New Exceptional Payment Method is Added to the Model – Restore Payment

We will be adding a new exceptional “payment” method to the Model effective November 18th called Restore Payment. After much data analysis, it was determined that the Journal Entry payment method was being used for much more than restoring payments voided in error – it then became necessary to break the restoration of a payment voided in error out uniquely so that it could be included in the nightly financial batch where Journal Entry is excluded. This new method now requires a change in how the Journal Entry method is used – these differences are explained below.

Journal Entry: The Journal Entry payment type is will be used to reflect/record a payment that was posted or receipted outside of Accela, such as receipted to a financial software. This payment type is only used to reflect payments made outside of Accela such as with a case where you need to demonstrate that a deposit payment was made to the City/County cashier and receipted in the agency financial system directly. You would process a payment type of Journal Entry for the external payment amount - in the Payer field you will type “Journal Entry Payment” and in the Payment Comment, and as best practice, you would include a brief comment that the payment was made in an external system, the reason, the receipt number from the other system, the payment method, the date posted, and any sort of approval code or check number.

This payment type effectively demonstrates that an external payment was made, and does not show up on your cash balancing but does show in the transactions applied/revenue reports as a result of a payment method being applied to fee items in Accela. The Transactions Applied by Method would show this type of transaction clearly as would the standard Revenue Exceptions Report. Important note: You cannot process a refund on this payment type as it is just a reflection of a payment made outside of Accela, the payment would have to be refunded in the external system it was posted in.

Restore Payment: The new Restore Payment payment type will be used to restore a payment transaction to a record where the payment was voided in error. This payment is only used to restore payments voided in error as the monies were already deposited on a prior date/year/fiscal cycle such as with a 6-month old payment that was accidentally voided today. You would process a payment type of Restore Payment for the voided payment amount – in the Payer field you will type “Restore Payment” and in the Payment Comment, as best practice, you would include a brief comment that a payment was voided in error and is only being restored, and reference information to the original ‘voided’ payment such as original receipt #, payment method, payor, and original posting date.

This payment type effectively restores the original payment transaction, although on current date, and does not show up on your cash balancing but does show in the transactions applied/revenue reports as a result of a payment method being applied to fee items in Accela. The Transactions Applied by Method would show this type of transaction clearly as would the standard Revenue Exceptions Report. Important note: Restore Payment should only be used to restore ‘Cash’, ‘Check’, ’Credit Card’, ‘Fund Transfer’, ‘Internal Transfer’ and ‘Refund Check’ payment types. Using it to restore other exceptional payment types to include ‘Credit Memo’, ‘Fee Waiver’, ‘Write Off’ and ‘Billed’ will not appear correctly on reports and cause financial issues. You cannot process a refund on this payment type as no cash was currently exchanged/paid – you are only restoring the transactional payment record.

To refresh on the other available Exceptional Payment Types, check out the Knowledgebase article Payment Processing Cases and Types.