Payment Purpose Codes Feature
The Payment Purpose Codes feature allows you to assign standardized ISO 20022 purpose codes to your supplier payments, helping you to reduce fraud and ensure compliance with banking institution requirements. This implementation supports the UK payments industry's transition to enhanced data standards, as mandated by the Bank of England for CHAPS payments and recommended for other payment schemes.
Benefits of the Purpose Codes
Fraud Prevention - Enhanced data enables better detection of anomalous payment patterns.
Regulatory Compliance - Meets banking institution requirements for payment categorisation.
Payment Transparency - Provides clear categorisation of payment purposes.
Straight through Processing - Reduces manual intervention and payment delays.
Audit and Analytics - Enables better reporting and analysis of payment activities.
To accomodate for these changes within Access Financials, we have added a new tab to the Purchase Order Options, found in the System Options, which is security permission driven.
The Purpose Codes Tab
The new Purpose Codes tab provides comprehensive management of the UK Recommended Purpose Code List for supplier payments.
To maintain control and simplify code selection for you, the system includes all 127 standard ISO 20022 purpose codes (UK recommended purpose code list March 2023 v1.1), but none are enabled by default.
Having these purpose code allows you to:
Enable only the codes relevant to your business operations.
Reduce complexity for AP users by limiting choices.
Maintain consistency in code usage across the organisation.
Before you can assign purpose codes to suppliers or payments, an administrator who has access to the System Options must set up the available codes to be used.
Access the Purpose Code screen
Click System then Option then click Purchase Ledger Options.
Click on the Purpose Code tab, then click Edit to set the screen into edit mode.
Select the checkbox in front of the Purpose Code you want to make available for use.
Click Save to change the status to be available.
Note: Once a purpose code that is marked as Available is assigned to either a supplier record or used in suggested payments, the system automatically updates its status to In Use.
To make a Purpose Code Not Available, follow the same steps as above and save your changes.
The Purpose Code screen explained
In View mode the screen displays a read-only table with the following details
Column | Description |
Code | The standard ISO 20022 purpose code identifier (4-character alphanumeric codes such as ACCT, SALA, SUPP). |
Name | Descriptive name of the purpose code (e.g., "Account Management", "Salary Payment", "Supplier Payment"). |
Definition | Detailed explanation of when this code should be used, aligned with ISO 20022 External Code Set definitions. |
Classification | The broad category the purpose code falls under (e.g., Bank Debt, Cash Management, Commercial, Finance, Tax, etc.) |
UK Recommended Usage | Indicates which UK payment schemes recommend this code:
|
UK Suggested User Group | The intended users of this code (e.g., "Wholesale / FI-FI" (Financial Institution to Financial Institution), "Commercial", "Consumer / Goods & Services", "Government", "Finance", "Insurance", etc.) |
Status | Visual indicator showing availability:
|
Assigning a Purpose Code to a supplier
A new, optional Purpose Code field has been added to supplier records, allowing you to set a default Payment Purpose Code for each supplier on the Settings tab under the Transaction Defaults section.
Note: You can only see the list of Purpose Codes where their status is available.
This code will automatically populate when creating suggested payments for the supplier or on the Remittance BACS screen, streamlining your payment processing workflow.
We have also added the Purpose Code column to the Supplier Records screen which you can add using the Configure Columns option as it is not visible by default.
Purpose Code on the supplier import functionality
The supplier import functionality has been enhanced to support Purpose Codes through a grid-based upload interface. This allows you to set default purpose codes for multiple suppliers simultaneously.
Note: If the entered purpose codes do not exist or have not been marked as "Available", an appropriate message is displayed in the Validation section of the import screen.
Purpose Code in Access Office Integration (AOI)
If you uses AOI (Access Office Integration) Excel templates to manage your supplier data, the Purpose Code feature is now fully integrated into your existing AOI workflows.
This means you can continue using your familiar Excel-based processes while taking advantage of the new purpose code functionality for regulatory compliance.
Your AOI Excel templates have been enhanced to include a Purpose Code column. This update applies to Supplier Management Templates for creating and updating supplier records.
The new Purpose Code column appears alongside your existing fields and follows the same AOI conventions you're already familiar with on the latest AOI version.
Purpose Code Column on Purchase Ledger Enquiry Screen
The Purpose Code column is available on the Purchase Ledger Enquiry screen, providing you with visibility of purpose codes assigned to payment transactions processed through BACS remittance.
The Purpose Code column is hidden as default, and you can add it using the Configure Columns option.
Note: The Purpose Code column displays data only for payments processed via the BACS remittance payment file process. Manual payments, cheques, and other non-BACS payment methods will show blank in this column.
Purpose Code column on the Suggested Payments screen
To help streamline the assignment of purpose coded to payments, you can add them during your suggested payments processing. This ensures:
Immediate visibility of purpose code assignments.
Quick identification of payments without purpose codes.
Efficient review and modification workflow.
Compliance checking before payment creation.
This enhancement allows you to review, modify, and assign purpose codes for all suggested payment transactions before creating the payment batch, ensuring compliance with UK banking requirements for BACS payments.
Financials automatically populates the Purpose Code column based on each supplier's default purpose code setting:
For suppliers with default purpose codes
Purpose Code field automatically populated with the supplier's default code.
For suppliers without default purpose codes
Field remains blank/empty, but you can manually assign a purpose code or can be left blank if not required.
When a supplier is not set up with a purpose code, you can assign one in the Suggested Payments screen where you can also change the default purpose code with a more accurate one. This will not change the supplier's default purpose code.
The Suggested Payments screen also allows you to delete a purpose code if for example one is not needed on a transaction.
You can also access read only information about the default purpose code assigned to your supplier through the Supplier Summary window accessed from Suggested Payments.
Purpose Code column on the Remittance BACS screen
The Purpose Code column is visible as default allowing you a final review before generating your BACS payment files. You can remove the column using the Configure Columns option.
The Purpose Code is automatically populated with the code from either:
Purpose code assigned in Suggested Payments screen (if modified there).
Supplier's default purpose code (if set on supplier record)
The field remains blank/empty if no supplier default was set, and no code was assigned in Suggested Payments.
You can also delete a purpose code on the Remittance BACS screen and this will not change the supplier's default purpose code and view the read-only information through the Supplier Summary window access from Remittance BACS.
Syncing purpose codes between suggested payments and remittance BACS screens
Your changes made to purpose codes in Suggested Payments screen are reflected in Remittance BACS with the following behaviour:
When you add or change a purpose code in Suggested Payments:
The assigned or amended code is reflected on the Remittance BACS screen.
Your selection overrides the supplier's default for that specific payment.
The Remittance BACS screen displays your selected code.
When you delete a purpose code in Suggested Payments:
Financials automatically restores the supplier's default purpose code when the transaction appears in Remittance BACS.
If the supplier has no default purpose code, the field remains blank in Remittance BACS.
Note: The above behaviour ensures you maintain appropriate defaults from supplier records while allowing flexibility to override codes at different processing stages. You can still modify purpose codes again on the Remittance BACS screen if needed before file generation.
The Purpose Code column is displayed as default, and you can remove it using the Configure Columns option.
Payment File Format Update
To ensure Payment Purpose Codes are included in your BACS payment files, your payment file format must be updated to include the purpose code field. This requires a one-time configuration update performed by Access Group support.
Note: Payment Purpose Codes will only be included in your BACS payment files after your payment file format has been updated to include the purpose code field.