Apologies if this has been asked before, but I am looking for some best practices or 3rd party solutions that allow me to have a vendor that was paid via credit card imported directly to my accounts payable module so I can have vendor purchase/payment information in my subledger. For example, we have UPS paid directly using our AMEX card. I would like to have a UPS vendor in my
Can I get AMEX / CC Vendors directly to AP?
Answers
You can create a "bank" account for AMEX. Every time you pay someone with AMEX, it comes out of that bank account.
When you pay your AMEX bill, you show a debit to the account, thus the balance in the AMEX bank account should equal what AMEX's "bank" statement says (when reconciled).
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Thanks. I guess I may not have been too clear. I am struggling w/ how to get the 500+ charges in by vendor. I know that QB has an upload that does this directly from AMEX. Funny that the more sophisticated systems aren't supported.
I use Expensify the imports automatically the Amex statement (daily or sooner) and depending on your system may be able to export the results right in.
In Expensify (there are others that are better/worse) I than can code the trx based in different critera
This help?
Mark,
It is still a pain point. What Wayne is proposing/recommending (as I understand it) is a workaround or a transition account. Essentially, you will establish a transition AMEX Cash account,
(1) Payment to Amex << no expense/vendor classification
CR Legitimate Cash (either through wire, ACH or even check)
DR Transition AMEX Cash << will have a "shadow" balance until A/P is processed...for some, this will be a problem or unacceptable.
(2) A/P encoding (or downloading) with individual vendors
DR Various expenses (with legit vendors)
CR A/P
(3) "Payment" via AMEX Cash << no real cash out
DR A/P
CR Transition AMEX Cash << to zero out shadow balance
WARNING : This is just the concept and I have not thought through the actual accounting and process (and its effects).,,,but my initial eval is that it can work. I am sure our friends here at Proformative will be able to dissect this concept.
It just also occurred to me that you can use a SUSPENSE account for the transition account if you don't want to use a "Cash" account.
Thanks Emerson. I think I can understand how to manipulate the payment/cash side. Really trying to figure out how to have Delta, Starbucks, UPS, etc become the true vendor in AP without me hand coding each line item. GP has their user conference in my town next month. May be worth a day at the show to see if anyone has cracked this. Appreciate the feedback.
Mark, i agree with you that its funny that small GL systems are able to integrated with many things including cc payments, but the larger systems require more support. There is a level of flexibility that comes with a larger ERP system and that flexibility comes with a cost.
To fully automate, you will need IT help. If you want to do an upload of the data, i would suggest the following:
1. do an export out of your AP system so that you can see all of the required columns and all other columns.
2. Make sure all of the vendors, expense accounts, etc. are added within AP
3. Load the Amex data into that file with all of the required fields and i am sure that one of the fields will be an expense account and a paid field. If not, you may need a new AP system :).
4. Import the new file.
These are probably similar steps that you will need to take to fully automate the process.
I'm interested in this as well: We're trying to figure out a similar solution (also using GP). We have purchased GP's Integration Manager and will be investigating the most efficient download/upload of credit card transactions. We already use GP-IM for uploading our payroll JEs from our 3rd party provider, and are looking to expand its use if efficient.
We have customers automatically getting this type of credit card data into GP. Just send me a private message to discuss.
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Accounting