Batches

Overview

Batches is a method of bundling multiple payments into one transaction or group, and is used to control when payments are available to transfer to QuickBooks.

Enable/Disable Batches

By default, SmartWare is set to utilize batches.

To enable/disable Batches in SmartWare, you will need to perform the following steps:

• Navigate to: Setup Franchise | Setup | Options | Options
• The Franchise – Franchise Options panel will load on the right side of the page
  
  Franchise – Franchise Options

• Click the edit button next to UseBatches
  
  Franchise – Franchise Options (edit view)

• From the Franchise – Franchise Options (edit) panel you can either enable or disable the batching feature
  • Depending on which option you select, you will need to enter either ‘true’ or ‘false’ in the value field
  • Once you have entered true or false in the value field, click the (save) button

See below for an explanation of each Value option:

Value	Functionality
True	Enables payment batching in SmartWare Payments will not appear in the QuickBooks Transfer panel until they have been placed on a batch and the batch has been approved
False	Disables payment batching in SmartWare Batches may be disabled at any time regardless of if there are existing batches with payments on them Payments will immediately appear on the QuickBooks Transfer panel to send to QuickBooks

The Batching Process

Batches is a four step process. In order for a payment to appear on the QuickBooks Transfer panel it must be assigned to a batch and the batch must move through the batch process to Approved. 

• Below is a diagram of the batch process/workflow:
  
  
  

Below is a brief explanation of each part of the process:

Step	Functionality
Create Batch	Create a batch, with a Batch Date, Batch Type (CC, Bank Deposit, and Other) and unique Batch Number
Assign Payments	Add payments to selected batches or delete batches
Batches Pending Approval	Review the payments in batches, remove payments from batches, delete batches, or approve batches
Approved Batches	Represents batches that have been verified that all payments have been assigned to the batch and that all information looks correct. Approved batches are locked and cannot be modified or deleted. Payments from Approved Batches will appear in the QuickBooks Transfer panel under Payments view allowing you to transfer them to QuickBooks

Navigate to Batches

You can access the Batches feature by navigating to the following location:

• Accounting > Batches
  
  SmartWare – Main Menu

Creating a Batch

On the Batches screen, click the  (arrow down) button on the 'Create Batch' header to open the Create Batch panel

Batches - Create Batch

Choose a Batch Date (defaulted to today) and a Batch Type for the batch you are creating: a Batch Number will be defaulted based on those two but it can be edited to whatever unique identifier you choose

Below is a brief explanation of the Create Batch fields:

Field	Functionality
Batch Date	Date can be whatever date you would like to associate with the batch and does not represent the date the batch was created
Batch Type	Represents what type of payments will be included in the batch This will restrict what payments are shown in the next step CC will show credit card type payments Bank Deposit will show all payments except credit card types Other has no restrictions: all payments will be available
Batch Number	Represents an editable name for the batch that is visible when listing batch payments.   This value is used to identify the batch for viewing purposes only and is not posted to QuickBooks A default batch number will be created based on the batch date and batch type, but batch numbers can consist of any combination of letters, numbers or characters
Territory	Optional field: a territory can be associated with a batch. This will not restrict the payments that can be added to the batch, but will automatically filter the available payments by the chosen territory
Bank Account	Optional field: a bank account can be associated with a batch

 Once you have chosen a Batch Date and Batch Type (and edited the Batch Number or selected a Territory or Bank Account if desired), click the  (save) button. This will create a new batch record that will be available to view under Assign Payments and Batches Pending Approval

Assign Payments to a Batch

If you have just created a new batch and clicked the save button, the Assign Payments panel will automatically be opened. It's also the panel opened by default when opening the Batches screen. It can also be opened by clicking the  (arrow down) button on the Assign Payments header

Batches - Assign Payments

 The Open Batches grid contains all batches that have not yet been Approved.

• Select your desired batch from the grid
• The Payments to Assign grid will populate with unassigned payments restricted by the Batch Type
• Specific payments can be added by checking the box on the far right, or all the payments can be added by checking the Select All box circled in the screenshot below
  
• After all desired payments have been selected, click the  (assign) button
  • All selected payments will be added to the batch
• Once all payments have been assigned to the selected batch, click the  (continue) button
  • This will then open the Batches Pending Approval panel with the batch already selected

Batches Pending Approval

The Batches Pending Approval grid contains all batches that have not yet been Approved. 

• To review the payments on a batch, select the desired batch from the grid

The Assigned Payments grid will populate with all payments that are assigned to the selected batch

• To remove an assigned payment select the   (remove) button
  • All payments removed will no longer be included in the batch and will return to the Payments to Assign grid in the Assign Payments panel
• Once the batch has been reviewed select the  (approve batch) button
  
  • The selected batch will be relocated to Approved Batches 

Approved Batches

The Approved Batches grid contains all approved batches

• To reopen a batch select the  (reopen) button
  • This will return the batch to both Assign Payments and Batches Pending Approval panels for edit

Open Batches: Adding and Reviewing Payments

There are two panels that display all the open batches: Assign Payments and Batches Pending Approval

To view all open batches and add additional payments to them, select the Assign Payments panel

• A list of open batches will populate the Open Batches grid
• To select a specific batch, left click anywhere on the batch line item
  
  Batches – Open Batches grid in Assign Payments

 Below is a brief explanation of each column available from the Open Batches grid

Column	Functionality
Batch Number	Number (name) that was associated with the batch when it was created
Batch Type	The type of payments that are in the batch
Site/Territory	Territory associated with the batch
Batch Date	Date that was associated with the batch when it was created
Created Date	Date the batch was created
Cash	Total amount of cash payments already assigned to the batch or selected in the Payments to Assign grid
Check	Total amount of check payments already assigned to the batch or selected in the Payments to Assign grid
Credit	Total amount of credit card payments already assigned to the batch or selected in the Payments to Assign grid
Other	Total amount of other types of payments already assigned to the batch or selected in the Payments to Assign grid
Total	Total amount of payments already assigned to the batch or selected in the Payments to Assign grid
Assign	Assigns selected payments to batch
Continue	Opens the Batches Pending Approval panel and closes the Assign Payments panel
Delete	Deletes the batch entirely and unassign any payments already assigned

To view all open batches and review the payments currently on them, select the Batches Pending Approval panel

• A list of open batches will populate the Open Batches grid
• To select a specific batch, left click anywhere on the batch line item
• The Assigned Payments grid will display below allowing you to see each payment that is currently assigned to the batch
  
  Open Batches – payments grid

Below is a brief explanation of the columns available from the Assign Payments grid:

Column	Functionality
Edit	Opens the work order allowing you to make changes if needed
Employee	Displays primary technician listed on the work order
Customer	Displays customer name as it appears on the work order that the payment was applied to
Site/Territory	Displays Territory based off Zone selected on work order.  If your office only has one territory, then the same territory name will display for all payments
Payment Type	Displays the payment type as it appears on work order payments panel
Check #	Displays check number that was associated with the payment
Entered By	Displays the name of the user who entered the payment into SmartWare
Payment Date	Displays the payment date as it appears on the work order payments panel
Account Name	Displays payor name as it appears on the work order payments panel
Ticket #	Displays work order number that the payment was applied to
Amount	Displays the payment amount as it appears on the work order payments panel
Active	Active payments will display a checked box, while inactive payments will have an unchecked box
Remove	Removes the selected payment from the open batch and places it back in Payments to Assign

Remove Payment from an Open Batch

You can only delete a payment from an open batch. If you need to delete a payment from an approved batch, you must re-open the approved batch and then remove the payment.

• From the Batches Pending Approval grid, left-click anywhere on the batch line item you would like to view payments for
• The Assigned Payments grid will display below allowing you to see each payment that is currently assigned to the batch
  
  Batches Pending Approval – assigned payments grid

• From the payment grid, under the Remove column, click the  (remove) button next to the payment you would like to remove from the batch
• The payment will be removed from the batch and will appear back in the Assign Payments grid

Delete a Batch

You may only delete open batches. Approved batches have already been locked and cannot be deleted without re-opening first

To delete a batch, perform the following steps:

• From either the Open Batch grid on the Assign Payments panel or Batches Pending Approval grid on the Batches Pending Approval panel, left-click anywhere on the batch line item you would like to delete
• From the far right of the grid, select the  (Delete) button
• A Batch Action [Delete] section will replace the  with a confirmation menu
  
  • To keep a batch select 
    
    Batch Action [Delete]

• From the Batch Action [Delete] section, verify the correct Batch Number appears and then click the  (yes) button
• The batch will be deleted and all payments will return to the Payments to Assign grid

Approve a Batch

Approving a Batch means that you verified all desired payments have been assigned to the batch and that all information looks correct. Once you mark a batch as Approved, no other changes may be made to the batch and all payments from the approved batch will appear in the QuickBooks Transfer panel indicating they are ready to transfer to QuickBooks

To mark a batch as approved, perform the following steps:

• From the Batches Pending Approval grid, left-click anywhere on the batch line item you would like to approve
• From the highlighted batch, select  (Approve)
• This will mark the batch as Approved and the batch will now appear under Approved batches. Payments from the approved batch will now appear in the QuickBooks Transfer panel under Payments indicating that they are now ready to transfer over to QuickBooks

Until a payment has been assigned to a batch and the batch has been marked approved, the payment will not transfer over to QuickBooks.

View Approved Batches

To view all Approved batches, you will need to perform the following steps: 

• Click the  (arrow down) button on the 'Approved Batches' header to open the Approve Batches panel
• The Approved Batches grid will appear and display a list of all approved batches

Batches – approved batches 

Below is a brief explanation of each column available from the Approved batches grid

Column	Functionality
Batch Number	Number (name) that was associated with the batch when it was created
Batch Date	Date that was associated with the batch when it was created
Batch Type	Type of payments in the batch
Site/Territory	Territory associated with the batch
Created Date	Date batch was created
Approved Date	Date batch was marked as approved
Approved By	Employee who marked the batch as approved
Amount	Total amount of payments assigned to the batch
Re-Open	This reopens the batch so edits can be made