Understanding Automatic Debits for the United Kingdom
Businesses in the United Kingdom automatically debit customer bank accounts using EFT. Transfers must adhere to the standards that are set by the BACS. Businesses can send transfer information to the bank using modem, tape, or diskette.
You can use the standard automatic debit process to meet the requirements of the United Kingdom.
The JD Edwards EnterpriseOne system provides Great Britain Bank File and Statement Diskette (R03B575GB) format for automatic debits.
The program generates a bank table that adheres to the banking standards for automatic debits in the United Kingdom.
To process the automatic debit, the BACS processing date and the expiration date of the debit must be actual workdays. In addition, common business practice is to:
Send statement reports to customers regarding the debit.
Identify customers who have agreed to the automatic debit process.
Select invoices that are due to customers.
Validate the processing and expiration dates against a workday calendar.
Generate debit information in the BACS format.
Generate statement reports for applicable customers.
Update customer accounts after collecting the appropriate funds.
When creating and processing automatic debit batches for the United Kingdom, the system validates the BACS processing date against the workday calendar that you specify in the processing options. If the date is not a workday, the system searches for a valid workday, based on the workday calendar that you specify in the processing options, and increments the date by one day until it reaches the next valid workday.
The system issues a warning message to indicate that the day you entered is not a workday.
The system calculates the BACS expiration date, based on the value that you enter in processing option 15 on the BACS tab of the Process Automatic Debits program. To calculate the expiration date, the system uses the BACS processing date that is written to the BACS table and then adds the number of days that you specify in the processing option.
The first time that you submit automatic debits for a specific customer, you submit a first claim rather than a standard claim. The first-claim status indicates to the bank that you are verifying the bank account information for the automatic debit. No transfer of funds occurs with a first claim. After you have verified the bank account information for a customer, you submit automatic debits for that customer as standard claims.
To submit a first-claim automatic debit for a customer, select the Pre-Note Code option on the Supplier Master Revision form. Selecting the Pre-Note Code option for a customer indicates that any electronic funds transfer, including automatic debits, should be processed as a first claim.