AUTOLOCKBOX FAQ's

AUTOLOCKBOX FAQ's

1. How do you bring in the Receipt Information Descriptive Flexfield through AutoLockbox?
As long as you modify the control file to populate the ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY
column of the AR_PAYMENTS_INTERFACE_ALL table the Lockbox process will
populate the AR_INTERIM_CASH_RECEIPTS_ALL table and Post Quick Cash will
populate the AR_CASH_RECEIPTS_ALL table with the ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY
information that was passed from the transmission file. You do not have
to add the ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY field type to the Transmission Formats.

Transmission Formats definitions are used for validation purposes only and
Lockbox does not validate the ATTRIBUTE_CATEGORY column thus not defining
this Field Type in the Transmission Formats form does not prevent Lockbox
from bringing it in to the AR_CASH_RECEIPTS_ALL table.

2. What is the filename for the control file for the transmission format?
The Bank Administration Institute (BAI) is a professional organization devoted
exclusively to improving the competitive position of banking companies through
strategic research. BAI conducts a number of major strategic studies each
year and has proven to be the best resource for Standards in the United States.
Other countries have reviewed BAIs findings and have adopted their format.

Our suggestion is to provide both formats provided by Oracle Receivables
to compare with the format that their bank can accept. If you define a
different transmission format or edit the existing Default(BAI) or
Convert formats, you must edit the SQL*Loader control file before importing
data into Receivables.

3. What is the filename for the control file for the transmission format?
Use the Transmission Formats window to define the transmission format that Lockbox
uses when importing data into Receivables. Transmission formats specify how data
in your lockbox bank file is organized so it can be successfully imported into the Receivables
interface tables. The control file used by SQL Loader maps the data in the bank file to
tables and columns in the Oracle database. The transmission format must match the control file that you create. You can define as many transmission formats as you want.
Receivables provides the following transmission formats:
Example (arxmpl.ctl): A format that contains an example of lockbox header information, several receipt records, and overflow receipt records.
Default (ardeft.ctl): A standard BAI (Bank Administration Institute) format used by most banks Convert (arconv.ctl): A standard format used for transferring payment information from others systems
Zengin (arzeng.ctl): A format used to import bank files in the Japanese Zengin format.
These files are located in the $AR_TOP/bin directory

4. How do you identify misc cash through AutoLockbox?
Lockbox only processes invoice related receipts. You must use the application
to enter miscellaneous receipts, with a type of 'Misc'.

5. How do we identify a customer in AutoLockbox?
AutoLockbox can validate your customer data based on the following attributes . If no match is found, the receipt is imported as Unidentified receipt. This unidentified receipts can be identified and then applied from the Quick cash window or the receipt window.
1. Customer Number: If you provide a customer number for receipts that you import
through AutoLockbox, Receivables can identify the customer to which the receipt belongs .
2. MICR Number: The MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) number that
appears on each receipt relates the customer to a bank. Lockbox only uses MICR
numbers to associate a customer with a receipt if both of the following are true:
1. The customer number is not included in the transmission format
2. The MICR number is passed
A MICR number consists of two segments. The first segment is the Transit Routing
number, this identifies the bank from which your customer draws their check. The second
segment identifies your customer?s account at that bank.
3. AutoAssociate: If the customer cannot be identified from either the MICR number or
the customer number (for example, if the transmission does not include this information),
you can use AutoAssociate to determine the customer using matching numbers. A
matching number can be a transaction number, consolidated billing invoice number, sales
order number, purchase order number or another custom defined number.
Prior to release 11.0, lockbox was not able to 'autoassociate' based on anything other than
invoice number.
4. Associate Receipts with Billing Locations: Receivables also lets you track receipts
for each of your customer?s billing locations. To use this feature, you must include a
billing location in your transmission format, data file and the flag Require Billing
Location should be set to Yes. This option should be set to yes both at system options
and at the setup of Lockbox. If the box is checked at the Lockbox, the receipt will be
validated only if the billing location is provided. The setting at the system options level
determines whether PostQuickCash can process receipts with / without billing locations.

6. Matching Numbers Belonging to Different Customers?
What if you are running Lockbox and there are several different occurrences of the Matching Number and they belong to different customers? How does lockbox process the match?
You determine the Matching Number type at Lockbox setup ('Match Receipts By' field),
and may also override it at the customer or customer site levels. Lockbox will go over the
possible Matching Number Types in the order mentioned above. It will look for a transaction
with the same number, where one of the following is true:
1. The Matching Number type at the Lockbox setup agrees with the type Lockbox is
searching on, and there's no override for the customer. Or:
2. The Matching Number type at the customer/customer site level agrees with the
type Lockbox is matching on. The first one found is a match.

7. When does AutoLockbox consider a receipt to be a duplicate?
Duplicate receipts have the same receipt number, amount, currency, and customer number. AutoLockbox does not allow duplicate receipts within the same batch source for the same customer. This is the same validation Receivables performs when you manually enter receipts using the Receipts window.
Note: If proper controls are not in place, it is possible to reimport and reapply receipts that
AutoLockbox has already processed. We recommend that you establish standard operating procedures to ensure that users do not process the same bank file more than once using AutoLockbox.

8. When does AutoLockbox consider an invoice to be a duplicate?
Invoice numbers are only required to be unique within a batch source. A customer can have duplicate invoice numbers as long as they belong to different batch sources; however, AutoLockbox cannot automatically apply a payment to these invoices. If a customer has more than one invoice with the same number within a Lockbox transmission, AutoLockbox will reject the application (i.e. the record will remain in the interface table) because it cannot determine to which invoice to apply the payment. In this case, the receipt will either be left as Unapplied (if the customer number or MICR number is provided) or Unidentified (if the customer number or MICR number is not provided).
However, you can manually apply a receipt(s) to these invoices in:
1The Applications window, if you have already submitted Post QuickCash
2The QuickCash window, if you have not yet submitted Post QuickCash

9. What causes an application to be invalid?
Sometimes the AutoLockbox Execution Report will show receipts rejected with
error code 43281: Receipt has invalid applications.
Your application is invalid if:
1) The receivable item is not in the same currency as the receipt.
2) The receivable item belongs to a customer that is not related to the customer who remitted the receipt and Allow Payment of Unrelated Invoices is set to No.
3) The receivable item is not an invoice, a debit memo, a deposit, a credit memo, a chargeback, or an on-account credit.
4) The receivable item is a duplicate or invalid for the customer.
5) The receivable item has been selected for automatic receipt.
6) The installment number or the receivable item is invalid.
AutoLockbox uses the same reasons to invalidate an application as the
standard receipt entry windows.

10. How does On Account rule in Autocash Lockbox work?
Release 10.7
In 10.7 autocash rule on-account will only run for receipts that have not
been applied at all by lockbox before autocash rules stage.
Example: case A:
If a receipt for $100 had no valid applications found during validation step,
then it will go through autocash rules. Autocash rule set can be for example:
1. oldest first
2. on account
If only one old invoice open for $90 is found by autocash rule 1. The receipt
is applied to that invoice. Next autocash rule 2 will put the remaining $10
on account.
result: 90 applied, 10 on account.
Example: case B:
If the receipt for $100 had a valid application to an invoice for $90, then
$10 remain unapplied. Autocash rules will ignore this receipt during postbatch,
because it already is being partially applied.
result: 90 applied, 10 unapplied.
Release 11/11.5
Beginning with release 11, case B can go through remainder amount autocash rule
set and the $10 can be put on account, the same as with case A.

11. When trying to use Lockbox, and identifying customers by the Consolidated Billing Number, you are receiving the following messages:7 ERROR receipt has invalid applications 11573 ERROR receipt has invalid applications. How are these errors corrected?
Two things you need to check to make it work:
1) Autoassociate = 'Yes'.
2) The radio button of 'Invalid transaction number handling' is set to:
'post as unapplied'.
The consolidated billing number is not a valid invoice number for a direct
application. You need to let the receipt go to the next stage (postbatch)
as unapplied - to allow autocash rules to work. Currently it's just getting
stuck in validation stage because of this setup.

12. If Customer only gives the Consolidated Billing Number as part of the autolockbox file will it apply the receipt to all invoices associated with that CBI number?
The Consolidated Billing number is used only to identify the customer. The
Autocash rules apply for invoice payment application. This may or may not
include all invoices associated with the Consolidated Billing Number.

13. Receipt has INVALID APPLICATIONS for all records, valid as well as invalid?
If auto-associate is ON, customer information (customer number or MICR number)
is not provided in the data file, and the receipt includes one or more invalid
applications, then all application records are marked as invalid.
To identify the paying customer using auto-associate, all application numbers
must be valid and for the same customer. If any of them are invalid, or from
a different customer, all applications are regarded as invalid.

14. Why is Lockbox receipt is rejected with duplicate MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition) number?
The bank account number and the transit routing number makeup your customer’s MICR number. If a MICR number is shared with more than one customer, the receipt is rejected.
Customers that are associated must have unique MICR numbers.
(By default the lockbox validation program uses an invoice or debit memo number to determine the customer)