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CSI Preferred Partner Virtual Credit Card Payment Processing Users Guide

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CSI has worked closely with Advantage to create a special integration for our mutual customers which greatly improves the processing of virtual credit card and other payments. These improvements save time but also help to maximize benefits!

CSI Preferred Partner – Virtual Payment Processing Overview

Pay vendors electronically using either your CSI virtual credit card or the CSI check writing

service.

The payment process is streamlined and fully automated through the Advantage check writing

module – no exporting and no uploading!

CSI receives data from Advantage that helps to increase vendor participation and rebate

potential.

Advantage receives data from CSI that updates vendor status automatically so you don’t miss

out on potential rebates.

The reconciliation process is simplified through the acceptance of cleared payments from CSI.

Security

Group or User Security – Consider the following modules in addition to the standard modules that will

likely already be unblocked such as Vendor & Bank Maintenance and Check Writing.

Maintenance | General |CSI Preferred Partner Settings - Only those authorized to grant Advantage the

rights to transmit data and establish user and password information should have rights to this module.

Maintenance | General |Advantage Services Settings – This is the general services module within

Advantage which includes the CSI Preferred Partner service.

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CSI Preferred Partner Settings

Once you’ve established a relationship with CSI, you can sign up for the CSI preferred partner electronic

transmission of data through this module and receive corresponding benefits:

Sign Up – Click here to read the Data Transfer Agreement and grant Advantage permission to

send and receive data. Only those authorized to grant access should have rights to this module.

o Customer must agree to the data transfer policy in order to activate the preferred

partner features. Until this step is completed successfully, data cannot be transmitted

automatically.

Signing up sends Advantage a key to activate permissions. To deactivate, click on Unsubscribe.

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Advantage Services - CSI Preferred Partner

Advantage Services is the module that actually moves data from Advantage to CSI and from CSI to

Advantage (with the exception of Cleared Checks/Payments). From the Advantage Services Settings

module, access the CSI Preferred Partner service. Please refer to the CSI FTP User Guide for details on

the settings.

Download Folder: Enter the file path to store the downloaded Vendor and Check Register data

that Advantage will receive from CSI. This should be a folder on your network or computer.

Upload Folder: Enter the file path to store the Vendor file that Advantage will send to CSI. This

folder is used only for this purpose. This should be a folder on your network or computer.

Both the User and the Server must have access to the folders.

IMPORTANT: Don’t use the same folder path, they must be different for uploads and

downloads.

Advantage Agency – Accounting Option – Import tab should be used to setup the temporary directory

for the Cleared Checks files, if being used.

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When the service is activated, data will be transmitted (automatically) or on demand per the note

below:

Cleared Checks Imports:

o Com Data – Done manually from Cleared Checks Import.

o Fixed File Format – Done manually from Cleared Checks Import.

Depending upon which format you are using for the Cleared Checks Import, choose the

appropriate template when importing in the checks.

Vendor Data – Done automatically through this service, once daily. The ‘process now’ option

can also be used.

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Bank Maintenance

Setup banks for your CSI Virtual Credit Card, Check payments or CSV accordingly. You can have any

number of CSI accounts. Using the Payment Manager tab, select the appropriate CSI option.

The account number and customer ID are important in that they identify you to CSI.

The CSI Preferred Partner Settings are used for automatic transmission of data.

User Name & Password – This is the CSI account user name and password which you would

obtain from CSI.

Target Folder – By default, this can be left blank. Based on your settings, CSI may supply you

with a specific folder to enter here. Advantage will transmit payment data and send it to this

location (root directory on FTP or specific folder entered).

Account Code & Password – This is your Account Code and FTP password which you would

obtain from CSI.

If you are using both the CSI Card and CSI Check export types, you’ll need to setup two

different File Output Directories on your server and map by account.

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Vendor Maintenance

Vendor settings include the options below which can be used in check writing to isolate vendors to be

paid in each check run, along with other options.

On the Default/Notes tab in Vendor Maintenance, use the following options:

o Default Bank – Optional, but allows you to manage multiple accounts and assign a

vendor to each.

o VCC Status – Virtual credit card status – Indicates whether the vendor accepts virtual

credit card payments, has declined, or has not been approached yet.

Advantage electronically updates the VCC Status based on data retrieved from

CSI as they successfully sign up new vendors. This is done as part of the

automatic services.

o VCC Limit – This is related to the VCC option to pre-pay vendors within the Media

Manager and is not related to normal CSI payments.

o Special Terms – Enter special terms in the Notes field. These can be displayed in check

writing as you are processing CSI payments.

o Send BCC with Media Order - This is related to the VCC option to pre-pay vendors within

the Media Manager and is not related to normal CSI payments.

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Check Writing

The Advantage Check Writing module is used to select the CSI bank (either virtual credit card or checks)

and process payments accordingly.

Once payments have been selected, you can review the selected items prior to processing. From the

Vendor Summary tab, each vendor’s email and special terms status is displayed. From the vendor row,

click to drill down and read the notes or update the email address(s). Email address changes can be

saved from this window.

When all data is updated and ready to process, click on the Transmit button to send the payment

records directly to CSI where they will process payments using your account. Advantage processes and

sends data every 5 minutes.

If Transmit (Powered by CSI) has not been run prior to closing the Check Printing screen, a message will

be generated reminding that this option was not processed.

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Cleared Payments Import & Reconciliation

Advantage downloads cleared payment files either from the ComData account information specified in

Bank Maintenance (CSI Preferred Partner settings | Account Code & Password) or from CSI using a fixed

file format. The Import Path setup in the Agency maintenance (Agency | Accounting Options | Imports |

CSI Cleared Checks Import Path) is temporary directory that will store the file prior to displaying in the

cleared checks staging screen. The process of importing the Cleared Checks occurs in the Cleared

Checks Import module using the ‘CSI Preferred Partner” Import button. This can be done as often as

needed. When the import button is clicked, the cleared payment data is retrieved and a batch is created

automatically. Review each batch and post.

Cleared payments include the cleared date so that statements are reconciled easily. Use the Bank

Reconciliation module and standard reports to reconcile your CSI account(s). Bank Reconciliation

includes the Cleared Check Date so that you can un-check items that are not on your statement based

on the date. The following information is retrieved from the ComData file or the Fixed File Format and

used in Advantage Cleared Checks Import (by batch):

Cleared Date

Vendor Name (to verify the correct vendor was paid)

Check Amount (Payment Amount)

Check Number (used for matching check number in Advantage)

Bank Account Code (used for matching bank in Advantage)

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Vendor Export – To CSI

Behind the scenes, Advantage exports vendor data (see list below) and uploads it to CSI daily no later

than 12:05 AM or when the services are started. The goal is to expose vendors that are not currently

accepting credit cards and allow CSI an opportunity to sign them up as soon as possible! Sent to single

FTP using Account in Filename. Information sent to CSI:

Vendor Name

Vendor Code

Vendor Category

Vendor Address

Vendor Address 2

Vendor City

Vendor State

Vendor Zip

Vendor Phone

Vendor Fax

Website

Notes/Comments

VCC Status

Annual Payable Amount (12 Month Running)

Vendor Email Address

Country

Vendor Tax ID

Vendor Update – From CSI

CSI updates vendor records and makes them available for Advantage to process. The services searches

for this file daily and it can also be processed using ‘process now’. Advantage reviews the vendor data

and updates the fields listed below (only) for each vendor in the file. This means that the vendor status

will change based on information received from CSI which translates to maximum rewards for you.

Fields updated:

Vendor Notes/Comment

Vendor VCC Status

Payment Manager Email Address

Terms Flag (indicating there are special terms)

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Reporting

Accounts Payable Report – Paid Invoice Summary: Advanced Report Writer Report available for download from our Ftp Site.

Download from our FTP Site under: \Support\Report_Sharing the instructions on downloading,

importing the report and how to access the report. Also download the report file listed below.

o Importing in Custom AWR Report.pdf

o Accounts Payable Report – Paid Invoices Summary.repx

Once downloaded, the report can be accessed from either Advantage or Webvantage from the

Desktop/Report Writer/User Defined Reports.

Dynamic Report Writer:

The Dynamic Report Writer datasets can be used to assist in maintaining and querying which Vendors are setup for Payment Manager i.e. the Bank Default, their VCC Status, Terms, Payment amounts, Accounts Payable detail, Payment Amounts and more. The Dynamic Report Writer can be accessed from the Desktop/Report Writer/Dynamic Report Writer application. The following are the datasets:

Accounts Payable Invoice Detail

Accounts Payable Invoice with Balance Aging

Vendor

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CSI File Troubleshooting Guide

Which file is the client experiencing the issue with?

1. Payment files 2. Vendor upload file to CSI 3. Vendor download file to client database 4. Cleared checks file

Payments File troubleshooting:

Payment file was processed through check writing, but clicking the “Transmit (Powered by CSI)” an error message was received.

o The user’s workstation doesn’t have access to the File Output Directory setup in bank maintenance. This should be a UNC (shared) file path.

Payment file was processed through check writing, by clicking the “Transmit (Powered by CSI)”

no error message was received at that time. However, CSI is not in receipt of the payment file.

o The server must also have access to the File Output Directory shown above.

o Firewalls must be disabled to allow the files to pass though.

o From the server, make sure Advantage services for CSI has been started and enabled.

o From the server, check the log on Advantage services that may note the issue. You will

need to hit the refresh button to update the log.

o Customer ID on the payment manager tab has to be uppercase alpha, but also allows

numeric.

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Examples of error messages are:

Files not found. This is due to the server not having access to the output directory.

Unable to connect to FTP, login failed. Either the user name and/or password are incorrect. Rekey the user name and password in the CSI Preferred Partner Settings in bank maintenance.

If there is not an indication that an attempt has been made to send a payment file, it is possible that the transmit button may not have clicked in check writing. Verify that an actual file resides in the file output. If not, we can process the file using the manual method.

Duplicate payment files being received by CSI.

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o If the client has a bank for CSI Card and one for CSI check, one of the following must apply:

There must be completely separate output directories in bank maintenance, otherwise payment files will be sent one time for each bank. This solution does not apply to hosted clients.

There must be a different Account Number and Client ID for every bank setup. o If the client has the live database and their training database setup and enabled in

Advantage Services, payment files will be sent one time for each database.

Vendor File troubleshooting

CSI not receiving vendor files from client. (Automatically sends once a day)

o The server must have access to the upload folder.

o Firewalls must be disabled to allow the files to pass though.

o Advantage services must be enabled and started.

o If you are attempting the process now option from the user’s machine, the user

must have access to the upload folder.

*The vendor file is named from the account code in bank maintenance

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Vendor File from CSI not updating the vendors in Advantage.

o Make sure the client is actually receiving the file by checking the CSI download

folder to ensure a file exists.

If not receiving the file:

Make sure the server has access to the download folder.

Advantage services must be enabled and started.

Firewalls must be disabled to allow the files to pass though.

If you are attempting the process now option from the user’s

machine, the user must have access to the download folder.

Check the log from Advantage Services from the server, for any

error messages.

If the file is received:

If the file is named a .old and the vendors are still not updated,

this means that Advantage Services did attempt to download

the file and update the vendors however, double check the date

of the file was modified to ensure it’s a current file:

o Check the file’s header row to ensure that is it in the

exact format and contains the exact descriptions as the

file that was uploaded.

o Check the entire file to make sure there are no

wrapping or blank rows in the file.

o Check the log from Advantage Services from the server,

for any error messages.

o Compare the files: Hit the process now button in order

to generate a new upload file. Get a copy of the file

that was renamed .old in the download folder and

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compare it to the file in the upload folder by summing

the status columns. If both files total the same number,

then the vendors were updated.

If the file is not renamed a .old

o Check that the file name in the download folder

matches the account code in bank maintenance.

Vendors are missing prior data in email and notes fields.

o If CSI puts out a vendor file for download and have removed the notes or emails

addresses, they will be removed from vendor maintenance. Any update to the notes

should be added to the end of the notes that already exist. Any email address that the

client has already setup for that vendor should not be changed.

CSI Cleared Checks

Cleared checks not importing

o A log automatically displays any errors when importing cleared checks, be sure to note

the message.

o Agency maintenance must contain a valid import file path.

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o Errors received validating the FTP information, user name and/or password maybe

incorrect.