Chapter 19: Using the STS Interface

Purpose: The STS interface is available so that you can transfer accounts payable information to the STS accounting package. This interface enables you to use CWDirect for your purchase order entry, receipt, and invoice matching, but use STS for invoice payment. The process has three key steps:

1. A/P Transfer: Use the A/P Transfer Process menu option to update each open invoice on your system to a “paid” status, and to flag each invoice for download. You can also create a periodic function to carry out the transfer process.

2. Kick off download: You can create a user exit point to initiate the download process whenever the transfer process captures new invoice records. The user exit point enables you to tie your own program into CWDirect to collect the invoice data you will need.

3. Purge Transfer file: When you have transferred the invoice information to STS, you can use this menu option to clear old records from the file.

In this chapter:

• A/P Transfer Process Screen (APST)

• A/P Batch Header File

• User Exit Point

• A/P Transfer Purge Screen (APPG)

A/P Transfer Process Screen (APST)

Purpose: Use this menu option to close each open invoice on your system and flag these invoices for download.

How to display this screen: Enter APST in the Fast path field at the top of any menu or select A/P Transfer Process from a menu.

Note: You can also set this up as a periodic function, using the function name of APTRNFR and the program name of ACR0353. See Chapter 13: Working with Periodic Functions (WPER) of the System Operations guide for information on periodic processing.

ACR0351 ENTER A/P Transfer Process 1/20/97 13:18:53 Mail Order Press F9 to submit an A/P Invoice Transfer F3=Exit F9=Accept F12=Cancel

Submit the transfer: Press F9 at the A/P Transfer Process screen to submit the transfer.

The system submits the job AP_TNSFR, which:

• closes each open A/P invoice on your system (changes the header status to P and the detail status to C).

• writes a record in the A/P Batch Header file (APABHP).

• updates the A/P Invoice Header Note file (APIHNT) by writing 999 in the Sequence number field, and the Transfer batch number from the A/P Batch Header file in the Note field.

The updates flag the invoices so that you can use your own program, which you set up through the user exit point, to collect all the information you need from the related files.

A/P Batch Header File

Field	Attributes	Comments
Company	Numeric, 3 positions	The current company; defined in and validated against the Company file.
Transfer batch number	Numeric, 9 positions	A unique number to identify the batch of invoices. The system uses the A/P STS Transfer Batch # defined in the Number Assignment file. See Installation Chapter 23: Setting Up the Number Assignment File (WNUM).
Record count	Numeric, 5 positions	The number of invoices in the batch.
Date stamp	Numeric, 7 positions (CYYMMDD format)	Written by the system when you run the transfer process.
Time stamp	Numeric, 6 positions (HHMMSS format)	Written by the system when you run the transfer process.
Transfer date	Numeric, 7 positions (CYYMMDD format)	Available for the user-supplied program.
Transfer time	Numeric, 6 positions (HHMMSS format)	Available for the user-supplied program.

User Exit Point

You can set up a user exit point to initiate the download process. A user exit point enables you to call your own program when you exit a CWDirect process. To support the STS interface, you can set up a user exit point:

• Calling function: APSTSTRNSF

• Application area: A/P

• User function: ACR0357

See Chapter 28: Working with User Exit Point (WUEP) of the System Operations guide.

A/P Transfer Purge Screen (APPG)

Purpose: Use this screen to delete expired records from the A/P Transfer Batch file.

How to display this screen: Enter APPG in the Fast path field at the top of any menu or select A/P Transfer Purge from a menu.

ACR0355 ENTER A/P Transfer Purge 1/20/97 13:56:16 Mail Order Purge Date : All A/P Batch Transfer records prior to this date will be purged F3=Exit F9=Accept F12=Cancel

Field	Description
Purge date	The A/P Transfer Purge screen requires you to specify a purge date. This is a numeric, 6-position field in MMDDYY format, which indicates the earliest batch date you want to retain.

When you press F9 , the system submits the job AP_PURGE. This job clears each record from the A/P Batch Header file that was created earlier than the Purge date you entered.