Exact Globe

Product Update 405: Changes in bank formats to comply with Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) guidelines

With the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), European Union banks and customers will have to use the SEPA formats for processing payments and collections. The multinational businesses and banks will be able to consolidate the processing of payments on a common platform across the Eurozone. Although most SEPA requirements are standardized, some countries have certain specifications that must be catered for locally. SEPA clearing is based on the International Bank Account Number (IBAN) identification and Bank Identifier Code (BIC or SWIFT). To comply with the bank guidelines for the SEPA files, several changes have been made. A new version of the SEPA PAIN format for credit transfer (payments) and direct debit (collections) has been introduced for the Belgian legislation. This format will be available for all the Belgian banks. The SEPA credit transfers (SCT) will be based on the PAIN 001.001.03 format, and SEPA direct debits (SDD) will be based on the PAIN 008.001.02 format (see Product Update 404: New version of SEPA PAIN format for credit transfer and direct debit introduced for Dutch banks (Dutch legislation)). The following changes apply to the SEPA formats for the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and Austria. 

Batch booking for SCT and SDD (for all the SEPA banks)

The Batch booking check boxes have been added under the SEPA credit transfer and SEPA direct debit sections in the Cash instruments screen under the Settings tab (see Creating and maintaining cash instruments). The values of these settings will be available for the batch booking requirements in the SCT and SDD files defined for the cash instrument.

Urgent priority payment instructions for SCT (for all the SEPA banks)

When SCT files are generated and sent to the respective banks for processing, some payments might require urgent priority. The Urgent check box has been added in the Purchase invoice screen (see Creating and maintaining payment terms for purchase orders). However, the Urgent check box is only available based on the following:

• This check box is available only if the SEPA credit transfer check box in the SEPA credit transfer section under the Settings tab in the Cash instruments screen is selected (at Cash flow à Cash instruments à Maintain).
• This check box is only available in the Advanced mode.
• If the invoice term is split or manually matched and written off to create a balance term, the Urgent status will be copied to the term or balance term that has been additionally created.

This functionality has been made available for the Belgian legislation since product update 398 (see Product update 398: Ability to identify urgent payment instructions (Belgian legislation)). The following changes have been made:

• The Urgent check box in the Purchase invoice screen will be displayed if the SEPA credit transfer check box in the Cash instruments screen is selected.
• The Urgent check box will not be available for collections.

Flexibility to calculate the requested collection date for SDD based on the due date or payment date (for the Dutch, Belgian, German, and Austrian banks)

In the generated SDD file, a XML tag will be available for the requested collection date. A date calculation method has been implemented prior to this to determine the correct requested collection date (see Product Update 404: Calculation changes for Requested collection date for SEPA direct debit files). In this product update, a new calculation method has been introduced whereby you can select the due date or payment date for the calculation of the requested collection date.

The following menu paths for the SDD file generation will be affected:

• Cash flow à Miscellaneous à Collection
• Cash flow à Miscellaneous à Terms

The Requested collection date calculations field has been added under the SEPA section in Bank settings (see Bank settings). By default, Due date is displayed. If the Due date is selected, the changes described in Product Update 404: Calculation changes for Requested collection date for SEPA direct debit files (German, Austrian, Dutch, and Belgian legislations) will be used. However, if Payment date is selected, the payment date of the invoice will be used as the basis for the calculation. The derived requested collection date will be used as the payment term for the invoice term. If the calculated requested collection date falls on a non-working day or public holiday, the bank will be responsible to process the collections on the next working day.

The calculations in Product Update 404: Calculation changes for Requested collection date for SEPA direct debit files (German, Austrian, Dutch, and Belgian legislations) still applies if the calculation is based on Payment date. 

Structured and unstructured payment references for both SCT and SDD (for the Dutch banks)

In the SCT and SDD files, the <RmtInf> XML tag represents the remittance reference or description. Before SEPA formats were introduced, the payment references supported the use of the structured and unstructured payment references. In this product update, the XML tag will reflect the correct payment reference structure based on the information that you have entered in the invoices.

For example:

Payment execution date for SCT (for the German banks)

Previously, the payment execution date displayed in the <ReqdExctnDt> XML tag in the generated SCT files was always “1999-01-01”. In this product update, the payment execution date will display the payment date of the invoice.

For more information on SEPA, see Release 390: SEPA for Exact Globe.