Outputting Vouchers to Disk or Via FTP

To output vouchers to a file or via FTP, you must be assigned permission 407 (Output Vouchers). See Permissions Used by Sierra for more information.

For information about the data that is output, see Electronic Voucher Output Options.

If your library has acquired the Output Accounting Information product, you can output vouchers to disk or via FTP. To output vouchers via FTP, your organization must also have the File Transfer Software product. Note that you can also print vouchers using this product.

Important Considerations When Outputting Vouchers

Because the payment history file is cleared when you print Fund Activity reports, you should print or output the vouchers before you print Fund Activity reports. If you clear the payment history file before outputting the vouchers, you will lose the information needed for the vouchers.

You can output vouchers more frequently than you print the Fund Activity reports. If you do, consult the last posting register and find out the last voucher that was printed from the payment history file to determine where you should start outputting vouchers. Be careful to avoid resending vouchers that have already been sent to the accounting office; resending vouchers might result in duplicate payments.

See Data Output for Each Voucher Transaction for a description of the output file.

To output vouchers to a file for saving to disk or transferring via FTP, do the following.

  1. Choose Output Vouchers from the Function list.
  2. Enter the range of vouchers you want to output from the payment history file.

The Start record and End record fields indicate the range of vouchers that the system will output from the payment history file. To output the whole range of vouchers, do not change those values.

If you have already output vouchers for a portion of the file, change the Start record or End record fields to reflect the smaller range of vouchers that you want to output.

The Total Encumbrances and Total Vouchers fields reflect the encumbrances and vouchers that will be included in the range of vouchers you choose to output. You cannot edit these fields.

  1. Select the Output encumbrances and Output appropriations options if you want to output that data.
  2. You can choose to Append to or Overwrite the existing file. If you append to the file, the vouchers already in the output file will be output again along with the new vouchers you specified above. If you overwrite the file, only the vouchers you specified above will be output.
  3. Choose Start to generate the report and the output file.

A brief report displays in the bottom half of the screen, and the new output file date displays in the space above the report options.

  1. Save the output file to disk or transfer the file to a remote machine via FTP.
    Save to Disk
    1. Choose Save as.
    2. In the Save dialog, choose the directory in which to store the file.
    3. By default, the file name is chargeact.out. Change the file name, if appropriate.
    4. Choose Save.
    Export via FTP
    1. Choose FTS.
    2. Follow the instructions for transferring files using FTS