The information in this article applies to:

• Trust Accounting Software (TAS)

SUMMARY

It is possible that a payee is entered into TAS more than once with different spellings (e.g., “ABC Insurance Company” and “ABC Insurance Co.”). When this happens, checks can be written for either payee and they are presented as different payees on reports and 1099’s. Although you can rename a payee, you cannot rename a payee to a name that already exists. This article shows you how to combine transactions from multiple payees into one payee.

MORE INFORMATION

Payees can be combined by first deleting the payee that you want to keep, and then renaming the payee that is not correct to the deleted payee name. Since payees can be specified in Trust Transactions without being added to the Payee file, deleting a payee from the Payee file does not affect the payee information in each transaction.

Note: The following steps may need to be completed more than once if multiple payees need to be combined.

To combine trust payees

1. Make a back up of the software (File | Back Up Data Files).
2. Open the Payee file (File | Open | Miscellaneous | Payee tab).
3. Select the payee that you want to keep. Make sure this payee has the desired spelling and punctuation.
4. Delete the payee.
   Note: Deleting this payee will not affect any previously entered trust transactions.
5. Open the Rename Payee program (Maintenance | Renumber | Rename Payee).
6. In the Old Payee field, select the payee that you want to rename.
7. In the New Payee field, enter the payee that you just deleted. This must be entered exactly as it appears on transactions.
8. Select the Modify existing transactions check box.
9. Click OK.

Once this process has completed, all of the original transactions for the deleted payee and all of the transactions for the renamed payee name will be combined under the desired Payee Name.