Tips about interfacing

You can interface non-Lawson leases and lease payments into the Lease Management application, using the same basic steps used to interface non-Lawson data into other Lawson applications. Take note of these guidelines:

• Conversion requires planning. You must consider carefully what data you will interface and what data you can add later.

• Your non-Lawson files must be in an importable data format such as a comma-separated-value (CSV) file with fields that match exactly the Lawson interface file fields.

• You must interface the leases before you can interface the lease payments.

• The process enables you to correct your mistakes. You can modify the data at three stages in the process:

  • You can modify the non-Lawson data file before you import it.

  • You can modify the records in the Lawson interface files (LMLEASECNV for UNIX and Windows or DBLMCNV for IBM i or LMPAYCNV for UNIX and Windows or DBLMPCN for IBM i). You can also add entire records to the files.

  • After you run the Lease Management interface programs (LM500 and LM551) successfully, the non-Lawson lease and lease payment records become unreleased lease records in the Lease Management application and you can modify the records until you release the leases.

• You can provide data for specific fields or for every field. Here are some examples of the flexibility that you have:

  • You can include attribute data in the interface file before or after importing the non-Lawson file, or you can add the same attribute data to the lease after it has been interfaced and is a regular Lawson lease.

  • You can define the lease classification in the non-Lawson interface file, add it to the LMLEASECNV for UNIX and Windows or DBLMCNV for IBM i file, or run the FAS 13 test to determine the classification. Run the test after you have interfaced the lease into Lease Management.