Processing Payment Batches in Billing Care

About Batches

Batches are collections of individual payments processed together for efficiency and convenience. Customers can send their payments directly to your bank or payment processor. The payment information from various customers are bundled together to include multiple payment records to be processed as a batch. Batches streamline the process of handling numerous transactions simultaneously. Batches can be of three types, Payment, Refund, and Reversal.

You can upload batch payment (.pmt) files created externally either by placing them in the appropriate directory or by uploading them manually. Billing Care will validate the files against batch payment templates that are installed during Billing Care installation and process the batch file, automatically or manually, based on configuration. You can validate, manually suspend, allocate payments in the batch as well as view batch payment processing history, reverse failed batch payments, view suspended payments or imported file status.

Starting from Release 15.0.1, you can create or edit batches, import and edit batch files, and validate and submit these batches in the Billing Care UI. Batches are stored in the database. You can create batches directly using the Billing Care UI and save them in your local file system, or you can import batch files manually into Billing Care. Batch files are text files containing payment information, such as account number, payment amount, and payment date, in delimiter-separated rows.

In Billing Care, the records in a batch are displayed in a table where you can add, edit, and delete records. See "Working with Individual Records in Batches (Release 15.0.1 or later)" for more information.

When you import a batch file to create a new batch, Billing Care will validate the imported batch file against an existing batch template. If there are no matching templates, you can edit and use an existing one or create a new template.

Processing Lockbox Batches

Lockbox processing is a typical way to handle externally initiated payments, reversals, and refunds. With lockbox processing, the bank sends you a record of the data, which you enter into the BRM database by using Billing Care.

Most banks that perform lockbox processing can format a text file according to your specifications. You can specify:

Which data to include
The format (fixed width or delimited)

Note:
Fixed width is only supported when you import batches using the method in "Importing and Submitting Batch Payment Files into Billing Care Without Editing".
The order of the entries
A batch header or footer. The batch header and footer can contain information common to all payments in the payment batch, and information specific to the batch, including the lockbox number, date, number of checks, and total payment amount. If a payment is missing information, the batch data is used.
Starting with 15.0.1, you can also specify the payment method, payment type, and qualifier, and whether to treat consecutive delimiters as one in the given data.

You can have the bank deliver the file electronically, and you can use Billing Care to import data directly from the file. See "Importing and Submitting Batch Payment Files into Billing Care Without Editing".

Note:

You might need to create an application to retrieve the file.
If the bank creates the file with the EBCDIC character set, you must create an application to convert it to ASCII.

Importing and Submitting Batch Payment Files into Billing Care Without Editing

You can import data from text files into Billing Care in batch payment format. When you import files using this method, you cannot edit them. For example, if you have electronic files of data formatted in columns, you can import that data into a batch instead of entering it manually.

Batch payment files are text files containing payment information, such as account number, payment amount, and payment date, in delimiter-separated rows. Each batch payment file that you import into Billing Care must have a unique file name.

Before you begin importing data, ensure that you know how your data is formatted:

When you import data, you must specify how the data is separated in columns (for example, with spaces or tabs). Open a file containing your data to see how it is formatted.
Your data can include information that is not formatted in columns (for example, a document heading). This information can be imported as the batch header and batch footer.
For payment data and refund data, there are two required columns:
- The amount paid
- Either the account number or the bill number
For payment reversal data, the only required column is the payment ID.

A typical input file looks like this:

Account Number,Payment Amount,Date,Check Number
0.0.0.1-887,19.95,5/11/99,1243
0.0.0.1-425,19.95,5/11/99,1543
0.0.0.1-776,19.95,5/11/99,1273
0.0.0.1-143,19.95,5/11/99,1254

After you import the batch, you can process it to validate and submit the records to BRM. If any of the records fail, you are given the option to create an exception batch. If you choose this option, a new batch is created with the failed records, and the failed records are removed from the original batch.

Creating or Importing and Editing Batches (Release 15.0.1 or later)

In Billing Care, you can create a batch in the UI or you can import a batch from an existing batch file. If you import a file, make sure that the batch name in your imported batch .pmt file is the same as the template name. In either case, you can edit the batch in the same way. You can set the batch's characteristics, like the type of batch (payment, refund, or reversal), the number of records, and the payment method. See "Creating, Editing, and Processing Payment, Refund, and Reversal Batches (Release 15.0.1 or later)" in Billing Care Online Help for more information. You can also edit a table containing the individual records. See "Working with Individual Records in Batches (Release 15.0.1 or later)" for more information.

You can also edit failed records during submission of the batch and create a new batch with the failed records. This function allows you to identify and revise errors within a batch during its processing. See "Submitting a Batch" in Billing Care Online Help for more information.

Working with Individual Records in Batches (Release 15.0.1 or later)

You can add, edit, manually suspend, allocate, or delete records in a table in the Create Batch page for the batch. You can import fields in the batch such as first name, last name, due amount from the file edit all of the payment, refund, or reversal information for the records in the batch, including account number, bill number, payment amount, due amount, receipt date. When you import a batch, fields such as due amount, status, first name, last name will be imported from the file and are not editable in the batch. Those fields will be auto-populated with the latest information when the batch is validated.

You can validate batches and the status of the validated records in the table will be displayed. You can edit the failed records through this table. See "Validating a Batch" in Billing Care Online Help for more information on validation.

You can allocate payments to bills or items. See "Allocating Records to Bills or Items" in Billing Care Online Help to learn how to allocate payments.

You can manually suspend payments if you find a successful payment in a batch that you suspect contains incorrect data or requires special handling, so that it can be carefully examined before it is posted to the account. You can also remove suspension from manually suspended payments or delete records through this table.

You can also search for records through account or bill details to easily add them to the batch. See "Searching for Records to Add to a Batch" in Billing Care Online Help to learn how to search for any records.

Validating and Submitting Batches (Release 15.0.1 or later)

After a batch is created, you can validate it. See "Validating a Batch" in Billing Care Online Help for instructions. After validation, a summary table is displayed with details such as validated total, suspended total, total entered in the batch, expected total and the remaining total. If any of the records fail validation, you can edit them to correct them. See "Managing Batch Entries that Fail Validation (Release 15.0.1 or later)" for more information.

After validation is complete, you can:

Edit the unvalidated entries so that they can pass validation.

Note:
A payment can fail validation if it is less or more than the amount for a specific bill. If you have the correct permission in Billing Care (noManualAllocationMandatory), you can select to ignore this error and allocate the payment at the account level rather than the bill level.
Export the batch to your system. See "Exporting a Batch to a File" in Billing Care Online Help.
Submit the batch. See "Submitting a Batch" in Billing Care Online Help. This completes the processing of a batch. After a batch is submitted, you cannot make any further edits to the records. You can edit the failed records and create a new batch with those records.

Managing Batch Entries that Fail Validation (Release 15.0.1 or later)

If you have records that fail validation, and if Payment Suspense Manager is enabled, their status indicates that they will be suspended when the batch is submitted. You can edit these records to correct them using the same mechanism that you use for editing records before validation. See "Modifying a Record in a Batch" in Billing Care Online Help for instructions. You must then validate the batch again before submitting it.

About Batch Templates (Release 15.0.1 or later)

Batch templates are used by Billing Care to process batches of payments, refunds or reversals. Billing Care provides some default templates which are stored in the database.

Starting from Release 15.0.1, batch templates can be created, edited, or duplicated from an existing template directly in the UI.

Note:

If you have existing .pit files, you can enter the data from your files to the Billing Care UI. See "Creating a Batch Template" in Billing Care Online Help to know more.
Make sure that the batch name in your imported batch .pmt file is the same as the template name.

Sample Batch Templates (Release 15.0.1 or later)

BRM server contains batch payment templates which are used to process batch files.

Table 10-1 contains a list of standard batch payment templates in the Billing Care server:

Table 10-1 Standard Batch Templates

Template Type	Payment Code
Cash Payment Batch	10011
Check Payment Batch	10012
Wire-Transfer Payment Batch	10013
Inter Bank Payment Order Payment Batch	10014
Postal Order Payment Batch	10015
Failed Payment Batch	10017
Cash Refund Batch	10011
Check Refund Batch	10012
Failed Refund Batch	10017
Inter Bank Payment Order Refund Batch	10014
Postal Order Refund Batch	10015
Wire-Transfer Refund Batch	10013
Check Reversal Batch	10012
Credit Card Reversal Batch	10002
Direct Debit Reversal Batch	10005
Inter Bank Payment Order Reversal Batch	10014
Postal Order Reversal Batch	10015
Wire-Transfer Reversal Batch	10013