Payments, liabilities, and payments received are the basic financial units. A payment is an issue of funds from the organization to a participant. Payments are issued to participants that are eligible for a benefit product. For example, a payment might be a $300 check issued to a person eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. Payments are also generated for participants when the organization has paid them too little or billed them too much. For example, if the person above should have been paid $325, an under payment is created in order to pay the person the additional $25 due.
A liability is a charge for funds from the organization to a participant. Liabilities are issued to participants that are eligible for a liability product. For example, a liability might be an invoice for $100 issued to an employer liable for employer contribution payments. Liabilities are also generated for participants when the organization has paid them too much or billed them too little. For example, if the employer above should have been billed $125, an under billing is created in order to bill the employer the additional $25 due.
A payment received is an amount of money received by the organization and recorded on the system. Payments received are usually sent to the organization in response to a bill. That is, they are used to pay off liabilities. Unlike payments and liabilities, payments received are not generated as part of case processing. Instead, they are recorded on the system either manually by a user or via a batch process that records payments received in bulk, for example, all payments received by EFT from a particular bank. Payments received are associated with a person's financials through the allocation of the payment received toward one or more outstanding liabilities.