Maintain standing orders and direct debits

Find this screen

Open: Cash Book > Amend Transactions > Amend Standing Orders and Direct Debits.

How to

Set up a new direct debit or standing order

To create a new standing order or direct debit:

Select the bank account from the list.
Click Add.
Enter the details on the screen that appears.

In the Entry Type Selection area select from the Posting type list the type of regular transfer to be made.

Note: There are a lot of options in this list. The selection you make affects how your system displays information to you. Think about what you want to see on-screen before selecting the various options.
Select either:
- The customer or supplier involved in the transactions. When you select them from the list, the name and address details are displayed.
- The nominal account to which these transactions will be posted to.
Fill in the fields and options in the Entry Details area of the screen.

The fields and options open to you here depend on the type of standing order or direct debit you are creating.

While you complete this section remember to:
- provide a clear description so that you can easily identify the record.
- double check the number, amounts and the dates of payments you provide.
- You can define a specific day of the month for the standing order or direct debit to be created. You can also choose to create the next standing order or direct debit a set number of days after the previous transaction. To set this up:
  1. Select Other from the Frequency list.
  2. Type the number of days you want to pass between transactions into the Days between payments box.
- Select the correct VAT code (if applicable).
Click Save.

Amend a direct debit or standing order

To amend the details of a direct debit or standing order:

Select the bank account from the list.
Select the direct debit or standing order you want to amend from the list.
Click Edit.

Make your changes to the direct debit / standing order details and then click Save.

Delete a direct debit or standing order

To delete a direct debit or standing order:

Select the bank account from the list.
Select the direct debit or standing order to be deleted from the table.
Click Delete.
Finally, confirm that you want to delete the selected standing order or direct debit.

Useful info

Using direct debits and standing orders

Use standing orders and direct debits to process recurring bank transactions. With these records you can:

Set up your direct debits and standing orders so that they are processed regularly at a time that you specify. This is usually done monthly or quarterly, but you can also set it up so that occurs every few days.
Process standing orders and direct debits at any time. If a standing order or direct debit is set to be paid on a weekend or on the 31st of the month when there is no 31st day in the month, this system will automatically calculate the next banking day.
Set up standing orders and direct debits for regular sales receipts and supplier payments.
Set up standing orders and direct debits for nominal account transactions. These can be either taxable or non-taxable.
View standing orders and direct debits using the standing orders and direct debits enquiry.

You use a single screen to set up both direct debit and standing order records. While this is great, as you only need to come to one place, you must keep in mind that Sage 200 requires different information depending on the type of standing order or direct debit you are setting up. When setting up a new record take care and select the correct type of standing order or direct debit payment.

When Sage 200 will stop you setting up direct debits and standing orders

There are some rules around direct debits and standing orders that cannot be broken; keep them in mind when you are setting them up:

You cannot set up direct debits or standing orders for foreign currency trader accounts.
When setting up a direct debit or standing order, both your Cash Book bank account and the trader (or nominal account), must use your base currency.
You cannot set up a new direct debit or standing order if the supplier or customer account status is on hold. The on hold status is just a warning - it has no effect on existing direct debits or standing orders. They will continue to be processed and posted.

Amending direct debit and standing order records

You can amend most of the details of a direct debit or standing order record. In fact, the only items you cannot change are:

The bank or nominal account used for transactions.
The selected posting type. This determines the type of direct debit or standing order record in use. If you need to amend this, you are changing the entire record. If you want to do that, you may as well delete the existing record and create a new one.
The date of the first payment and its payment amount if it has already been paid.

If you make a change that affects the number of payments or payment amounts, Sage 200 will recalculate the other variables so that the number of payments and payment amounts equal the total amount to pay. If you change one or more of the following, Sage 200 will recalculate the following values of the standing order or direct debit:

The number of payments.
The total amount to pay.
The amount of the last payment.

What happens when I

Save?

You've set up a standing order or direct debit record to make or collect a regular payment - that's one less job to do! But what happens to it now?

It's not a fully automated process. Someone must run Process Standing Orders and Direct Debits on a regular basis to post the standing order and direct debit transactions to their associated bank accounts. Sage 200 then generates a report which lists the transactions it has posted.