​Introduction

After a template's payment has been (1) scheduled and (2) the fiscal coding entered, the payment is ready to be approved.

The Recurring Payments application does not automatically send transactions to STARS for payments on scheduled dates. Approvers must log on to Payment Services on a regular basis and view the Schedule screen to see if there are any Scheduled Payments. The agency’s Payment Services administrator sets up the number and the names of the approval levels.

Approve a Payment

1. From the Payment Services menu, select Recurring payments.

2. Click the Schedule tab.

3. In the Scheduled Payments section, click Approve next to the payment you need to approve.

Figure 1 - Schedule payments and Templates Pending

4. Review the fiscal coding of each payment.

5. To verify the vendor information, select the Show Vendor check box. If the payment is being made toward an encumbrance (using a TC 236) select the or Show Encumbrance Info check box to display the encumbrance number.

Figure 2 - Show Vendor

6. Click the ‘Approve’ button to approve the payment. (The name of the button will be set up by your Payment Services administrator.)

• If you need to return the payment for corrections or review, click Undo Approval and then select the process to return the payment to (either to a previous approval level, cost distribution, or authorization), and then click Save & Continue.

Figure 3 - Undo Approval

Final Approval

When the final approval level is selected, a Payment Request Date dialog box is displayed. This is the date when the payment gets sent to STARS to be paid.

• Invoices approved and released before 6:30 PM MST of the business day will be sent to STARS that night. Invoices approved and released after 6:30 PM MST will be sent to STARS at the end of the next business day.
• If you need to return the payment for corrections or review, click Undo Approval and then select the process to return the payment to (either to a previous approval level, cost distribution, or authorization), and then click Save & Continue.

Options for a final Payment Request Date:

• Make no changes - keep the date in the Payment Request Date field.
• Enter or select a different date in the Payment Request Date field.
• Invoice Payment Date. This is the same as the default Payment Request Date. You don't need to select this.
• Select Invoice Approval Date. This will enter the date the payment was approved.

Figure 4 - Final approval

If you make any changes, click Save & Continue (to save the changes and keep the payment on screen) or Save & Clear (to save the changes and clear the approval screen).

• Click Clear to clear any changes you have made on the approval screen.
• If you decide the payment should not be scheduled at all, click Delete Payment. This will remove the payment from the Scheduled Payments section of the Schedule screen. It will not delete the pending template. To make the next payment, it will have to be re-scheduled.

Click the Approve button to approve the payment and release it to be sent to STARS. The status will be Released.

Undo Approval Before a STARS Upload

You will still be able to click the Approve link on the Schedule screen and click Undo Approval before the transactions get sent to STARS, in case you need to make some changes. If you need to return the payment for corrections or review, click Undo Approval and then select the process to return the payment to (either to a previous approval level, cost distribution, or authorization).