Customer lockbox

GL updating: automatic or manual

Lockbox transmissions from your bank are received as flat files that are imported by the Customer Entry Lockbox Import Report. Depending upon your settings for the Post/Update Imported Transactions option, your AR accounts could be automatically updated during the import with these types of transactions:

• Check records for the selected bank number
• Payment records applied to the correct invoice
• Invoices and credits that are updated to paid status
• NSF invoices that are created for negative check amounts
• Unapplied cash transactions that are created when no matching invoice

General Ledger transactions are created and applied to the account numbers from these records:

• CR Bank Setup
• Customer Setup
• SA Operator Setup
• SA Operator Setup - R&D Operator record

The automatic update process eliminates any editing from the import process. All check transactions are posted to an AR account, whether that is the correct customer account, or the fictitious customer account.

If you run the import without updating AR and GL, batch files are created but not updated. These batch records are available for editing or deleting in Customer Lock Box Entry. You must then manually update them through the Customer Entry Lockbox Update Report.

Whether you run the Customer Entry Lockbox Update Report in update mode or not, transaction detail for each import is provided on the report.

Split payments

During the import process, checks are matched to customer records. If the invoice number that is provided with a check transaction does not match the customer number in the flat file, the system attempts to match the invoice to other customer records. Sometimes, multiple invoices for different customers are paid by a single check. If a check is received from one customer that applies to other customers’ scheduled payments, the import process checks the Split Transactions (C)lear or (S)uspend option on the Customer Entry Lockbox Update Report before processing the payment. If you specify C, the match is based on invoice number, instead of the customer number. If you specify S, these transactions in the batch file are suspended. You must unsuspend the transaction in Customer Lock Box Entry.

No matching records found

During the import process, payment transactions are matched to the invoice number that is contained in the flat file. If a match cannot be made, the transaction is posted to a fictitious customer that is identified in the Customer Entry Lockbox Update Report.

If you do not post/update transactions, unmatched payments become suspended check transactions and remain in the AR batch file until you unsuspend them. If you do update, an unapplied cash transaction is posted to the fictitious account. You must reconcile and post transactions against the correct account manually.

Backup files

Each time you run the Customer Entry Lockbox Update Report, a backup of the flat file is created. The naming convention for each lockbox import file is yymmddhhmmss.lbx.in.

The lockbox backup files are available in your EDI inbound directory until you delete them. Review this directory periodically to purge unneeded backup files.

System maintenance issue

Detail transactions in AR do not have a unique index assigned to them. Because of this, when the Customer Entry Lockbox Update Report matches invoices to payments, the tie is created using a record ID. If your system administrator performs a dump and load on the database containing these records, the record ID is changed. Any active Customer Lockbox batch records, such as Customer Batch Maintenance Entry and Customer Lock Box Entry, lose their tie to AR detail. If this occurs, delete the batch and re-import, or manually adjust the batch records to reestablish the ties.