Norwest Financials Automatic Cash Posting

The NWF Automatic Cash Posting program can be found on the Billing Custom menu (BI-5). It allows La Crosse SystemTM dealers to automatically post cash payments to the Accounts Receivable module using the CROSSTALK standalone PC system provided by Norwest Financial Services. Please contact LMS Sales to purchase this system enhancement.

• Introduction

• Set Up

• Enter Data

• Results

Introduction

Norwest Financial Services (NWF) is a leasing company that bills and collects lease payments and the maintenance and meter billing overage charges for La Crosse SystemTM dealers. The La Crosse SystemTM dealers bill the service contracts through the Contract module. On the contracts, the NWF customer account number is the bill-to customer account number and the customer account numbers are the ship-to customer numbers. The money that is collected by NWF is sent back to the dealer and needs to be applied to Accounts Receivable.

La Crosse SystemTM customers that are currently working with NWF are sending to NWF various information from the billing of the contract invoices. With this information, NWF bills the dealer's customers. The information is gathered on The La Crosse SystemTM from invoices generated through the Contract Billing program. The following information is then sent to NWF:

Meter Format (Meter Billing)
Customer Number
Invoice Number
Customer Name
Model Number (Item Number of Machine)
Serial Number
Item Description
Ending Meter Date
Ending Meter Reading
Beginning Meter Date
Beginning Meter Reading
Total Number of Clicks
Allowance
Number of Billable Clicks
Total Dollars Due

Invoice Format (Contract Base Billing)
Customer Number
Invoice Number
Customer Name
Model Number (Item Number of Machine)
Serial Number
Item Description
Beginning Coverage Date
Ending Coverage Date
Total Dollars Due

NWF loads this into their system and generates the bills to the customer.

The next step in the process is for NWF to send the payments of the invoices back to the dealer. NWF has a system called CROSSTALK, which is a standalone PC system at the dealer site. NWF retrieves information from the CROSSTALK system and sends the dealers information on the payment received through the Check Written Detail Report. NWF the sends an ASCII format file through the CROSSTALK system, which contains necessary information to automatically post payments to the dealer's Accounts Receivable in the La Crosse SystemTM. For each transaction sent, the file includes the check date, invoice number, item and serial number, and payment amount needed for cash posting.

After loading the ASCII file into the system, the NWF Automatic Cash Posting program must be generated. The payments are than automatically posted to the dealer's Accounts Receivable. The ASCII File is deleted from the La Crosse System. This eliminates the posting of the payments through the Accounts Receivable Cash Posting program in the La Crosse SystemTM.

The NWF Automatic Cash Posting program updates all files that are updated by the Cash Posting program. This includes the ARECD (Accounts Receivable), CRECD (Cash Receipt Journals) and CUSTD (Customer) data files. If the Cash Posting program is linked to update the General Ledger, the program also updates the General Ledger Files (GLDISTD, CHART, and ARGL.DT). A deposit number is then issued.

This program also matches what is sent in the ASCII file to what is currently on the NWF bill-to customer A/R account. The NWF bill-to account is defined in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance. When a match is found on the invoice number, the transaction is applied to the NWF A/R account as a payment to the invoice. When no match on the invoice number is found, the payments are considered misdirected funds. This often occurs for the first lease payment. Another misdirected fund is when the customer sends NWF payments for other invoices, such as a supply invoice, billed by the dealers that have nothing to do with NWF. Misdirected funds may also occur due to operator errors applied to NWF invoices. This may be voids after the invoices were sent to NWF or a manual payment made and the invoice is purged from A/R. Thus, the invoice should be existing on the NWF bill-to account but it does not.

Misdirected fund payments are applied to the Accounts Receivable module to an error suspense customer account. The NWF error suspense account is defined in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance. The misdirected funds may or may not be sent with an invoice number. If there is no invoice number sent in the file, the program creates an invoice number using the deposit date. Each one created is incremented by one, so that each record is created as a separate transaction. This is similar to the creation of a COA (Cash On Account) in the Cash Posting program. All payment transactions that are applied to the error suspense account are created with a Tac (Transaction Accounting Code) of COA.

On all transactions applied to the NWF error suspense account, the program checks further to identify the invoice in which this money should be applied. The Serial File (SERIALD) is searched to find the item and serial number that was sent in the ASCII File. If it is found in the Serial File, the customer number that the Serial File is placed at is written into the reference field in the A/R transaction (the COA record) that is created on the NWF error suspense account. If no customer number is found or the item and serial number are not found in the Serial File, the Item and Serial Number are written in as the reference. This number can be used to help trace where the money needs to applied.

Included with the automatic posting program is the NWF Reconciliation Report (BI-5-6) that lists each transaction. Included for each transaction is the NWF account number, invoice number, item and serial number, and payment amount. The report should be used to identify the account in which the misdirected funds should be applied.

The NWF Automatic Cash Posting program contains protection checks so that the same ASCII deposit file is not posted more than once. This is achieved by comparing the check date that is stored in the ASCII File with a last check date processed that is stored in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance. The date in the ASCII File is the date in which the money is deposited by NWF. This date will be used to identify each deposit as unique and prevent duplication of file updating. The date in the ASCII File must be greater than the date stored in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance. Various fields are also checked in the ASCII File for data consistency, and warnings are provided if necessary. If you have more than one branch and use a different NWF bill-to account for each branch, provisions have been made to handle this. A different NWF bill-to account is stored in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance for each branch. Only one error suspense account is allowed.

Set Up

The following are necessary to activate the NWF Automatic Cash Posting program:

1. A standalone CROSSTALK system PC will need to be set up. Contact NWF for assistance.

2. LMS must set up file access, and necessary programs must be sent.

3. The NWF bill-to customer numbers must be created in the Customer (CUSTD) File. You should already have the NWF bill-to account number as the contracts are currently being billed to NWF. An additional customer number must be created to use as the NWF error suspense account. This account should not be used for any other purpose than the NWF Automatic Cash Posting program.

4. Changes must be made in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance. An LMS employee will make the necessary changes with your assistance.

The following fields in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance are described below:

20. BCL/NWF Active
This is a new prompt. It must be set to Y for yes for an additional screen to appear (as seen below). Note: Changing this to N for no does not inactivate the Cash Posting program if the other applicable global fields have already been activated.

23. BCL/NWF Bill To Number
Enter the customer number that is the bill-to customer number assigned to your service contracts that are billed to your customers by NWF. The customer number must be valid. If an invalid customer is entered, the prompt Invalid Customer Number appears. When there is only one BCL/NWF Bill To Number, there is no need to define an associated branch number in field 33.

31. MISDI Funds Bill To Number
In this field, you must enter the customer number in which the misdirected funds are posted. This is the NWF error suspense account. The customer number entered must be valid. If an invalid customer is entered, the prompt Invalid Customer Number appears.

32. Last Check Date Processed
An LMS technician must set field 32. Last Check Date Processed, since it is password protected. This is a very important field. It is the only protection against double posting the ASCII File or when a posting is missed. If this ever needs correcting because of an error, contact the LMS Support Department to have it changed.

Enter Data

Prior to generating the NWF Automatic Cash Posting program, you must load the ASCII File (NWFPOST.TXT) from the CROSSTALK system to the La Crosse SystemTM. The file is set up with fixed length fields. The following information is included (but not inclusive) for each transaction record found in the NWFPOST.TXT File:

Date Shown On Check Register Display 8 Numeric - Sent as format 19990603 equals 06/03/99.

Invoice Number 14 Alphanumeric - Note: It is possible this may be blank.

Model Number The machine's item number. 20 Alphanumeric - Item Number can only be 18 characters in the LMS system. Note, it is possible this may be blank. Also note, this field may be comma delimited within the text file.

Serial Number 20 Alphanumeric - Serial number can only be 18 characters in the LMS system. Note, it is possible this may be blank. Also note, this field may be comma delimited within the text file.

Vendor Payable Amount The payment amount for each record. 9 Numeric - Sent as format 000011825.

Minus Sign If Payable Amount Negative (Retraction) 1 Alphanumeric. Leave this blank if not negative. Enter a minus sign if it is negative.

It is recommended that whomever generates the NWF Automatic Cash Posting program pay close attention to the screen for any error messages. It is also recommended to always choose the option to print the NWF Reconciliation Report before updating or posting to cash. This report should be checked thoroughly. After the updating is completed, the Cash Receipt Journal (BI 4-1-1) (BI-4-1-2) should be printed and compared to the NWF Reconciliation Report. The AR-GL Posting Report (BI 4-1-14) should be printed if Cash Posting is linked to the General Ledger.

The transaction date entered at the custom menu is not used by the program. Upon entrance to the program, numerous file integrity checks are performed on the ASCII NWFPOST.TXT File. If there are any problems, the following error messages may appear as follows:

The File Check Date Is Less Than The Global Last Updated Date.
 

Process Not Requested

The above error message appears when the check date stored in the ASCII NWFPOST.TXT File is less than or equal to the last check date processed stored in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance. As an example, if the NWFPOST.TXT File has a check date of 6/05/99 and the Global File has a date of 6/11/99, the message will appear. This is to prevent the loading of the file more than once or loading the files out of order. If the loading of a file is missed or there is a problem, contact the LMS Support department for assistance in reloading. A techncian will dial in and change the Global File last check date processed.

If you missed loading a file and than loaded the next file that is sent through the CROSSTALK system, the program will allow the processing to proceed, since the Global File would still be less than the ASCII File. Yet, an entire deposit will be missed. Be sure that all files are loaded and processed in the system as soon as possible after they are sent through the CROSSTALK system.

Once all of the data verification is complete and no errors are found, the following prompt appears:

  Funds contain the date 6/07/99

  Total File Amount = $ 34913.14

  Last date processed was 5/01/99

R'eport only, U'pdate Cash Posting or C'ancel?
This is a very important prompt. The first date (6/07/99) will be stored in the current NWFPOST.TXT File and updated in Accounts Receivable. This is the date in which NWF will make the check. This should always be the most current deposit. The second date (5/01/99) will be stored in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance as the last check date processed. This is the check date that was stored on the last NWFPOST.TXT File that was loaded and processed to Accounts Receivable through the NWF Automatic Cash Posting program. The total deposit amount stored in the ASCII File is also displayed. When the posting is completed, procedure totals display with the total amount credited to A/R. This figure must match the figure that is displayed at this prompt. It is suggested that you write this down to verify with the procedure totals. By doing this, the most current deposit sent from the CROSSTALK system is verified so that no deposits are missed in Accounts Receivable. After verifying that this is the most current deposit and no deposits have been missed, enter R for Report Only to print the report. Enter U to update cash posting records and also print the report. Enter C to cancel the program and return to the menu. After entering R or C, the printer selection screen appears. It is suggested to always print a hard copy. Do not print to a disk printer, since disk printers can be overwritten.

After selecting a printer, the next prompt appears:

Enter Deposit Date
Enter the date of the deposit that you desire to be written into the files on the system. The date entered becomes the last payment date in the Accounts Receivable (ARECD) File, and the deposit date in the Cash Receipts Journal (CRECD) data file. When no invoice number is sent in the file, this is the date that is used in the creation of the COA transactions as the invoice number. If Cash Posting is linked to update the General Ledger, this date determines what fiscal month is updated and is also the transaction date in the General Ledger. Entering an invalid date produces the prompt Invalid Date - Enter Again. A forward slash (/) to cancel and exit the program may be entered. The prompt Enter 'Y' To Return To Menu displays. Enter Y to end the program and not update.

Once the deposit date is entered, the program performs further checks on accurate data stored in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance. The possible error message is as follows:

Invalid NWF Customer No. Process Not Requested.#######
The program checks the NWF customer numbers that are stored in Global Record 4 to be sure they are valid customers. If any are not found in the Customer (CUSTD) data file, the above error message displays and lists the customer number. The prompt Enter 'Y' To Return To Menu appears. Enter Y to not update and return to the next menu. Proceed to enter a valid customer in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance.

After the deposit date is entered and all data checks are good, the program begins to post the data in the ASCII File to the files on the La Crosse SystemTM. During the updating, the NWF bill-to accounts and the NWF Error Suspense account are displayed. After the posting is completed, the procedures totals display:

A deposit number from Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance is issued and is displayed under the Deposit No field. This is from the same field as the deposits entered in Cash Posting. The deposit number is incremented with your regular deposits. The total amount of the deposit appears as the A/R Credit and the Net Cash Receipts. These two figures should always match and should be the same amount that was displayed in the prompt:

Funds contain the date 6/07/99
Total File Amount = $ 34913.14
Last date processed was 5/01/99
 

R'eport only, U'pdate Cash Posting or C'ancel?

If there is any variance on this, contact LMS Support. The No. Of Transactions field is the number of customers that had postings applied. The normal amount is 2. One is for the NWF bill-to account and the other is the NWF error suspense account. However, it could be 1 if there were no records updated to one of the NWF accounts. This should not be greater than 2 when there is only one NWF bill-to account.

Enter Y to end the program and return to the menu. The NWF Reconciliation Report is then printed. The report should be verified. Field 32. Last Check Date Processed in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance is updated with the check date that is stored in the ASCII File that was just processed. This is used to compare the next time the program is generated. The ASCII NWFPOST.TXT File is then deleted from the system.

If there is a problem during the updating of the files, the following error message may appear. The chance of this occurring is slim since the program has already made numerous file integrity checks.

Total File Amount $#######
Total Deposit Amount $#######
Total Deposited Amount Does Not Match Total File Amount
Please Call LMS For Assistance

The total deposit amount stored in the ASCII File and the total amount posted to the Accounts Receivable in the system are listed. Contact the LMS Support Department immediately.

Results

NWF Reconciliation Report

Following is an example of the Reconciliation Report that is produced by the NWF Automatic Cash Posting program:

Each payment transaction found in the file is printed. The records posted to the NWF bill-to account are listed first. The records posted to the NWF Error Suspense account are listed next. The deposit number issued by the NWF Automatic Posting program is printed if entered option to update otherwise the deposit number is zero. Also printed is the account numbers, item number, serial number and payment amounts stored in the ASCII text file NWFPOST.TXT.

Customer # These are the customer numbers from the Global file that the invoices were posted to. The NWF Bill-To Customer accounts will print and the NWF Error Suspense account will print last.

Invoice# This is the invoice number that was sent in the NWFPOST.TXT File.

File records that are sent with no invoice number are assigned an invoice number. The invoice number is the deposit date followed by a counter. In the above example, the deposit date was 6/07/99. There are two records in the NWFPOST.TXT File that did not have an invoice number, thus the first record is created as invoice number 60799701 and the second as 6079902. These are always created as COA (Cash On Account) transactions and are applied to the NWF Error Suspense account.

File records that are sent with an invoice number but the invoice is not found on the NWF bill-to account are posted to the NWF Error Suspense Customer account. They are posted as a COA (Cash On Account) transaction, but are posted with the actual invoice number. Look in the A/R Inquiry program under the NWF Bill-to account in A/R History to find that invoice number. View the invoice in the Invoice/Order Inquiry program and note the bill-to account.

Note: All COA records are created with a company number of 1.

Item Number
This is what was sent as the model number. This should be the same as the item number of the machine.

Serial Number
This is what was sent as the serial number.

Knowing the item and serial number will also help identify the records that are posted to the NWF Error Suspense account. The program will search the Serial File (SERIALD) and try to find the item and serial number sent from the ASCII File for all records that are posted to the NWF Error Suspense account. If the item and serial number are found in the Serial (SERIALD) File, the customer number that the machine is placed at is written into the COA ARECD record in the reference field. If the item and serial number are not found in the Serial File, or there is no customer number, or no item and serial number were sent in the ASCII File, the partial item and serial number that was sent in the ASCII File is written into the reference field.

Note: Payments applied to the NWF Bill-to account will have the reference field as NORWEST in the ARECD record.

Payment Amt.
The payment amount that was applied to Accounts Receivable.

To illustrate how the program affects Account Receivable, the A/R Inquiry of the NWF Bill-To Customer account and the NWF Error Suspense account is included. This is the result of the sample NWF Automatic Cash Posting Reconciliation Report:

For balancing purposes, compare the detailed Cash Receipt Journal (AR-4-1-4) (AR-4-1-5) with the NWF Reconciliation Report (BI-5-6). The check amount and A/R credit and amounts for the PMT and COA Tac Codes should all equal the total amount deposited. The invoice numbers on the NWF Reconciliation Report are also on the detailed Cash Receipt Journal (BI-4-1-4) (BI-4-1-5). Note that the check number field is blank. NWF is not sending any number in the NWFPOST.TXT File that could be used to write into this field. The total A/R credit amount for each customer is written to each individual payment or COA (Cash on Account) record in the CRECD File as the check amount. This allows the Cash Receipt Journals to include a check amount for the NWF Bill-to and Error Suspense

accounts.

General Ledger AR-GL posting is only updated if Cash Posting is linked to the General Ledger, which is activated in Cash Receipts Control File Maintenance. The GL accounts defined for the PMT and COA Tac codes are updated. The updating is the same as entering payments and COAs in the Cash Posting program.

Two fields are updated in the Customer data file (CUSTD). They are the Amount of Last payment and Date of Last Payment. Date of last payment is the entered deposit date and the amount of last payment is the A/R Credit amount. All NWF accounts are updated if posting occurs.

There may be a circumstance in which a negative and a positive payment record are sent for the same invoice. They also net each other to zero. For example, a record for a payment of 100.00 and a record of -100.00 are sent for the same invoice. The net affect to A/R is zero. If this is a record that has an invoice number, but the invoice number cannot be found in the NWF bill-to account, the transaction goes to the NWF Error Suspense account. A COA record is created with that invoice number and the amount is zero. Note: A zero amount COA record is not printed on the detailed Cash Receipt Journal (BI-4-1-4) (BI-4-1-5). If offsetting negative and positive amounts are sent, but there are no invoice numbers sent, two separate COA's are created. Without an invoice number, the program has no idea that the records may relate to each other.

When an invoice is found on the NWF Bill-To account and there is already a payment record on the invoice from previous transactions, the payment is applied with a Tac Code of PMT for payment. This shows as a separate line on the AR Inquiry. The reference field is updated with A/C and the system date. This is the same way that a second payment is applied and updated through the normal Cash Posting program.

Records written to the NWF Error Suspense account update Accounts Receivable with the correct amounts. However they should not remain unadjusted. They need to be applied to the correct invoice with the ART (Accounts Receivable Transfer) Tac code or adjusted out. These adjustments must be made in the Cash Posting program. The Reconciliation Reports and the reference field should be used to find the actual invoice in which to apply the COA record.