and Void.

Select the auto-populated batch name from the Batch ID field. This will automatically update the Process Checks window to display the defaulted data from the payments while also removing the Void and Approve toolbar icons. In the Process Checks grid, each payment entered will appear as a single line item with the following details:

Account: Select the account for which the payment is being made. This field defaults to the account a payment was entered for but can be edited. This field is required to save the check.
Address ID: Select the Address ID to which the check will be written. This drop-down menu displays all Address IDs for the selected Account. Once an Address ID is selected, the Payee, Description, and Address fields will default. This field is not required.
Address 1: Displays the address 1 line of the selected fisherman address. This field is editable until the check batch is printed.
Address 2: Displays the address 2 line of the selected fisherman address. This field is editable until the check batch is printed.
Address 3: Displays the address 3 line of the selected fisherman address. This field is editable until the check batch is printed.
Amount: Enter the amount to be paid to the “Payee.” This field defaults to the total “Payment” amount entered for the vendor but can be edited. Negative amounts are not permitted and entering a $0 amount or deleting the amount and saving will removed the line item.
Check Number: Displays the check number assigned to the payment. This field is for informational use only and cannot be edited. The field auto-populates when the check(s) have been printed.
City: Displays the city of the selected fisherman address. This field is editable until the check batch is printed.
Description: Enter the description to appear on the check. This field defaults from the Address ID but can be edited.
Payee: Enter the name to appear on the check. This field defaults from the Address ID but can be edited.
State: Displays the state of the selected fisherman address. This field is editable until the check batch is printed.
Zip: Displays the zip code of the selected fisherman address. This field is editable until the check batch is printed.

To create more checks than those that display, click the “New” toolbar icon. This will open five new rows for data entry. If a “Payment” was not entered for a vendor in the Settlement Balance list view, a payment can still be created in the Process Checks window by creating a new line for the vendor.

Multiple checks may be created for a single vendor with different payees. To do so, select the same vendor for each additional check and change the “Payee” field to reflect the name that will be printed on the check.

Multiple checks may also be entered for different vendors within the same batch.

Once all desired payments have been entered, click the “Save” toolbar icon. This will update the header data fields.

Step 4: Approving and/or printing checks.

To create check requests, click the “Check Approval” toolbar icon. This will open check request forms on screen for each of the created checks with the payment amount, payment date, vendor account, payable to, address, GL account, and description information.

To print the created checks to the screen for review or to print, click the “Print” toolbar icon. This will open the created check(s) ready for print. Once printing, saving, or exiting the printed checks, the Process Checks window will appear with an updated status of “Printed,” all fields other than the Batch ID field will no longer be editable and the following toolbar icons will display: Check Approval, Approve, and Void.

Note: Purchasing Preference 'Fisherman Check Format' is required in order to print checks.

Clicking the Approve toolbar icon will send the checks to the host system, update the Process Checks status to Approved, and, upon exiting the Process Checks window, will update the Posted Balance(s) to reflect the payment(s) and clear the Batch and Payment fields for new entry. The posted balances will update by first applying the vendor’s “Due From” balances to the “Owed To” balances to get a final balance owed. Then, the approved payment will be applied to the remaining balance(s) by applying to the oldest transaction first. Transaction applications utilize the check batch date when checks are created and posted. Transactions dated after the check batch date would not be applied.

Note: If the payment pays the Posted Balance in full, the vendor's Settlement Balance line item will no longer appear.

Clicking the Void toolbar icon will not send the checks to the host system, will update the Process Checks status to Void, and, upon exiting the Process Checks window, will return the Settlement Balance to its original balance before the payments were entered and will clear the Batch and Payment fields for new entry.

Step 5: Posting the check(s) in the host system.

Approving checks in NorthScope will send each individual check as a Payables Transaction Entry in the host system’s Purchasing module as an invoice with a check attached for the full amount of the payment. The transaction entries will appear in the batch titled NS followed by the year, month, and day with the following format: NS: YY_MM_DD. For example, if the payment was integrated on July 14, 2015, the Batch ID for the transaction entry would be NS: 15_07_14.

Each Payment journal entry description will be the NorthScope journal entry number followed by the NorthScope transaction ID followed by the NorthScope transaction name (i.e. 12345: 123456 Payment).

Each check will produce the following transaction entry distributions:

One debit line for the amount of the payment applied to each transaction’s original credit account. For example, if the payment was applied to a delivery ticket, which produced a credit to the fisherman’s settlement accrual account, the invoice will debit the fisherman’s settlement accrual account. Multiple debit lines will appear if payments were applied to multiple transactions. The distribution type for each debit line will be PURCH.

Note: If the applied payment is greater than the owed amount to the vendor, the overpayment will create a debit line to the fisherman’s “Settlement Accrual” account.

One credit line for the amount of the check to the checkbook’s cash account. The distribution type will be CASH.

Once the user is satisfied that all the GL Distributions are correct, the user can post the batch in the host system.

Note: Although this step is required, it does not need to be done for each transaction. Posting can be done nightly or as needed.

Posting the transaction will create a posted purchasing invoice and a posted purchasing payment, fulfilling the amount of the invoice, which will create a posted journal entry will the same distributions as the invoice.