ACH Statement Processing
All Statement Processing items are found on the ACH Statement Processing Menu. The customer record is used to determine how and when duty payment is to be made. The entry will be put on the broker statement for payment unless the customer record indicates a "1" for single payment or "3" for Importer Statement. The number of days after the entry date when the entry will appear on the importer's statement is also entered on the customer record. The number of days after the entry date an entry will appear on the broker's statement is contained in the ABI Defaults system file. Different default dates can be assigned to different sites. When you first begin using the system you may have files on the statement that where not done through the AIRPEX system. In this case you will need to use the Multiple Hand Check program in the A/P system to select the payables. To keep the ledger correct you should create an additional payable for the files that were not invoiced through AIRPEX. There should be a starting balance in the Customs Liability Account that represents all the files that were invoiced but not paid before AIRPEX. The payable that you create here will debit this account. There are two programs involved with ACH Payments. One to enter Payor Unit Numbers , the other to send Payment Authorization . Both of these program options are accessed from the Statement Menu . A Payor Unit Number (assigned by US Customs) must be set up for each importer or broker that will be using ACH. Leave the customer number blank for the broker payor unit number. Be sure the IRS number entered for the customer and shown on the statement is consistent including any trailing zeros. Use the appropriate menu option to send payment authorization. You can use F4 to inquire on statements to select the statement to be paid. The program will display the amount and payor unit number that correspond to the statement. Any number of statements can be paid at one time. If you run the program before a transmission has been made all the statements selected for payment will be displayed. A program is available to display the ACH Status (%CBACHIQ option 7). This shows the status of statements authorized for payment. It includes any error messages received as well as the date of the message. To remove an entry from a statement requires two steps. Both steps must be done but they can be done in any order.
To remove the entry from the statement, use the statement inquiry (%CBDSIQ option 1 on the STATEMENT MENU) and expand the preliminary statement in question. Mark the entry to be deleted with a D by pressing F8. This will create a new entry on the statement inquiry screen. The new entry will have the same statement number and a J in place of the P (Preliminary) or F (Final). Permission to do this may be restricted to a manager. You can print the J statement instead of the P statement to reflect the deletion. To inform customs of the deletion, use the 7501 edit screen (%CB75ED Option 4 on the OPERATIONS MENU). Change the Statement date to a date in the future and send the data to ABI by using F11 to send a Mini-Trans. When the Mini-Trans has been acknowledged you will see the new statement amount in the H2 record. You can now pay the corrected statement. Update Payables from Final Statement When an invoice is posted it creates a payable in the A/P system for any amounts that are due to US Customs. If you are not on ACH then you will select the payables and cut a check through the A/P system in the normal manner. If you are on ACH then you will transmit your payment to US Customs using the Send Payment Authorization option. After you receive your final statement you need to reconcile the open payables with the statement. This is done through the Update Payables Option (%CBDSPO option 5 on the STATEMENT MENU). Enter the statement number to be reconciled. The program will check each file and attempt to find a payable (or the sum of all payables on that file) that equals the statement amount. If all files have matching payables, the program reports that there are no discrepancies and requests "check" information. Enter a bank, check number and date. The payables will be marked paid with this check number. If one or more files do not have matching payables there is probably an invoicing error. The program will report the files that can not be matched. You will need to research the files to determine the steps necessary to make the payables agree with the final statement. To simplify tracking ACH payments it is recommended that a separate bank account number be used. We also recommend that you use a systematic approach for generating a check number. Check numbers are restricted to seven digits. If you have less than 10 statements a good approach is to form the check number from the date as YYMMDDN. Where YY is the year, MM is the month, DD is the day and N is a number from 0 to 9. Since the statements have the calendar Day of the Year as part of the statement number a check number of YYDDDNN could be used. In this case DDD is the day of the year. There is a program to check which statements have had the payables posted (%CBSTIQ option 9). This will give the check information for each statement. There are options in this program to display statement data and to go to the update payables program. Customs provides a way request retransmission of statement and payment data. This can be used when a transmission is not received properly. Typically, there is an option on the Statement Menu - Request Retransmission of Statements/Payment Data. On this screen enter the required Transmission Date (not necessarily the statement date). To request all statements for a day enter "A" for all ports and a Y for which statement(s) are desired. If requesting retransmission of a single statement, enter the statement number and the port. The Port is that from the B record, not necessarily the entry port. For instance, if entries for port 1481 are included on the statement for port 1404, enter 1404 not 1481. |
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