A bank payment records money you pay straight out of a bank or cash account and, in the same document, what that money was for. It is the mirror of a Bank Receipt: where a bank receipt is a cash sale, a bank payment is a cash purchase or a direct expense. The normal accrual flow for buying takes two documents, a Bill (or a GRN) that records the expense and the debt you owe the supplier, then a Supplier Payment that pays the cash and clears that debt. A bank payment collapses both into a single document because the money leaves immediately, so nothing is left owing and no supplier balance is created. The bookkeeper, the accountant, or the owner usually enters bank payments.
You can use a bank payment three ways, depending on which of the two tabs in the middle of the form you fill:
- Account lines only (the Accounts tab): cash paid against expense or other ledger accounts with no products involved, such as rent, utilities, bank charges, wages, or a drawing the owner takes out.
- Item lines only (the Items tab): a cash purchase of products. It records the cost and receives the stock, but it is settled in cash on the spot, so there is no supplier balance to pay later.
- Both: a mix of product purchase lines and account lines on the same payment.
Reach for a bank payment when the money is not clearing bills you already owe. If you are paying down a supplier's open bills or GRNs, use a Supplier Payment instead: it lists their open documents and lets you allocate the payment across them. A bank payment is for a direct expense, a fresh cash purchase, or other money-out that has no bill behind it. If the expense is one you will pay later rather than now, record a Bill and settle it with a Supplier Payment when the cash goes out.
Find bank payments under Finance → Bank Payments.
Before you start
- The bank or cash account the money leaves must exist in your Chart of Accounts, with an account type of Bank or Cash.
- The expense or other account you pay to must also exist in the Chart of Accounts. If you are buying a product instead, that item must exist in Products.
- To post to an Accounts Payable line you need a supplier (see Suppliers); an Accounts Receivable line needs a customer.
- At least one payment method must be set up, since the payment records how the money went out.
- You need the Create Bank Payments permission, granted per user under Permissions. List Bank Payments lets you open the screen, and Edit, Delete, View, and Print Bank Payments cover the rest. See Users, seats & permissions.
Record a bank payment
Open a new bank payment
Go to Finance → Bank Payments and select New Bank Payment. The bank payment form opens.
Check the template
The Template picker sits at the top of the form. ZyncLedger pre-selects your default bank payment template, so you can usually leave it. The template decides which fields the form shows and how the printed payment voucher looks; switch it here if you keep more than one layout. See Print templates for how these are set up.
Choose the bank or cash account
Select the Bank Account (required). This is the account the money leaves, and the list only offers accounts of type Bank or Cash. Whatever total you enter below is paid out of here.
Set the payment date
Enter the Payment Date (required). This is the date the payment posts to the ledger, so it decides which period the amount falls in.
Set the transaction number
The Txn Number identifies the payment. How you fill it depends on the number mode for bank payments:
- Automatic (the default): the field shows Auto-generated and ZyncLedger assigns the next number when you save. Leave it alone.
- Manual: you type the number yourself. It is required and must be unique across all transactions.
See Document numbering to change the mode or set up a multi-series numbering scheme.
Choose the payment method
Select the Payment Method (required). This records how the money went out, such as Cash, Bank Transfer, or Cheque. If you pick a cheque method, the Reference No field is replaced by two cheque fields:
- Cheque No (required) — the number on the cheque you issued.
- Cheque Date — the date written on the cheque.
Recording those here only stores the cheque's number and date on the payment. The money is still credited to the bank or cash account you chose above.
Add a name and dimensions (optional)
Fill any of these if they help you find or report on the payment later:
Field What it does Name The person or party you paid. Attaching a customer or supplier here pulls in their address. Reference No Your own reference, such as a voucher or bill number. (Hidden when the payment method is a cheque.) Location Tags the payment to a location for reporting. Branch Tags the payment to a branch for reporting. Enter what the money is for
The middle of the form has two tabs. Use whichever fits, or both. Each needs at least one filled row between them before you can save.
Accounts — for expense and other ledger amounts:
- Account (required) — the account this money is paid to, for example an expense, utility, or drawings account. The bank and cash accounts are excluded here, since that side is already the payment account above.
- Name — the customer or supplier the line belongs to. This is required when the account is Accounts Payable (pick a supplier) or Accounts Receivable (pick a customer), and ignored for other accounts.
- Description — a note for this line.
- Tax % and Tax Amount — a tax to add to the line, if any.
- Amount (required) — the amount paid against this account.
Items — for buying a product. Pick the Product, then set the Quantity, Cost, and any tax. ZyncLedger totals the line for you. Quantities are positive: a bank payment records goods coming in, not a return.
A blank row waits at the bottom of each tab, so a new line appears as you start filling the last one. To remove a line, select the trash icon at the end of its row.
Add a payment note (optional)
Use the Payment Note at the foot of the form to explain what the payment is for. If you keep standard wording, you can pull it in from a saved note.
Save
Select Save & Close to save and return to the list, Save & New to save and start another, or Save & Print to save and print the payment. The payment posts the moment you save.
What it posts
A bank payment records money going out, so it credits (decreases) the bank or cash account you chose in the header by the payment total. Against that, it debits each line you entered:
- Each Accounts line debits the account you picked (your expense, drawings, or other account) for its amount.
- Each Items line debits the product's account for the line value: the inventory account for a stock-tracked product, or the product's expense account for a service or non-inventory product.
- Any tax on a line is debited to your tax payable account.
The credit to the bank account always equals the sum of the debited lines and their tax, so the entry balances. It flows through to the Trial Balance, the General Ledger, and, depending on the accounts you used, the Profit & Loss or the Balance Sheet.
An Items line behaves like a purchase, not a sale. For a stock-tracked product it receives the stock: on-hand quantity rises, and the stock is valued at the cost you paid on the line (before tax). ZyncLedger debits the product's inventory account rather than an expense, so the value sits on your balance sheet until the goods are later sold or issued. There is no cost of goods sold at this point, because you are buying, not selling. For a service or non-inventory product, the line debits the product's expense account and moves no stock. This is the difference from recording a GRN or a Bill: those raise Accounts Payable and wait for a payment, where a bank payment pays the cash there and then.
Two account types do more than post to the ledger:
- An Accounts Payable line with a supplier attached also reduces that supplier's balance (their AP), so it pays down what you owe them.
- An Accounts Receivable line with a customer attached also moves that customer's balance (their AR), for example a cash refund to a customer.
The payment is saved with a status of Posted.
Tips & gotchas
Bank Payment, Supplier Payment, or Bill?
Use a Supplier Payment when the money settles bills or GRNs the supplier has already raised, so you can allocate it across their open documents. Use a Bill when you receive an expense now but will pay it later. Use a bank payment when the money goes out now and there is no bill behind it: a direct expense, a cash purchase, or a drawing.
Paying a supplier in advance
To pay a supplier before they have raised a bill or GRN, add an Accounts line that selects an Accounts Payable account and carries the supplier's Name, for the advance amount. The cash leaves the bank and the amount sits as a credit in that supplier's favour. It then appears in the Credits tab of a Supplier Payment, where you apply it against their open bills or GRNs once they arrive.
You need at least one line, and a place to put it
A payment must have at least one filled row across the Accounts and Items tabs, and every filled row needs a location (its own or the header's). Rows without a location are dropped on save, which can leave you with an unexpected "at least one entry" message even though the form looks full.
A payment used to settle a GRN is locked
An account line can be applied to a supplier's open GRNs. Once any of a payment's lines has been used to settle a GRN, ZyncLedger will not let you delete the payment, reduce that line below the settled amount, or change its account or supplier. Undo the settlement first if you need to change it.
Deleting a payment removes its postings
There is no reversing entry. Deleting a bank payment sets its status to Deleted, removes its lines from the ledger, reverses any stock it received, recalculates the affected supplier or customer balances, and returns the money to the bank account. ZyncLedger blocks the deletion if any of the payment's lines have been reconciled on a bank reconciliation, if a line has been used to settle a GRN, or if the payment date falls in a closed period, so that settled and locked history stays intact.
Related
- Chart of Accounts defines the bank, cash, and expense accounts a payment posts to.
- Products supply the item lines and their inventory and expense accounts.
- Payment methods are the tender options on the payment.
- Bank Receipt records money going the other way, into a bank or cash account.
- Supplier Payment records paying a supplier against their open bills and GRNs.
- Bill records a supplier expense you will pay later.
- Fund Transfer moves money between two of your own bank or cash accounts.
- Bank Reconciliation marks a payment's lines as reconciled, which then protects them from deletion.
- Document numbering controls the payment's transaction number.
