This training guide covers Electronic Payments in Unity® Practice Management.
Introduction
Electronic payments can be set up at your bank (please see the list of supported banks below) directly from the e-chit that has been raised and authorised in Interactive Cloud.
The e-chit is completed in the normal way, please see guides to ‘Client Account E-chit’ and ‘Office Account E-chit’, once authorised your Legal Cashier is able to export the payment from Interactive Accounts directly to a supported bank.
Banks Supported:
- Barclays
- Lloyds
- Royal Bank of Scotland/Nat West
- HSBC
Yorkshire Bank/Clydesdale Bank
Set-Up
The bank set-up process takes place in Interactive Accounts.
- Select Maintenance from the side menu and select Bank Accounts from the maintenance list.
- Select the bank that payments will be made from and select Edit Account, this will open the account details. Check to ensure that the account number is present and correct, then click OK.
- Select Maintenance from the side menu and select Banks from the maintenance list.
- Select the bank that payments will be made from, it is possible to have multiple banks set up.
Ensure all details are completed on this form and select the correct Upload Format.
If the incorrect upload format is selected, the electronic payment will fail.
- When an upload format is selected, it can be viewed under the upload format column.
- Once all the details are entered correctly, click Save.
Exporting a Payment
Complete an e-chit in Interactive Cloud, ensuring to complete the correct bank details.
| Only the following payment types will generate electronic payments: Faster Payments, BACS, Chaps |
The Interactive bank validation will help you to ensure you have entered the correct sort-code and account number. If a valid combination is recorded then a |
Each bank has different validation criteria, if the details you have completed on the e-chit do not meet the criteria prescribed by the bank, then you will receive a warning message.
Once the e-chit is submitted and authorised, the payment can be exported to your bank from Interactive Accounts.
Go to Interactive Accounts and select E-Chits from the side menu.
Select the e-chit to be exported to the bank and select ‘Export Bank File(s)’
An e-chit export summary box will then populate the screen.
|
The bank export file can be found in Interactive Cloud:
- Go to Reports on the top blue toolbar
- Select Monthly Reports from the side toolbar
- Select the Bank Exports hyperlink
- Select the bank, i.e.: Barclays
This will allow you to see the bank export files.
Some browsers will attempt to open the exports rather than downloading the export file. If your browser does this, select ALT on your keyboard and click the file to download it correctly.
Once the export file has been downloaded, please go to your bank and follow your banks instructions for importing payments.
| Each bank has a different method for importing payments. Please check with your bank which method they use. |
Electronic Payment Validation
The Electronic Payment service supports the following banks:
- Barclays
- Lloyds
- RBS/Nat West
- Yorkshire Bank/Clydesdale Bank
- HSBC
These banks all have their own payments validation that must be adhered to, Interactive Cloud supports each banks validation:
| Bank & Payment Type | Sort-Code | Account No. | Account Name | Reference | Amount |
| Barclays | |||||
BACS
|
6 Numeric Digits |
N/A | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. |
Max value 9,999,999,999.99 |
CHAPS
|
6 Numeric Digits |
8 Numeric Digits | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | |
Faster Payment
|
6 Numeric Digits |
N/A | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. |
Max value 9,999,999,999.99 |
| Lloyds | |||||
BACS
|
6 Numeric Digits |
8 Numeric Digits | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | |
CHAPS
|
6 Numeric Digits |
8 Numeric Digits | 35 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 35 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | |
Faster Payment
|
6 Numeric Digits |
8 Numeric Digits | 35 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | Between 0.01 and 99999.99 |
| RBS/Nat West | |||||
CHAPS
|
6 Numeric Digits |
8 Numeric Digits | 35 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 16 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | |
Faster Payment
|
6 Numeric Digits |
8 Numeric Digits | 35 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | Less than 250,001.00 |
| Yorkshire Bank/Clydesdale Bank | |||||
Faster Payments |
6 Numeric Digits |
8 Numeric Digits | 35 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | |
| HSBC | |||||
| Faster Payments | 6 Numeric Digits | 8 Numeric Digits | 35 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. | 18 alphanumeric character limit, which includes punctuation and spaces. |
Transaction dates: Must be dated on or after the current dates, these banks will not accept payments that are date before the current date.
| Your Legal Cashier is unable to change any details recorded on an e-chit, this includes the date. |