Guide for Sage Intacct Credit Card Management

Learning how to set up, use and manage credit card accounts in Sage Intacct? This comprehensive guide by SWK Technologies compiles the key information you need to know, from setting up each account to payment and reconciliation processes, and lists the steps and workflows involved to help you get the most out of your accounting software’s accounts payable and cash flow tracking features:

Understanding Credit Card Accounts in Sage Intacct

Sage Intacct defines credit card accounts as including both credit and debit cards, though users should note how they are handled within the system differs:

• Credit Cards: These are cash accounts related to a credit card vendor. They represent actual credit cards in the real world, require an associated vendor and offset GL account, and record charges in the Cash Management application.
• Debit Cards: These are associated with checking accounts and provide another way to debit that account. When a debit card charge is recorded, the bank account is debited and the transaction is final.

While there is a distinction in the Accounts Payable module, credit and debit cards are treated the same way in Accounts Receivable. A customer payment made with either type debits the customer account and deposits the payment into your account.

Setting Up Credit Cards in Cash Management

Credit cards are set up in the Cash Management module, similar to checking or savings accounts. The setup process requires several key details:

1. Credit Card ID: Create an identifier you can quickly recognize in list views. Avoid using leading zeros as they can cause errors when importing from Excel, and make sure to include an easy identifier in the account name such as the bank used and last four digits of the bank account.
2. Required Parameters:
   • Card type (Visa, American Express, Mastercard, Capital One, etc.)
   • Expiration month and year
   • Associated vendor (the credit card provider)
   • Account type (credit)
   • Offset GL account to track credit card liability
3. Optional Parameters:
   • Description of how the card is used
   • Billing address details
   • Finance charge GL account for tracking fees separately
   • Other fees GL account specifically for reconciliation
   • Default department and location for transactions
   • Employee expense designation
   • Inter-entity transfer settings

Each credit card must have a unique vendor associated with it. The vendor cannot be changed after the credit card account is created, as all credit card charges and payments go to the ledger for this vendor.

Recording Credit Card Transactions

Credit card transactions in Sage Intacct can be recorded through several methods:

1. Credit Card Transaction Page: Useful for quickly entering small charges or when you do not have a vendor invoice in the system. No vendor selection is required when using this method.
2. Accounts Payable: When paying a bill or creating a manual payment using the credit card as the payment method. This goes through the typical AP cycle, with a vendor invoice paid via credit card.
3. CSV Import: After receiving your statement, you can import transactions.
4. Manual Entry: Individual transactions can be entered directly into the system.

As transactions are recorded, they debit the expense account and dimensions and credit the credit card liability account.

Important: Avoid creating credit card charges as journal entries. While quick and easy, this practice causes problems when creating the Charge Payoff. Journal entries will appear in the reconciliation page and post to the general ledger, but will not display in the Charge Payoff screen since they were not created in the Credit Card application.

Credit Card Reconciliation

Reconciling credit cards works similarly to reconciling checking or savings accounts. The process can be made more efficient using the Sage Intacct Banking Cloud Feed connection, which automatically imports transactions from your credit card’s online statement.

Key aspects of the reconciliation process:

1. Banking Cloud Feed: Connect securely to thousands of financial institutions to help automate the reconciliation process
2. Rule Sets: Can be applied to automatically match transactions based on fields like transaction date, amount, and document numbers
3. Manual or Automatic Matching: The system supports both automatic matching using rule sets and manual matching for transactions
4. Reconciliation Timing: Can be performed after receiving the statement or more frequently if desired
5. Transaction Creation: During reconciliation, you can either match to existing transactions or create new transactions directly from the reconciliation screen

If a Banking Cloud Feed connection is not available, credit card statements can also be imported via CSV to support the reconciliation process.

Handling Credit Card Payments

Within Sage Intacct, credit card reconciliation and bill payments are two separate processes:

1. Creating Charge Payoffs: After reconciliation, use the Cash Management function “Charge Payoffs” to select which charges to include in the payoff. This creates an AP Bill associated with the credit card vendor, moving selected items from the credit card to AP for normal payment processing.
2. Bill Payment: The bill can then be paid using other payment methods in Intacct.
3. Handling Credits: Negative amounts from credit card line items or transactions are passed as credits to Accounts Payable, where you can apply them as needed.
4. Mid-Month Payments: If you make mid-month payments toward your credit cards, don’t use the Advance Payment functionality in Accounts Payable, as it won’t show in your reconciliation or Charge Payoff. Instead:
   • Create a negative credit card transaction crediting a clearing account
   • Create a journal entry to debit the clearing account and credit the bank account
   • This payment will then appear in both the credit card reconciliation and the Charge Payoff

Sage Intacct Credit Card Integrations

Part of the vast number of integrations available for Sage Intacct through its API are its connectors with various credit card services for managing accounts and payments. These allow you to take advantage of features such as:

• Integrations allow mapping transactions to appropriate GL accounts, with options to designate default debit accounts and location/entity designations for transaction processing.
• Many integrations support automated matching of imported transactions against existing records, reducing manual reconciliation time from hours to minutes.
• Major credit card providers can push transaction data directly into Sage Intacct, where they appear with specific identifiers in the Credit Card Transactions section.
• Payment management platforms allow users to mark bills as paid via credit card in their system, and these transactions automatically sync to Sage Intacct, creating the appropriate liability entries.
• For charge card payoffs, Sage Intacct can convert credit card transactions into bills for the card vendor, which then synchronize back to payment platforms for processing.
• Integration setups include specific user permissions and security protocols, such as Web Services user creation with appropriate role-based access and Sender ID authorization.

Learn More About Sage Intacct with SWK Technologies

SWK Technologies can help you maximize the value of your Sage Intacct investment by leveraging deep expertise as a leading Sage partner. Whether you are looking to integrate with other critical applications, streamline and enhance your reporting, or speed up a routine process, we have the expertise to guide you through the process.

Contact SWK here to learn more about the specific credit card and payment capabilities of Sage Intacct, and ensure you get the most out of your accounting software investment.

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