directdebit 7.0.0.0 user guide - amc-consult a/s · a direct debit solution should therefore be a...
TRANSCRIPT
AMC Consult A/S Published: November 16
USER GUIDE
AMC DIRECTDEBIT FOR MICROSOFT DYNAMICS AX 7
| Introduction 2
Contents
1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 4
2 Benefits .............................................................................................................................. 5
3 Facilities.............................................................................................................................. 6
4 Prerequisites ....................................................................................................................... 7
5 Workspace .......................................................................................................................... 8
6 Setup ................................................................................................................................ 10
Parameters .......................................................................................................................... 10
Customer .............................................................................................................. 10
Web service .......................................................................................................... 11
Log ........................................................................................................................ 12
About .................................................................................................................... 12
Banks ................................................................................................................................... 13
Own bank accounts .............................................................................................. 15
Bank calendars ..................................................................................................... 17
Customers ........................................................................................................................... 19
Journals ............................................................................................................................... 21
Collections journals .............................................................................................. 21
Mandates journals ................................................................................................ 22
Advice .................................................................................................................................. 22
Bank file advice ..................................................................................................... 23
Email advice .......................................................................................................... 25
Mandate templates ............................................................................................................. 26
7 Mandates ......................................................................................................................... 28
Maintain mandates in volumes ........................................................................................... 28
Maintain mandates individually .......................................................................................... 29
8 Subscriptions .................................................................................................................... 31
Processable subscriptions ................................................................................................... 31
Pending subscriptions ......................................................................................................... 31
Active subscriptions ............................................................................................................ 32
| Introduction 3
9 Collections ........................................................................................................................ 34
Prerequisites........................................................................................................................ 34
Collection journal ................................................................................................................ 34
Creation ................................................................................................................ 34
Validation ............................................................................................................. 36
Transfer ................................................................................................................ 37
Import responses .................................................................................................. 37
Posting .................................................................................................................. 37
Posting journal .................................................................................................................... 38
Creation ................................................................................................................ 38
Validation ............................................................................................................. 39
Posting .................................................................................................................. 40
Email advice ......................................................................................................................... 40
10 Process collections automatically ...................................................................................... 41
11 Import bank return files .................................................................................................... 43
12 Customer scenarios ........................................................................................................... 44
None .................................................................................................................................... 45
SEPA DD CORE and B2B ....................................................................................................... 46
Nets LeverandørService ...................................................................................................... 47
Nets Betalingservice ............................................................................................................ 48
Nets Betalingservice Total ................................................................................................... 49
13 How does cash disc work? ................................................................................................. 50
| Introduction 4
1 INTRODUCTION In order to benefit as much as possible from your AMC DirectDebit module, you should read this
user guide, describing in details, the various possibilities and functionalities offered by the module.
The user guide covers the basic setup of the module; meaning the setup that only needs to be done
once. Furthermore, it contains a detailed description of the module’s functionalities in order for
you to familiarize yourself with the daily use of the module.
Best regards
Development team
AMC-Consult A/S
| Benefits 5
2 BENEFITS So, why use AMC DirectDebit?
1. Get your money on time
The most obvious reason for using the AMC DirectDebit module is to receive your money
on time.
Even though most direct debit solutions allow customers to cancel withdrawing of cash
from their accounts, a cancellation requires the customer to actively take action in order to
block the withdrawing of cash. Cancellations are not very likely, because a direct debit
solution is in general based on a mutual agreement between both vendor and customer.
Instead of requiring the customer to actively process a payment, a direct debit solution
instead requires the customer to actively cancel the transferring of cash, and experience
has shown, that customers are much more likely to neglect paying outstanding invoices,
than cancelling payments bound by an active agreement.
A direct debit solution should therefore be a cornerstone in your cash flow optimization
2. Less settlement errors.
The direct debit process is backed by a number of bank return files, references etc.
allowing the process to complete more or less automatically. Outstanding invoices will be
reconciled and posted upon being received, making the process of having to register
customer payment manually obsolete. This saves both time and money, while minimizing
settlement errors, which again helps optimizing your cash flow.
3. More accurate cash need forecast.
Your forecasting for your cash needs is more accurate and therefore it minimizes the
margin of your cash needs, resulting in better cash flow.
Centralization.
Centralize your payment collection process from several legal entities into single company,
reducing the need for resources.
| Facilities 6
3 FACILITIES AMC DirectDebit covers 3 main functionalities.
Execution of collections
AMC DirectDebit provides facilities for the collection of debts created in Dynamics AX. The
DirectDebit module can e.g. process collections throughout Europa via several different banks.
Furthermore, the DirectDebit module is easily expanded to allow new banks and solutions. Should
the module not contain your desired bank or collection solution, please contact AMC or your
reseller, to determine how to add the desired integration.
Import and posting of payment notifications
AMC DirectDebit includes facilities for importing and handling of customer collections, which have
been received and posted on your bank account(s)
Generation and maintenance of mandates
AMC DirectDebit provides facilities to easily generate and maintain both electronic and physical
customer mandates, thus simplifying the process of handling your customer agreements.
| Prerequisites 7
4 PREREQUISITES In order to be able to complete the setup and actions described in this manual, there are a number
of prerequisites
The DirectDebit module should be installed
A valid DirectDebit license should exist and the necessary license setup should have been
completed
| Workspace 8
5 WORKSPACE Like many of the other modules in AX, the Banking module includes a designated workspace, which
can easily be accessed from the central AX dashboard.
Clicking the “AMC DirectDebit” tile, forwards the user to the DirectDebit workspace page, which
offers easy access to important data and the core functionalities that revolves around DirectDebit
related processes.
| Workspace 9
The workspace is divided into three sections
1. Summary
The summary section allows the user to initiate the daily tasks, increasing the productivity
related to actions like initiating payments and importing bank return files
2. Journals and transactions
Tab section offering an overview of the tasks currently in in process, allowing the user to
quickly initiate actions, when required
3. Links
The Links section, contains links to the most common used pages in the DirectDebit
module. E.g. it offers quick access to the bank list, the customers own bank accounts as
well as the customer setup pages
| Setup 10
6 SETUP To get the most of your DirectDebit module, you should review the setup in this section carefully.
PARAMETERS
The basic parameters of the module are set up from AMC DirectDebit > Setup > Parameters.
CUSTOMER
The customer tab contains setup specifically related to the process of customer collections and/or
payments.
The fields on the customer tab have the following features:
Field Description
Description This field is used to define the posting text in the payment journal.
You may use the following placeholders:
- %1 : Invoice number
- %2 : Customer account number
- %3 : Voucher number
- %4 : Due date
- %5 : Customer name
Tax registration number Due to a general lack of consensus, on which field to use, when registering customers’
tax registration number, you are able to set up, which field from the customer table that
is used by the AX legal entity/company.
The options are:
- Tax exempt number
- ID number
- Organization number
Default bank The default bank which customers will be initialized with
Send advices automatically If enabled, payment advices are automatically emailed to customers with specified email
address and email template. The email is send (only) when the payment has been
transferred successfully.
If not enabled, users have to print the payment advices manually from the journal.
| Setup 11
Note: Emails are send using standard AX email functionality. That also means that the
standard AX email setup is used to configure the SMTP relay server
WEB SERVICE
The web service tab contains setup related to web service communication.
For the DirectDebit module to be able to send and receive files, the module must be connected to
a web service, which can be hosted both locally as well as externally. The web service parameters
are set up on the web service tab.
The fields have the following meanings:
Field Description
Use web service In this field you select AMC DirectDebit module to be used in the current company.
Solution The options are:
- Classic: Most common option, used to connect with the public cloud web
service
- Enterprise: Used by customers with a designated web service. Choosing this
option will enable the URL field
URL The URL of the web service which handles the conversion of payments and bank files
Note: The field is only editable on Enterprise solutions, where a designated web service is
hosted either locally or by a third party (Microsoft Azure or similar)
HTTPS Status A status indicator displaying the status of the HTTPS communication between the AX AOS
server and the web service. The field is updated each time the web service is called.
Login The username/login used to connect to the license server and the web service specified
in the URL field. Username is specified when registering your license
| Setup 12
Password The password used to connect to the license server and the web service specified in the
URL field. Password is specified when registering your license
Date verified The date when the license was last verified
LOG
You can setup a log if you need to view the communication between web service and Dynamics AX
Field Description
Log detail level In this field you can set up how much excessive to output info in the info log
The values are:
- All: All non-technical messages are shown
- Errors and warnings: Info level messages are suppressed
- Errors only: Only errors are shown
- Debug: All messages, also technical, are shown
Log files Indicates whether the web service communication log is enabled.
File name The file path and the file name of the web service log file (cannot be changed)
ABOUT
The about tab contains information regarding the DirectDebit modules version number and the
serial number of the AX license
| Setup 13
BANKS
The general bank setup is set up from AMC DirectDebit > Setup > Banks > Banks
When entering the bank setup page for the first time, the list of banks is empty. To add banks to
the list, click the “Synchronize bank list” button from the menu, which will automatically add the
licensed banks to the bank list
The fields on the fast tabs have the following features:
Field Description
Bank A short name bank reference used throughout the module to refer to a given bank
Name A description/long name of the bank
License bank Reference to a license bank, which is the web service’s own bank identifier. The license
bank is used by the module to instruct which bank format the web service should output
when creating payment files
Note: Usually this is a fixed value, which rarely needs changing
Scenario The scenario is used by the system to determine, how to complete the collection process,
e.g. whether an electronic or physical customer mandate is required. This means that
status of both customers and payment transactions are highly dependent on the selected
| Setup 14
scenario. The values are:
- None
- SEPA Core
- SEPA B2B
- Nets LS
- Nets BS
- Nets BST
For more information on which scenario to choose, see section 11
Ready for posting Indicates when a collection (payment) transaction is regarded as being postable. The
values are:
- Transferred: Allows the user to post the collection immediately after the it has
been transferred to the bank (usually by creating the bank file)
- Confirmed: Allows the user to post the collection once the bank has verified
and accepted the collection
- Executed: Allows the user to post the collection once the bank has confirmed
the execution of the collection
- Never: Posting of transactions are not allowed. This option is used in
environments with both AMC Banking and AMC DirectDebit installed, where
the posting is to be done in Banking.
Warning amount If a payment exceeds the specified amount in this field, a warning message is displayed.
This option is typically used if users want to supervise collections exceeding a certain
amount
Calendar Indicates which bank day calendar to use
Minimum days ahead In this section, you can state the earliest payment date for your payments. For instance,
if you are using a bank unable to handle payment transfers the same day as the file is
sent, you can state the value 1. This setup results in the payment date in the journal is
postponed to the following banking day, but only if the payment date is today.
Grace period Number of days to add to cash discount date, and thereby number of days to allow cash
disc even though overdue
File paths See section Error! Reference source not found.
Bank file advice Indicates which advice template to use, when creating the electronic advice, which are
included in the collection files
Email advice Indicates which email advice template to use, when creating customer email advices. To
use email advice, an email address is required in the customer setup of AMC DirectDebit.
Bank main agreement id Used to identify a bank agreement (if any)
Bank sub agreement id Used to identify a “sub-level” bank agreement (if any)
Alternative tax registration
number
Overrides the tax registration number specified in standard company setup.
File path setup is typically done directly on the “File paths” tab of the bank page. In that case the file path setup is shared among companies, without company specific file path setup. To configure company specific file path setup, click the button “File paths“. Clicking the “File paths” button will open a small dialog, which contains the same fields as the “File
paths” tab of the bank page.
| Setup 15
Entering something in either of the fields, will result in the current company overriding the similar
field from the general file path setup of the bank page.
Field Description
File to bank (collections) The file path of the collection files created by the module
File to bank (subscriptions) The file path of the mandate subscription files created by the module
File from bank The file path of the bank return files
Archive The file path of the archive in which processed return files are archived
OWN BANK ACCOUNTS
The setup of own bank accounts can be opened from either AMC-DirectDebit > Setup > Bank >
Own bank accounts, showing all bank account in current company, or by clicking the “Bank
accounts” button in the bank setup, showing only bank accounts related to the selected bank.
The fields on the fast tabs have the following features:
Field Content
Bank The bank in which the bank account is registered.
Bank account number The bank account’s actual bank account number. Though IBAN is usually preferred, the bank
account should be specified according to the bank’s requirements.
As a result, it can be necessary to use local bank account numbers (BBAN) instead, prefix the
account number with 0 (zeroes) etc.
Currency The currency of the bank account
| Setup 16
Priority This field is used to prioritize accounts, with 1 being the highest priority. Priority is used if
multiple bank accounts in same currency exist.
Company The company to which the bank account belongs.
SWIFT code The SWIFT code identifier of the bank to which the bank account belongs.
Method of payment Method of payment is primarily used as a way of linking customer invoices to a certain bank
account. By specifying the method of payment, the bank account will be used as own bank
account, when adding customer invoices, with similar method of payment, to the collection
journal.
Furthermore, the method of payment can be used to activate bridge posting. If the selected
method of payment is configured to bridge posting, the offset account field is locked and
the value is changed to the bridge account.
Offset account The ledger account in AX, which should function as the bank account’s offset account. The
offset account can be specified either as a bank account or a ledger account. It is also
possible to specify financial dimensions.
Fee account The ledger account in AX, which should function as the bank account’s fee account. The
offset account can be specified either as a bank account or a ledger account. It is also
possible to specify financial dimensions.
Fee Id Identification of the payment fee setup to use for handling and posting fees
Company setup In this section it is possible to add and remove companies, in which collection journals are
allowed to utilize the bank account.
6.2.1.1 COMPANY SETUP
The company setup tab is used to set up, how the individual AX companies and/or legal entities are
allowed to utilize the bank account.
By default, the bank account can only be used in the company in which it resides. If a bank account
is shared across AX companies or legal entities, companies can be added to the company list.
| Setup 17
BANK CALENDARS
When collections are added to the journal, they are granted a date of execution. To ensure that the
collections can be executed on a given date, the module needs to know, whether the bank is able
to process payments on a given date.
To set up bank days, on which the bank is able to process payments, open AMC DirectDebit >
Setup > Banks > Bank days
To reflect that bank days can vary in different countries, banks etc., it is possible to add several
bank calendars. Each bank calendars contains a list of dates, on which the bank is able to process
payments.
The fields on the page have the following meaning:
Field Activity
Calendar The bank calendar identifier
Description An elaborate description of the bank calendar.
Pay by This field is used to define the collection principles of the customer invoices. The options
are:
- Invoice: Each invoice is created as an individual transaction when added to the
collection journal
- Collect: The module will attempt to accumulate similar invoices, which usually
generates fewer transactions in the collection journal
Bank calendars This section contains the valid bank days related to the selected bank calendar.
To add bank days to the calendar, click the "Create" button from the menu, and define a range of
bank days to create, from the opened dialog
| Setup 18
Holidays like Easter, Whitsun, Christmas, etc. must be manually removed afterwards
| Setup 19
CUSTOMERS
Setting up customer bank information is done from AMC DirectDebit > Customers > Customers,
which opens list pages providing a quick customer overview.
Unlike earlier versions of DirectDebit, the current version utilizes standard AX’s customer bank
accounts, which helps reduce redundancy. As a result, all customers with related bank accounts are
considered collectable. Therefore, the customer setup pages are only used, in cases where
additional information is required.
The list page contains a complete list of customers in the current company, and can be filtered,
sorted etc. Each customer has five columns, which reflect the customers’ individual status. The five
columns have the following meaning:
- M…: Mandate is being obtained
- S…: Is being subscribed
- A…: Is active
- U…: Is being unsubscribed
- In…: Is inactive
For more info on how customer scenarios reflect customer status, see Customer scenarios.
| Setup 20
A detailed overview of the individual customers can be opened e.g. by clicking the “Edit” button.
The fields have the following meanings:
Field Description
Customer account The customer account of the customer, set up in standard AX
Name The name of the customer, set up in standard AX
External account Account number used to identify the customer outside AX, typically in file interchanges with
the banks etc.
The external account is automatically specified, but can be manually overridden if required.
Unless manually overridden the external account will be created based on the customer
account number, but special characters and prefixed zeroes will be removed. This is done to
create a safe-proof account number which can be used as an identifier regardless of the file
formats being exchanged later on.
Bank The bank used for collecting customer.
Note: This is not customer’s bank, but merely a reference to the bank of yours, which are to
initialize the collection.
Calendar Indicates which bank calendar to use. If nothing has been specified, the bank calendar set up
on the bank will be used
Bank account Bank account id referring to customer’s bank account in standard AX. This field is used
regardless of whether the account number is an IBAN, a local BBAN or another type of bank
account identifier
| Setup 21
Bank account number Displays the bank account number specified on the selected bank account
Status The customer’s status. The status field is essential for which actions are available for the
customer
Email A reference to the electronic email address in the standard customer setup, which to use
when sending email advices to the customer
Email advice Which email advice template to use for creating email advices
File advice The bank file advice template to use for creating advices that are included in the collection
files
Mandate id Identifier of the mandate allowing collections from the customers bank account
Date of signature The date on which the mandate was signed (accepted) by the customer
In addition to the customer setup, the bottom “Status” tab displays an additional quick overview of
the customer’s current status.
Steps related to the acquiring or cancelling of mandates can be skipped by clicking either the “Activate” or “Deactivate” buttons in the Status menu. This will change the customer status to active or inactive
JOURNALS
From AMC DirectDebit > Setup > Journals it is possible to setup the various journal types used
throughout the module.
COLLECTIONS JOURNALS
In order to create and process collection journals, a collection journal with an associated voucher series is required
The fields have the following meaning:
Field Description
Name Name and identifier of the journal
| Setup 22
Description A more elaborative name for the journal. The description is also used as the initial journal
name when a new journal is created
Voucher series The voucher series to use when fetching voucher numbers for the transaction of journals,
related to the journal setup
New voucher This field is used to specify, how and when voucher numbers are fetched and applied to the
payment transactions
Delete lines after posting If enabled, the journal and the included payment transactions are deleted once they have
been posted
Financial dimensions The journal can be configured with a number of default financial dimensions, which will
automatically be added to created journals
MANDATES JOURNALS
If you handle collection mandates in batches, a mandate journal with an associated voucher series is required. Mandates can also be handled individually from the customer setup (see section 6.3)
The fields have the following meaning:
Field Description
Name Name and identifier of the journal
Description A more elaborative name for the journal. The description is also used as the initial journal
name when a new journal is created
Voucher series The voucher series to use when fetching voucher numbers for the transaction of journals,
related to the journal setup
Delete lines after posting If enabled, the journal and the included mandate actions are deleted once they have been
processed
ADVICE
When processing collections, hence withdrawing cash directly from a customer’s bank accounts, it
is important to create sensible, satisfactory and correct messages, allowing the customers to see
| Setup 23
exactly what and why their bank account was debited. The module contains various advice options,
which should accommodate the divergent demands from the individual customers.
From AMC DirectDebit > Setup > Advice it is possible to the different advice types of the module
BANK FILE ADVICE
There are three ways of creating the electronic bank advice, included in the actual bank file, which
should eventually be visible in the customer’s online banking system. The three advices types are:
- Simple
- Detailed
- Class
6.5.1.1 SIMPLE
The simple option, results in a very simple advice, containing only a short (optional) header text
followed by the invoices of the payment, separated by commas.
Example:
Invoices: INV-0001,INV-0002,INV-0003,INV-0004,INV-0005
| Setup 24
6.5.1.2 DETAILED
The detailed option, allows a more advanced, yet still rather simple, way of creating the payment
advices. This options offers separate header, body and footer text and allows linefeed separated
invoices as well as placeholders.
Example (using the setup above):
Invoice Date Amount
INV-0001 20160130 999,95
INV-0002 20160130 100,00
INV-0003 20160130 1000000,00
INV-0004 20160130 0,05
INV-0005 20160130 -99,50
Best regards
AMC DirectDebit
6.5.1.3 CLASS
The third and final option, class, is an advanced option allowing your company to create and use an
individual advice class to generate the customer advice. The class option is typically used, when the
easy accessible information used by e.g. the detailed options does not meet the requirements.
| Setup 25
Should the advice include data from the invoice journal, the Project module etc., the class option is
what you are looking for.
To utilize the class option, a custom class should be developed. Once completed, the class should be available in the class name field. Create a copy of the class selected in the above screen (AmcDDAdviceClassTutorial) and use the copy as the basis of the customized class.
EMAIL ADVICE
Bank files are often limited in terms of the number of lines/characters allowed when creating
payment advice to the customer. As a result, the electronic bank advice, included in the bank file, is
often insufficient, especially for high load customers. In that case you can instead utilize the email
advice option.
| Setup 26
AMC DirectDebit includes a standard payment advice report, which can be selected. This report
should be sufficient for most customers, and has no limits in terms of number of invoices.
The fields have the following meaning:
Field Description
Advice id The identifier of the email advice
Description A description of the email advice
Email id Used to select the standard AX’ email template to use when creating the email
Report name The name of the report which to use for the advice
The report AmcDDReportPaymentAdvice is included in the module
Report design name The name of the report design to use for the advice
The design PaymentAdvice is included in the module’s AmcDDReportPaymentAdvice. If the
provided report designs are insufficient, a custom report can be designed. For more info,
please refer to the install guide.
File format Default report output file format is PDF, but if demanded, the other file formats supported
by the reporting services can be selected
MANDATE TEMPLATES
If your bank requires that physical mandates are exchanged and approved, before collections are
allowed, you need to set up a mandate template. This is done from AMC DirectDebit > Setup >
Mandate templates.
In the mandate template, you are able to set up one or more templates, which can then be
connected to the individual customers.
The mandate process is as follows:
1. Mandate is sent by either email or by regular postal services to your customer
2. If customer does not respond, first reminder is sent
3. If customer still does not respond, second reminder is sent
4. If customer still does not respond, an interruption is sent
| Setup 27
The fields have the following meaning:
Field Description
Mandate template The mandate template identifier
Description A description of the mandate template
Default If marked as default new customers is initialized with the default mandate template
Email id Used to select the standard AX’ email template to use when creating and sending the email
including the mandate. If not setup
Report name The name of the report which to use for the mandate
The report AmcDDReportMandate is included in the module.
Report design name The name of the report design to use for the mandate
The designs Core and B2B are included in the module’s AmcDDReportMandate. If the
provided report designs are insufficient, a custom report can be designed. For more info,
please refer to the install guide.
Reminder 1, Reminder 2 & Interrupted
Days The number of days from the mandate was sent until a reminder or interruption action
should be sent (using the mandate journal).
0 = not in use
Email id Used to select the standard AX’ email template to use when creating and sending the
reminders and interruptions.
| Mandates 28
7 MANDATES A mandate is an acceptance from the customer, giving you access to withdraw funds directly from
the customer’s bank account. The mandate implicitly includes general rules as to the customer’s
rights to cancel collection, your obligations of advice before the drawing etc.
Depending on your bank and the collection scenario (see Customer scenarios), this process can
vary, but normally you would need an acceptance (mandate) from the customer, before being
allowed to withdraw funds from the customer’s bank account.
The module provides multiple ways to maintain mandates. Mandates can be handled one-by-one directly from the individual customers or in bulks from the designated mandate journal.
MAINTAIN MANDATES IN VOLUMES
The mandate journal, which is used to handle customer mandate actions in volumes, is opened from AMC DirectDebit > Journals > Mandates > Mandate journal
Each journal is related to a specific bank, which is chosen during the creation of the mandate journal. To open a mandate journal, click the “Lines” button. To add mandate action lines to the empty journal, click the “Add” button. This opens a dialog,
which can be used to filter the customers on which to look for pending mandate actions.
| Mandates 29
Once the dialog is closed by clicking the “Ok” button, the module loops through the customers, and
identifies whether mandate related actions need to be taken. Customers will be added to the
journal if any of the following conditions are true:
Customer has status “Mandate create”
Customer has status “Mandate sent” and reminder 1, reminder 2 or interrupt deadline has
been exceeded
Customer has status “Reminder 1 sent” and reminder 2 or interrupt deadline has been
exceeded
Customer has status “Reminder 2 sent” and interrupt deadline has been exceeded
Once the pending mandate actions have been added to the journal, the “Generate” button is
enabled. Clicking the “Generate” button will complete the pending actions (generate mandates,
send mail, interrupt mandates etc.) and change status from Pending to Completed. Once all
actions/records are complete the journal will disappear from the journal overview’s list of open
journals.
MAINTAIN MANDATES INDIVIDUALLY
To maintain a specific customer mandate, open the customer bank table setup form. Here you are able to maintain the complete life-cycle of a mandate (generate, import, remind, interrupt), using the related mandate buttons. The buttons will actively check customer status, mandate setup, reminder rules etc. automatically showing you the next logical option to complete.
| Mandates 30
To see the previous completed mandate events, open the mandate event form by clicking the “Overview” button from the “Mandates” menu From here you are able to see the complete list of mandate actions completed as well as the actual mandates related to each individual event.
If an event has an attached document, a small icon will show in the field to the right. The attachment can be opened by either clicking the small icon or by clicking the Open button in the menu’s mandate section
| Subscriptions 31
8 SUBSCRIPTIONS In this chapter we will discuss the subscription process. Like mandates, the subscription process is
all about getting access to withdraw funds from the customers’ bank accounts, but unlike
mandates, which are physical files/documents, subscriptions are electronic interchanges of
mandate information. Subscriptions can be maintained from AMC DirectDebit > Periodic >
Subscriptions.
The form, from which subscriptions are handled, contains three separate grid. The left most grid
contains subscription which are ready to be processed. The middle grid contains pending
subscriptions, which requires some kind of action in order to complete. The right most grid
contains a list of active subscriptions.
PROCESSABLE SUBSCRIPTIONS
If a customer is set up to use a bank which requires electronic subscription, and the customer’s
status is either Subscribe or Unsubscribe, the customer will automatically show up in the left most
grid, when the form is opened. The refresh button can also be used to update the list of
processable subscriptions.
To process the processable subscriptions, mark one or more of the records in the grid and click the
transfer button. This will activate a validation of the customer and subscription data. If the
validation is successful, an electronic subscription file will be created, and the processed
subscriptions will change state from processable to pending, hence move from the list of
processable subscriptions to the list of pending subscriptions
PENDING SUBSCRIPTIONS
As the name indicates, the list of pending subscriptions contains subscriptions, which have not yet
been fully processed. There are basically two types of pending subscription.
The first type covers the subscriptions, which have been transferred and now awaits a bank
response confirming the completion of the subscription.
| Subscriptions 32
The second type covers unknown (active) subscriptions, which need to be linked to customers in
the system. Unknown subscriptions are typically created as a result of a bank response, containing
subscriptions which cannot be identified by the data in the response. In that case a warning
messages will inform that an unknown subscription has been added to the list of pending
subscriptions
Pending subscription awaiting bank response can be recognized by the small clock icon on the left
side of the pending list. In most cases, these subscriptions will be updated and processed
automatically, once the bank file is imported. It is also possible to manually cancel or process the
pending subscriptions by using the Cancel subscriptions and Process subscriptions buttons.
Unknown subscriptions can be recognized by the error icon, which indicates, that the subscription
cannot be finished until customer information has been specified. Once the required customer
information has been specified the error icon will change into a check mark icon, indicating that the
subscription can now be finished. This is done by clicking the Process subscriptions button
Once processed the unknown customer is added to the list of Active subscriptions. Furthermore,
the unknown customer is added to the customer table
ACTIVE SUBSCRIPTIONS
The list of active subscriptions contains the customers, which is considered active and is thereby
considered eligible to be included in the collection process. Usually active subscriptions remain
active without the need of user involvement. The active subscriptions have two related options.
The first option is triggered by the “Cancel subscriptions” button, and will result in the active
subscription being moved to the list of pending subscriptions. In the “happy day scenario” this
option is never used, and it has only been added in order to easily handle mistakenly activated
subscriptions.
The second option which is triggered by the “Unsubscribe” button, is used when a customer
relationship is terminated. Using the “Unsubscribe” button will result in the subscription being
| Subscriptions 33
moved from the list of Active subscriptions to the list of Processable subscriptions with status
Unsubscribe. In addition, the customer will no longer be included in the collection process.
The most common scenario, is for the customer itself to terminate the subscription allowing collections.
In that case the customer is usually unsubscribed automatically as a resu lt of a bank response file.
| Collections 34
9 COLLECTIONS Once the setup has been completed and the required mandates and/or subscriptions have been
gathered, you are ready to convert open customer transactions into fully automatic collections.
PREREQUISITES
Open customer transactions are typically created from several locations, both internally and
externally in AX. However, no matter how and by whom the transactions are created, they all need
to meet a common set of requirements, before the module allows any further processing of the
transactions. Therefore, it is important to understand which requirements the module has, before
a transaction is included in the collection process.
The transaction must be approved
The transaction’s related customer must be added to the customer bank table.
The transaction’s related customer must have an active status
The transaction may not be settled elsewhere in Dynamics AX.
COLLECTION JOURNAL
CREATION
Before collections can be processed, you must first create a journal for the purpose. This is done by
entering AMC-DirectDebit > Journals > Collections > Collection journal, and creating a new
journal.
Once the journal has been created, you can enter it by clicking the “Lines” button. In the empty
journal, press the button "Add" in order to add transactions to the journal. This will open a dialog,
which can be used to filter, which open transactions to add to the journal as well as change the
behavior of the module when adding transactions.
| Collections 35
To avoid adding all open customer transactions, due date is often used as the primary filter/range.
Use the due date to quickly decide how far in the future to look for due customer transactions. By
clicking the “Select” button, you are able to further filter, which open customer transactions to add
to the journal.
Note: The due date range has been moved to the dialog for convenient reasons, as this is usually
used as the primary range. Specifying a due date in the dialog, works similar to adding a due date
range on the open customer transaction table, using the “Select” button.
In addition to the ranges, the dialog also contains two options, which enables the user to control the behavior, when transactions are added.
Field Description
Forced payment date Using the total date options, forces the system to create transactions with a given execution
date, despite being due on another date
Clicking the dialog’s “OK” button, results in the module searching through the open customer
transaction for transactions, which belongs to customers allowing collections and lies within the
specified ranges.
| Collections 36
For more information on how payment date, payment amount and cash discount is determined,
please see section 13
VALIDATION
As other journals in Dynamics AX, you are able to validate the content of the journal before it is
posted. In AMC DirectDebit the validation is a requirement, and you cannot post the journal until
the journal has been successfully validated (and transferred).
Clicking the “Validate” button will result in a standard Dynamics AX ledger validation, ensuring that
journal can be posted with the current transactions and the transactions data. Unlike the standard
AX validation, the validation in AMC DirectDebit also includes a bank validation part, which ensures
that the transactions can be converted into actual direct debit transactions.
Once the journal has been successfully validated, both ledger and bank wise, the transactions’
status will no longer be “Editable”, which means that the journal is locked, preventing users from
changing the journal’s transactions.
| Collections 37
If necessary, the journal can be unlocked again by clicking “Functions > Cancel” journal from the
menu.
TRANSFER
Once the journal has been successfully validated, the “Transfer” button is enabled.
Clicking the “Transfer” button will result in the collection file being created and saved in the set up
directory. Once the file transfer is complete, a message will be added to the infolog informing
where the file has been stored.
Depending on the “Ready for posting” setup on the bank (see Banks), the transactions will change
status from validated to either Transferred or Postable.
IMPORT RESPONSES
Unlike regular vendor payments, it is very common to receive return files when executing direct
debits (pre-authorized payments). The return files are very useful for receiving the banks’ own
responses, which can be used to find out whether payments have been accepted, rejected,
executed etc. It is often also possible to get the actual execution date, the posted amount, and the
exact exchange rate of the individual transactions.
Once a bank return file has been received, the next step is to import the file into the DirectDebit
module. For more information about importing bank return files, see section 11.
POSTING
Once the required responses, according to the specified “Ready for posting” parameter (see
Banks), have been received, the transactions’ status changes to “Postable”. Once all transactions
have reached status “Postable”, the journal can be posted by clicking the now enabled “Post”
button.
| Collections 38
Clicking the post button will initiate a standard AX posting. This ensures that posting related
requirement, which lies outside the DirectDebit module are checked as they would in e.g. a
standard AX ledger journal. As a result of this, you will only be allowed to post a DirectDebit
collection journal if all of the transactions meet all posting requirements, external as well as
internal.
Note: If some, but not all, transactions have reached “Postable” status, the collection journal
cannot be posted. This is a quite normal scenario, and in that case it is possible to post the
“Postable” transactions by using a posting journal instead (see Posting journal).
POSTING JOURNAL
When using the DirectDebit in such a manner, where journals contain transactions, which are
expected to be executed and thereby being posted on different dates, users can take advantage of
the posting journal.
The posting journal works and looks quite similar to a regular collection journal. The main
difference is, that the journal is specifically designed to post “Postable” transactions. The journal
offers posting of transactions across journals, which is quite useful when attempting to achieve a
posting, which is equivalent to the actual posting in banks, which uses batch booking per day.
CREATION
As with the collection journal the first step is to create a posting journal. This is done opening AMC
DirectDebit > Journals > Collections > Posting journal, and creating a new journal.
Once the journal has been created, you can enter it by clicking the “Lines” button. In the empty
journal, press the button "Add" in order to add transactions to the journal. This will open a dialog,
which can be used to filter, which postable transactions to add to the journal.
| Collections 39
Once the “OK” button is clicked, the module will add postable transactions, which lies within the
ranges of the filter specified in the dialog.
One of the biggest differences between the regular collection journal and the posting journal, is the
number of functions available. The functionalities in the posting journal is kept to an absolute
minimum, only leaving posting related functionality.
VALIDATION
Like other journals in Dynamics AX, you are able to validate the content of the journal before it is
posted. Validation of the journal is voluntary, as the journal has already been validated in the
original collection journal.
| Collections 40
Clicking the “Validate” button will result in a standard Dynamics AX ledger validation. Unlike the
validation in the collection journal, the validate functionality in the posting journal only initiates the
standard AX ledger validation.
POSTING
Because the posting journal only contains postable transactions, the “Post” button is always
available.
Clicking the post button will initiate the standard AX post functionality. This ensures that posting
related requirement, which lies outside the DirectDebit module are checked as they would be in
e.g. a standard AX ledger journal. As a result of this, you will only be allowed to post a DirectDebit
collection journal if all of the transactions meet all posting requirements, externally as well as
internally.
EMAIL ADVICE
If automatic sending of email advice has been enabled in parameter setup, the system will send
advices to customers, who are set up to receive email advices, once the transfer has been
successfully completed. In that case, though still possible, the users do not need to print advices
manually.
If not, the users have two ways of creating and sending advices. One possibility is to print the
advice report from inside the collection journal. In that case, if the customer is set up for email
advice, the advice will be created and sent to the email address specified in the customer setup.
The other option is to print the advice from the journal overview. In this case, all the journal’s
transactions will be looped and if the related customer is set up for email advice, the advice will be
created and sent to the email address specified in the customer setup.
| Process collections automatically 41
10 PROCESS COLLECTIONS AUTOMATICALLY Companies which have many customers, often also has a large number of customer payments,
which can potentially take very long to process, if using a step-by-step approach.
For that purpose, we have introduced the possibility to process collections journals automatically,
which can be initiated from AMC DirectDebit > Periodic > Process collections automatically.
Using this option, the processes of finding, validating and transferring collection files can be
gathered in a single process, which is also batch executable, making it possible for the system to do
the work, which should otherwise have been done by the user, allowing the user to attend to other
tasks at hand.
The initialization of the automatic collection process is done from a dialog which works and looks
almost identical to the dialog for adding customer transactions to a collection journal. Yet, the auto
collect dialog contains additional fields for setting up the journal and deciding the exact behavior of
the collection process.
Usually the “Bank” is decided when a collection journal is created, but due to the lack of a journal
at this point of time, the “Bank” field is editable. This requires the user to decide which bank to use
for processing the collections before proceeding.
The additional fields are as follows:
Field Description
Journal
| Process collections automatically 42
Name The name of the journal to use when creating the journal in which to add the transactions,
which should by auto processed
Actions
Find Indicates whether to find and add customer transactions to the auto collections journal
Note: This option is mandatory, as it makes no sense to auto process an empty collection
journal
Validate Indicates whether to validate the auto collection journal once customer transactions have
been added
Transfer Indicates whether to transfer the auto collection journal once the journal has been
successfully validated
Error handling Indicates which action to take in case some transactions are erroneous (as a result of the
validation) and therefore cannot be processed further.
The options are:
Abort: The auto collection process is aborted if one or more transactions are erroneous
Delete: The erroneous transactions are removed from the journal
Move: The erroneous transactions are moved to a new journal, which uses the same journal
setup as the original auto process journal.
| Import bank return files 43
11 IMPORT BANK RETURN FILES The import is initiated either from the “Import bank return files” tile in the AMC DirectDebit
workspace or by opening AMC DirectDebit > Periodic > Import bank return files
If the module is set up as a Classic solution, the import dialog is prefilled and the user will only need
to click to “OK” button to initiate the import.
If the module is set up as an Enterprise solution, the import dialogs fields are enabled and editable.
Unless running a host-to-host solution towards the bank, the dialog should usually be set up like
the classic solution, as seen on the picture above. To initiate the import, the “OK” button is clicked.
If the upload box is checked, the module will search for bank return files in the import folders,
which have specified on the banks in the bank setup. The found return files are uploaded to the
web service, which converts them into an internal format, which is then returned to the
DirectDebit module afterwards.
Once returned, the response is parsed and processed based on the type of response. E.g. if the
bank sends a status on the collections of a given journal, the DirectDebit module will update the
journal and the journal’s transactions according to the bank response.
| Customer scenarios 44
12 CUSTOMER SCENARIOS Through the customer’s lifecycle the customer will pass through one or more of the status
indicators in the picture below. The status of the customer, determines which action to perform
next.
The customer status is decided by the customer scenario, which have been set up on the bank,
which has been selected as the customer’s collection bank. Thereby the bank will have a great
impact on which status a customer can and will have, and thereby which actions to perform from
creation till inactivation.
| Customer scenarios 45
NONE
If you select the “None” scenario for your bank, you have disabled all mandate and subscription
handling.
| Customer scenarios 46
SEPA DD CORE AND B2B
SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) is a EU based solution simplifying EUR bank transfer. SEPA Direct
Debit consist of two solutions, CORE and B2B. The two solutions have different rules related to
notifications, cancellation etc., but the overall scenario is practically the same
| Customer scenarios 47
NETS LEVERANDØRSERVICE
The NETS LS scenario includes credit notification only as status reports are not available for import
| Customer scenarios 48
NETS BETALINGSERVICE
The NETS BS scenario includes credit notification only as status reports are not available for import
| Customer scenarios 49
NETS BETALINGSERVICE TOTAL
| How does cash disc work? 50
13 HOW DOES CASH DISC WORK?
Determining payment amount and cash disc
Determining payment date
Payment add
Add open customer transactions to
journal
Use cash disc? Yes
No
Use cash disc?
Use total date?
Ok button pushed
No
No
Transaction has cash disc date?
Yes
Payment date=
Total date
Payment date=
Due date
Use total date? Yes
No
No
Payment date is a holiday?
Payment dateforwarded to next
bank dayYes
Cash disc date + grace period exceeded?
Yes
Yes
Payment date=
Cash disc date
Payment date is a holiday?
Grace period is adequate to
reach next bank day?
Yes
YesPayment dateis reversed to
previous bank dayNo
No
No
No
Payment amount=
Invoice amount – cash disc amount
Payment amount=
Invoice amount
Cash disc eligible on payment
date?Use cash disc Yes Yes
Payment added
No No
User prompted with warning
Yes Cancel button pushedPayment add
cancelled