Table of contents 

2. Objective and scope

This OP explains how to handle payments received in wrong Solvay bank accounts.

This operating procedure (OP) applies to all payments managed by Accounts Receivables.

3. Definitions

  • SBS: In the current document, "Solvay Business Services" will be replaced by its abbreviation "SBS".
  • CCT AR: Customer Credit & Trade Accounts Receivable
  • CCT CM: Customer Credit & Trade Credit Management
  • OP: Operating procedure
  • SSA: Solvay SA Factoring company
  • SFA: Solvay Finance America Factoring company
  • IBA: Internal Bank account of the Solvay entity
  • PI1: Factoring ERP
  • PF1: Local ERP
  • WP1: Local ERP


Scope

ERP

References

Attachments



4. How to manage payments received on wrong Solvay bank account

This section explains how to handle payments received on incorrect bank accounts:

  • Received in local bank accounts instead on SSA/SFA which was in charge of collecting the payment;
  • Received in SSA when the invoices are assigned to SFA;
  • Received in SFA when the invoices are assigned to SSA;

The steps to be followed are described in this procedure. 

4.1 Payment received in local bank account for an invoice assigned to SSA/SFA 

This chapter explains how to handle payments which customer paid directly to his supplier (affiliate), instead of paying to SSA/SFA bank account which was in charge of collecting the payment. 

When processing a misdirect payment, it will represent a movement in the IBAs by debiting the affiliate which received the payment and Crediting SSA/SFA.

  • If the currency of the payment is different then the affiliate main currency an email must be sent to treasury.ihb@solvay.com informing of the currency, amount and type of movement (debit/credit affiliate).

  • When we are not able to process the payment on the same day (e.g. Account Blocked for Posting; Technical Issue...), we have to mark the invoice (s) with dunning block D, so that the invoice(s) are not included in the Reminders job.

  • In case of unknown customer please check with the person who made the posting in local ERP if there are further details and request the bank statement. If still not possible to find the customer follow the steps described in OP "Cash allocation - Manual Payments" Chapter 4.10 Unallocated payments (Freshdesk ticket must be added to the text of the posting in local ERP).

  • Even if there are payment discrepancies, or details missing but we are sure of the correct customer account the posting the Misdirect Payment should be processed and the payment allocated on customer account.

  • In case of discrepancies between customer payment and invoice's amount, check OP "Payment Discrepancies".

  • In case of a payment received in a local Bank account for an affiliate different then the one that assigned to SSA/SFA the misdirect process should be processed anyway since there will be a movement in the IBA. It is not necessary to do additional adjustments between the IBAs of the affiliates.

  • Whenever processing a misdirected payment, after clearing the corresponding invoice(s), customer must be contacted please see chapter 4.4 Contact customers to avoid Misdirect Payments

At D+1 the transaction is changing the Document date and Posting date to the last day of the previous month in order to allocate the payment in the same month it was received.

4.1.1 Clearing the invoice in SSA/SFA

Use transaction Z3F_FA_MISDIRECT2 in PI1 to do a follow up of all payments posted on the transitory accounts (5080930000 for PF1 system, 51100860 for WP1). 

Use option "with Affiliate".

When opening the transaction it is advised to open only one of the transit accounts (PF1 or WP1) to fasten the extraction.

In case the objective is to process the payment for a specific company it is also possible to add the PRS code to open it.


After the selections are done press  to open the transaction.

The lines in orange represent the information that was retrieved from local ERP (Company; Document; Year; Line item; Amount; Currency; Date; Text; G/L; D/C Indicator; Customer; Company; Factoring Company)

The white Lines represent what the program found to be cleared in SSA/SFA (Invoice Reference; Factoring Company; Posting Document; Line Item; Amount; Currency; D/C Indicator; Reference)

 

The transaction will show all documents open on the transitory account. However it is the Text field in the posting in Local ERP that will Enable the program to find the correct items to clear. The Text should be in the format "D.PMT Customer/Affiliate+Invoice/Invoice/Invoice...." e.g. D.PMT 1010278/00058810250877/8810249324

The way the text is fulfilled and the type of payment (Full or with discrepancies) will affect the processing mode.

Remark:  Sometimes the details of the payment might be in the long text of the document in local ERP.

In case of doubt please copy the document number (251*******) in the column  and check the document (FB03) in Local system to see the Long Text. 

 

 

 

There are 3 Processing modes:

 Train - Full automatic Clearing;

 Plane - Display all Screens;

 Crane - Leave open on account;

 

4.1.1.1 Full Automatic Clearing

When the text is correctly inserted, it is a full payment and the items are open on customer account, the program will identify that a full automatic clearing is possible and will show the Icon 

The information of the items that will be cleared is shown in the white line.

 

By pressing the icon  the process will be fully automatic.

Validate by pressing the green arrow: 

 

A message will appear in the bottom of the screen confirming the posting on customer account was generated.

And in the line of the misdirect there will be a green tick  and a log showing all the postings that were made.

 

Here the description of the postings done in case of invoice assigned to SSA:

  • Posting 1: Clear Misdirect account in local ERP - debit 51100860 wp1 / 5080930000 PF1; by crediting 58999930 WP1 / 5919010010 PF1;
  • Posting 2: in 0231 Clear Misdirect @ IBA - debit IBA of company who received the payment by Crediting account 5080930000;
  • Posting 3: in 0231 Clear Customer @ Misdirect - Debit Misdirect account 5080930000 by crediting the customer account

Here the description of the postings done in case of invoice assigned to SFA:  

  • Posting 1: Clear Misdirect account in local ERP - debit 51100860 wp1 / 5080930000 PF1; by crediting 58999930 WP1 / 5919010010 PF1;
  • Posting 2: in 0231 Clear Misdirect @ IBA - debit IBA of company who received the payment by Crediting the IBA of Cc 4044 SFA;
  • Posting 6: in 4044 Clear Customer @ Misdirect - Debit Misdirect account 5080930000 by crediting the customer account

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.1.1.2 Display All Screens

There are some situations where we don't have a full payment, so even if all details are inserted in the text it will not be possible to have an automatic clearing.

In this example the invoice is identified but there is a difference between the amount of invoice and the amount paid.

The posting will have to be made with "Display all screens" mode.

Press the Plane icon  and then validate the manual posting with the green tick .

 


And in the line of the misdirect there will be a green tick  and a log showing all the postings that were made.












Press enter multiple times until the the cash allocation items selection screen appears:

 

 

 

Then, select the items to be cleared.

In case of payment discrepancies follow the OP Payment Discrepancies to complete the clearing.

 

When the amount is balanced you can save .

 

A message will appear in the bottom of the screen confirming the posting on customer account was generated.

And in the line of the misdirect there will be a green tick  and a log showing all the postings that were made.

 

 

4.1.1.3 Leave open on account

In case there are no details besides customer account, the program will suggest two posting modes.

In case there is a chance of matching with some open item or there is additional information that allows clearing use the mode "Display All Screens"  (described in the previous chapter).

We can only use the option "Leave on account"  in case there is no additional information to clear, Business Area is unknow and we will have to contact the customer for the payment details.

In case we Know the Business Area and we will leave the payment unmatched on account the posting mode should be used to allow inserting the Business Area.

To "Leave on account" a payment press  then validate the manual posting with

A message will appear in the bottom of the screen confirming the posting on customer account was generated.

And in the line of the misdirect there will be a green tick  and a log showing all the postings that were made.

4.1.1.4 Change the TEXT

 

 

There might be some situations where the text in the posting in local ERP is not correctly fulfilled or there is some information missing.

 

 

 

 

 

It's possible to edit the text directly in the transaction by double click in the text area.

Change the text then press .

If we have a full payment, changing the text will even allow a fully automatic posting.

 

 

 4.1.1.5 How to manage errors in the transaction

In case there is an error processing the transaction, some messages will appear and in misdirect screen there will be an  showing that the payment was not processed.

Check the log button  to take note of the postings done.


 

When at least one of the postings was done but there was an error in another it is possible to Re-post by using the selection "Process errors"

Make sure the initial error was corrected before processing the missing posting.

 

Access the "Process errors" and choose if it was related "with affiliate" or "Between Factoring companies" then press Process .

Press icon (in this case ) in order to proceed with the posting.

At the bottom there will be the confirmation if the posting is done

It is also possible to press the button  to see which actions were taken.

If necessary it is possible to reverse immediately the postings done to avoid IBAs to run when there is something incorrectly processed. Check the OP "Reversals" Chapter 4.5 Misdirect payment reversal for further information.

After that (and even if there were no postings done like the e.g.) the situation should be analyzed to avoid the error and to be able to process the misdirect payment without further mistakes.

In case the IBA already run it is not possible to reverse the posting done on the IBA account. So in 0231 check the posting from account 5080930000 to 591CURcccc to see if there is already an IBA movement (Doc Xcccc*****) clearing the IBA account an if so it's no longer possible to reverse:

 

For 4044 the IBA movement entry in 4044 is not clearing the Posting 6 automatically, A Manual Clearing is being performed so before reversing confirm if no SX was posted on account 5080930000 Cc 4044.

4.2 Payment received in factoring SSA for an invoice assigned to SFA 

 

In Case of a payment received in SSA which belongs to an invoice assigned to SFA, the amount must be transferred from Sub-account to the misdirect account 5080930000.

Using FEBA transaction press back  then add the "pst key" 50 , account 5080930000 and press enter.


   

 

Add the Amount of Payment and Text.

The Text must have format: D.PMT Customer/Company code + Invoice Number/Invoice Number 2 

e.g. D.PMT 2112846/62601800000221

(attention to the # of zeros between company and invoice number)

 

To complete the operation press save .

 

 

In case the payment is no longer available in FEBA use FB05 to transfer the payment from GL or customer account to the misdirect account.

The objective is always to have a credit line in 5080930000 to be transferred with the misdirect transaction.

 

Here the example of a transfer from customer account to Misdirect account.

 

Once the payment is on the Misdirect Account we are in conditions to use the transaction Z3F_FA_Misdirect2 to clear the invoice in Cc 4044.

 

Select the Option "Between factoring companies".

PI1 Account: 5080930000

Company code: 0231


 

Apply the payment to the invoice by clinking on the processing options

 , or  and proceed as described in chapters 4.1.1.1 / 4.1.1.2/ 4.1.1.3 

To clear the invoice(s) in Cc 4044.

 

4.3 Payment received in factoring SFA for an invoice assigned to SSA 

 

In case of a payment received in SFA for an invoice assigned to SSA the amount should be posted on account 5080930000 Cc 4044 using FB05.

Doc date and posting date: According to Statement

Doc Type: DT

Company code: 4044

Currency: According to Statement

Pst Key: 40

Account: the one where the payment was received.

Enter.

 

Amount: Of payment

Pst Key: 50

Account: 5080930000



Enter.

 

Add the Amount of Payment and Text.

The Text must have format: D.PMT Customer/Company code + Invoice Number/Invoice Number 2 

e.g. D.PMT 301479/61080099560361

(attention to the # of zeros between company and invoice number)

 

To complete the operation press save .

 

Once the payment is on the Misdirect Account we are in conditions to use the transaction Z3F_FA_Misdirect2 to clear the invoice in Cc 0231.

 

Select the Option "Between factoring companies".

PI1 Account: 5080930000

Company code: 4044


Apply the payment to the invoice by clinking on one of the  processing options  , or  and proceed as described in chapters 4.1.1.1 / 4.1.1.2/ 4.1.1.3 

To clear the invoice(s) in Cc 0231.

 

4.4 Contact the customers to avoid Misdirect Payments


Once a week, AR team in Lisbon is running the following macro "email misdirect" which will check the misdirected payments processed in the last week and will originate an email with a specific letter (in customer language) informing that a payment was done to the incorrect bank account and asking an update on his masterdata.





 


Example of an email sent to a customer:

(warning) Whenever the customers don't have an email contact in the customer masterdata, a ticket will be created in AR queue (macro output) and we will need to follow the next steps:


  1. Search in Freshdesk a customer contact (through PRS number, customer name or company extension ex: @basf.com) or in the Internet (by customer name and address details)  
  2. Send an email with Misdirected payment template option by inserting "CCT..." to see all the possible templates and choose the correct one:



Remark: Please be very cautious regarding the template you choose. First you should check the customer language in customer masterdata which after should be ALWAYS crossed with Bank account which customer should pay. If you choose the wrong bank, we are giving the WRONG information to the customer!!

To double-check, open the invoice copy and you will see the correct bank account.



Examples of tickets sent by the macro for customers without email contact:


Transfers between the two factoring companies (SSA and SFA) and misdirect payments processed in Cc 4044 are not included in the macro.

5.Attachments