Common questions and issues

We've provided a list of solutions to common questions and issues you can encounter when designing a positive pay report in Report Designer.

Required files

The files needed for your report design can vary depending on the bank's requirements. You'll usually need only the CM-Transaction record.

Required header

Some banks require a specific string of text at the top of the file that only prints once. In Report Designer, set that text to print once on every page. Then use a conditional print area to print the text only on the first page.

1. Open the positive pay report design in Report Designer (File, Open Design).
2. From the View menu, select Print Controls.
3. Select the text at the top of your report design that you want to print only once.
4. At the bottom of the Report Designer window, click Print once per and select Print on every page. Click OK.
5. From the Tools menu, select Formulas, and then click New.
6. Enter the following formula: IF(Page Number = 1, True)
   • Don’t type: "Page Number". Click Index, select System Fields, and then double-click Page Number.
7. Click OK, enter a name for the formula, click OK, and then click Close.
8. Verify you still have the text from step 3 selected.
9. From the Format menu, select Conditional Print Areas.
10. Select the formula you created.
11. Select the Suppress blank lines if FALSE checkbox.
12. Click OK.
13. From the File menu, select Save Design As. Save your modified positive pay report design to a new name.

Blank lines with page breaks

If you have problems with blank lines in the text file where there are page breaks, try the following options.

• Change the unprintable area setting on your printer to zero.
• Change the margins in your positive pay report to zero (File, Page Setup, Margins).
• Clear the Use form feeds checkbox (File, Page Setup, Print Options).
• Set up a printer object that uses the Generic/Text Only Windows printer driver. Print to file with that printer object.
• Import the text file into Excel, sort by date, and then save it. This moves blank lines to the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Always print to file

You can set up the positive pay report to print to a text file.

1. From the File menu, select Page Setup, Print Options.
2. Under Default Output Type, clear the System default checkbox and then select the Print to File checkbox.
3. Click Select File.
4. In the Save as type list, select Plain Text (*.txt).
5. In the Save in list, select the location you always want this file to save to.
6. In the File name box, enter the name you want to the file to save as.
7. Click Save and then click OK.

Set numeric fields to zero

You can set numeric fields to fill with zeros (For example, print the number 256 as 0000256). You can only do this with numeric fields. For more information, under Fill Option, right-click Zeroes and select What's This?

1. Double-click the numeric field on your report design.
2. Under Fill Option, select Zeroes.
3. Click OK.

Exclude decimals

To show amounts without decimals, for example 55555 instead of 555.55.

1. From the Cash Management Tools menu, select Formulas.
2. Click Index and select CM Formulas.
3. Select CM Formulas and click Copy and enter a new name for the formula.
4. Select the new formula and click Change. Change the formula to match the following:
   IF(Type [CM Transaction] = "CHK", Subtraction [CM Transaction] *100)
5. Replace the existing amount field with the new formula on your report design.

Payee name

The Description field on the CM-Transaction record will have the payee name. The formatting of the name can fill differently depending on how you enter it in Sage. For example, Last name; First Name vs First Name Last Name.

You can use the following formula to retrieve the name field from Accounts Payable and Payroll. Use the field formatting options to format how you want the name to print.

1. You’ll need to add the records AP Vendor and PR Employee to the design.
2. Create the design formula Payee Name:
   IF(Application of Origin [CM Transaction] = "AP", LOOKUP(Name [AP Vendor], Payee [CM Transaction]), IF(Application of Origin [CM Transaction] = "PR", LOOKUP(Employee Name [PR Employee], Payee [CM Transaction])))
3. Add the Payee Name design formula to the design where you want the name in the file format. Then double-click the field to open the field format options and select the name format you need.

Voided status

If your bank requires a column that the status of the check, create one of these formulas. The report must run from the CM transactions for these formulas to work.

• Return a V for voided only
  IF(Voided [CM Transaction] = Y, "V")
• Return a V for voided and an I for issued
  IF(Voided [CM Transaction] = Y, "V", "I")

You can change the "I" for issued depending on your bank's requirements, such as O for Outstanding.