Description
Lockbox service
Payment transactions in the USA are made almost exclusively in the formof checks. In order to process these payments quickly, banks offerlockbox services where customers can send their payments directly tothe bank (lockbox). The bank deposits the checks and sends the checkdeposit information to the payee via file transfer.
Procedure
The bank will transmit to the payee a data medium containing relevantinformation about the checks (MICR number) and, if necessary, thedocument numbers from the payment advice (several times a day in somecircumstances).
With this data medium, the system then creates postings for AccountsReceivable and G/L Accounting.
Advantages of the lockbox service

• By accelerating check collection, deposit and credit memo, the payee
can earn a return on the early collection of cash.

• The payee can reduce his or her own internal processing costs.

SAP lockbox processing consists of an import program (RFEBLB00) and apostprocessing transaction (FLB1).
The import program RFEBLB00

• imports the file into bank date storage,


• generates the payment advices and postings, and


• generates a log of the checks and postings.

Transaction FLB1 is used for postprocessing the checks the system couldnot automatically apply.

Precondition
Checking the record format
The lockbox procedure supports the standard BAI format as well as theBAI2 format enhanced by SAP.
The bank's record format must match the record format in the DataDictionary. You may have to adapt the structures in the repository.
BAI format
BAI is defined in the repository with the following record structures:
FLB01: Header record
FLB02: Service record
FLB04: Overflow record
FLB05: Detail header record
FLB06: Detail record
FLB07: Batch total record
FLB08: Lockbox total record
FLB09: Trailer Record
You can set the number length and number of invoice numbers (orpurchase numbers) in customizing. These settings can deviate fromstructures FLB06 and FLB04. As long as you use FI document numbers intransmitting numbers, leading zeros are automatically added by theprogram. The invoice numbers should be transferred in left-justifiedform.
BAI2 format
The only difference between BAI2 and BAI is that BAI2 has a checkrecord and an overflow record. The SAP system contains the followingtable structures for these record types.
FLB24: Overflow record
FLB26: Detail record
BAI2 can transmit data about the invoice, such as the payment amount,deduction amount and the reason code. Note that either the paymentamount or the deduction amount can be transmitted for an invoice. Ifboth are transmitted, the deduction amount is ignored. Invoice numbers(or purchase order numbers) should be transmitted in left-justifiedform. As long as FI document numbers are used, the program willautomatically add leading zeros.
Using BAI2, the system will usually be able to produce a greater numberof clearing entries and thus reduce the amount of time you will need tospend in the manual postprocessing transaction. You can have yourlockbox provider create the BAI2 format by poviding them with therecord description, or you can convert your lockbox provider's formatto BAI2 by using a preprocessor.
Customizing
Basic control parameters for the lockbox procedure
In this step you can configure the type of postings as well as thesetup of the lockbox file.
IF &DEVICE& = 'SCREEN'
Proceed
ENDIF
Customizing entries for the posting data
For each lockbox, you determine what accounts the system should post toand what document types and posting keys it should use in posting. Thekey is the bank account ID (destination, origin) as the lockbox filedelivers it.
IF &DEVICE& = 'SCREEN'
Proceed
ENDIF