Exact Globe+

SEPA Step-by-step guide.

Below you can find a road map to make the transition to SEPA as smooth as possible. What you need to do and how you want to handle the transition depends on your company. Start as quickly as possible with an analysis. The impact may be bigger then you think.

SEPA stands for "Single Euro Payments Area" and will be the European default for all payments in the countries of the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. In order to work with SEPA payment orders and direct debit you should prepare your company data. In this document the main components and things to do before you can work with SEPA will be discussed.

Step #1 Be prepared

The migration to SEPA starts with a good preparation. You can do this with the information on these pages and the linked references. After that, setup a project team and define a plan of approach and make sure you are ready in time. Take at least the following things into account:

• Check when your Exact Software is SEPA compliant on this start page.
• Check when and how your bank is ready for SEPA. When the banks migrate to SEPA, differs per country and per bank. More information can be found on the SEPA website of your bank.
• Inform your customers, business partners and employees on time what your IBAN and BIC are and when you migrate to SEPA.

Step #2 Change your own bank accounts and the ones from your business partners to IBAN and BIC

To make you master data compliant to work with SEPA payments and SEPA direct debit you need to assign the SEPA data to your own accounts and to those of your relations. Collect all the bank  account numbers of all your customers, relations and employees. Convert all of them to IBAN (International bank Account Number) and collect the BIC (Ban Identifier Code)* at the same time.

As you may already know, you already know your IBAN Number. You can find it on your bank statements and on the website of your bank.  For the Netherlands for example it consists of 18 characters: your current ban account number complemented with a country code, check number, bank code and 1 or more zero's. A bank account number of the ABN AMRO bank might look as follows: NL 69 ABNA 01234 567 89. After Februari 2014 you can only use IBAN. Until that time it will still be possible to pay with your current ban account number.

* For the time being the BIC needs to be supplied along with the IBAN. The BIC is a code of 8 to 11 characters. For the ABN AMRO bank this would be ABNANL2A. This prerequisit will disappear in the future within SEPA.

Converting your own bank account (cash instruments)
Your own cash instruments can be maintained through the menu option [Cash flow, Cash instruments, Maintenance]. You select the cash instrument and click "Open."
In the maintenance of the Cash instrument open the "Settings" tab where you can specify the IBAN, BIC and SWIFT code in the "Identification" section. In the sections "SEPA credit transfer" and "SEPA direct debit" you currently have no ticking. When you do so the cash instrument can be used to exclusively for SEPA payments and collection orders.  If your bank and you are not ready to make any SEPA payments or direct debits you should not tick these options.

Converting the bank accounts of your clients and suppliers
The bank accounts of your business relations can be entered and maintained in maintenance of debtors, creditors and employees. You can enter the SEPA data in maintenance of bank accounts. Before doing so, it is advisable to first tick the banking setting 'Automatic: IBAN calculation " tick box. This will give you the opportunity to creating or changing the bank accounts of  your 
relations automatically with SEPA-related data.

Manually entering the SEPA data at the bank accounts

1. Open the bank settings in the menu option [System, General, Settings, Bank settings].
2. Tick in the section 'SEPA" the setting "Automatic IBAN calculation.
3. Leave the company and re-enter it.
4. Open the maintenance of the bank account that you want to enter the SEPA information of.
5. Select the bank name at the maintenance of the bank account. The SEPA related fields will be filled automatically.
6. Check the data and save the bank account.

Entering the bank accounts with the SEPA data via the IBAN BIC service tool.

1. Make sure you have product release batch 405 or higher.
2. Open the windows explorer (On the workstation where Exact Globe Next is installed.)
3. Go to the "BIN" folder of your Exact Globe Next installation. Usually this will be the folder: 'C:\Program Files\Exact Software' of 'C:\Program Files (x86) \Exact Software'.
4. Search for the application 'eIBANImport.exe'
5. Double click on this file to start the IBAN BIC service tool.
6. Select the company from which you want to export the bank account data.
7. Select the option "Export" and enter the location where you want to export the bank account data to.
8. It is optional to make a selection on the type of bank account or on the range of relations.
9. Hit the start button to start the export.
10. Repeat the steps for all other companies.
11. You will now have a CSV file format for all companies containing your bank account data.
12. Import the CSV file into Microsoft Excel. The first column is the bank account, the second column is the relation code.
13. You can now edit all bank accounts in Excel manually with the algorithm applicable to your country. Take care however for leading zero's. Once you have adjusted all bank accounts, save the file as a CSV file format. 
14. Go to the "BIN" folder of your Exact Globe Next installation. Usually this will be the folder: 'C:\Program Files\Exact Software' of 'C:\Program Files (x86) \Exact Software'. Search for the application 'eIBANImport.exe'.
15. Double click on this file to start the IBAN BIC service tool.
16. Select the company where you want to import the bank account data.
17. Select the option import and select the supplemented file. Make sure you use the right file for the right company !
18. It is optional to make a selection on type of bank account or a range of relations.
19. Hit the start button to start the import.
20. When the import is ready, the bank accounts of your relations are supplemented with the SEPA data. Only the data that was present in the file will be supplemented.
21. Check, in maintenance of bank accounts of the bank account data is correct.
22. The IBAN BIC service tool is only applicable on Dutch, German and Austrian Bank accounts. When you have business relations with other bank accounts, that fall within the SEPA-Area you will have to enter the SEPA Data  manually.

Keep in mind: When you are working with Exact Globe Next and Exact Synergy (Enterprise) the IBAN BIC service tool has to be performed for both Exact Globe Next and Exact Synergy (Enterprise). De reason for this is that when you update the bank account, the account (debtor/creditor) itself is not updated, and therefore not exchanged between Exact Globe Next and Exact Synergy (Enterprise).

Displaying the IBAN at different screens
After performing the steps above, the IBAN is filled in at the maintenance screen of the bank accounts. As a consequence, the system is able to use the IBAN when creating payment and collection files. Next, if you want to display the IBAN at Exact Globe Next's different screens, you need to use the BBAN-to-IBAN conversion tool.

The BBAN-to-IBAN conversion tool is used to convert the bank numbers in the Basic Bank Account Numbers (BBAN) format stored in Exact Globe Next, Exact Synergy, and Exact Synergy Enterprise to the International Bank Account Numbers (IBAN) format for all types of bank accounts linked to the debtors, creditors, and people (except for cash instruments). Bank accounts without the IBANs predefined cannot be converted and will be skipped. Once converted, all of the existing transactions corresponding to the previous local or basic bank format will be updated with the IBAN bank account format instead of the BBAN. In addition, the IBAN will be displayed in all the reports, pages, and screens, such as the debtor's maintenance screen, at tab 'Financial' in the field 'Bank account'.

Click here to read more about how to use the BBAN-to-IBAN conversion tool.

Keep in mind: When you are working with Exact Globe Next and Exact Synergy (Enterprise) the BBAN-to-IBAN conversion tool has to be performed for both Exact Globe Next and Exact Synergy (Enterprise). De reason for this is that when you update the bank account, the account (debtor/creditor) itself is not updated, and therefore not exchanged between Exact Globe Next and Exact Synergy (Enterprise).

Step #3 Adjust your invoice layout, letters and other external communication

Everywhere you need to make adjustments, not only within your software, but also on websites, layouts, letters and other communication material. Do at least the following:

• Change your bank account number everywhere to IBAN and add the BIC.
• Add the new creditor id in case of direct debit. You can request your creditor id at your bank.  

Changing Lay-outs in Exact Globe Next
On your layouts you should replace your bank account with the IBAN and BIC-code. You can maintain your layouts in the menu option [System, General, Settings, Documents]. If you encounter  difficulties with adjusting your layouts you can contact your Exact-Partner or the consultancy department of Exact. You can find the contact information on the website of Exact.

Step #4 Move to European transfers and payment orders

Move to European bank transfers and payments. Do you perfom a lot of foreign payments in Euro's within the Eurozone ? Than you can safe money by switching to SEPA as soon as possible. This will require support from your bank though. It is going to be converted to SEPA per bank account (This is or is not set to SEPA.) Check at your bank when this will be possible.

By the way, for supplying bulktransactions, ISO 20022 XML will be the new format. This socalled PAIN format will replace the local payment-format. Visit the website of your bank for more information.

Performing SEPA payments in Exact Globe Next
When you and your bank are ready to perform SEPA payment transfers you can do the following:

1. Make sure that for all creditors you want to do payments for the SEPA data is properly filled.
2. Enable at your Cash instrument that you want to use the cash instrument for SEPA payments. You can maintain your own cash instruments in the menu option [Cash flow, Cash instruments, Maintenance] 
3. You select the cash instrument and hit the button "Open". In the cash instrument you will find the tab page "Settings" where, in the section, "SEPA payment orders" you can indicate that you want to  use this cash instrument for SEPA payments.
4. You can also indicate whether you want to want to use batch delivery or how the group the transactions.
5. After entry of the purchase invoice you can approve and process the payment.
6. The created payment file can be delivered to your bank.

Step #5 Move to European Direct Debit

Tip: Check out the instruction video SEPA Direct Debit in Exact Globe Next.

• Make a choice between core or B2B direct debit. Both the core and B2B direct debit variants of SEPA can be used by companies. With the core SEPA direct debit the period in which a reversal is allowed is extended to 8 weeks. With the B2B direct debit a reversal is not possible. Besides this, not all banks support business direct debit. Do note: both the bank of the payee and the bank of the debt collector need to support business direct debit. Both SEPA direct debit variants have a announcement period of 14 days before the withdrawal, applying both to incidental and continuous direct debit. Keep in mind that you need to supply your bank with your SEPA direct debit at an earlier stage than you are used to with your current direct debit.
• For shipment of bulk transactions the ISO 20022 XML as the new format is also applied here. This format, better known as PAIN will replace the local payment-format. For more information visit the website of your bank.
• Sign a new European direct debit agreement with your bank. This is also applicable if you already have an active contract. Your creditor-id can be requested at your bank.
• Supply both existing and new direct debit contracts with:
  • The creditor id
  • The our ref
  • The IBAN
    The signature date (For existing agreements use the date agreed within your country.)
• For B2B direct debit the debtor needs to sign a new agreement that also needs to be deposited at the bank. Include in this new business agreement:
  • The creditor id
  • The our ref
  • The IBAN
  • The signature date (For existing agreements use the date agreed within your country.)
• Are you changing from B2B direct debit to core direct debit ? Than you can still use your existing agreements.
• Make sure you store agreement information both written and digital in your company administration.
  

Performing a SEPA direct debit in Exact Globe Next
Tip: When the invoice term which you want to collect is created before you've created the SDD mandates, this means that you manually have to link the SDD mandates to all these terms to be able to process the collection. To avoid a lot of extra work it is advised to process as many 'old' collections before you switch to SEPA direct debit.

When you and your bank are ready for SEPA-direct debit you can perform the following steps:

1. Make sure all the bank accounts for all debtors you want to do a direct debit run for are properly entered.
2. Determine the requested direct debit date for the calculation. You can set this at the setting "requested direct debit date calculation" in the bank settings in the menu option [System, General, 
   Settings]
3. Send the mandate for the European direct debit to the debtor.
4. After you have received the direct debit mandate back from the signee, you can register it in Exact Globe next.
5. To do so, open the maintenance of debtors in the menu option [Finance, Debtors, maintenance] by hitting the button "Open".
6. On the tab page Financial you click on the icon for the field "Direct debit mandate".
7. In the direct debit mandate screen you can enter the data for the direct debit mandate.
8. At the cash instrument you can indicate that you want to use the cash instrument for SEPA direct debit. You can maintain your own cash instruments in the menu option [Cash flow, Cash instruments, maintenance]. You select the cash instrument and hit the button open. At the Tab page of the cash instrument you open up the tab page "settings" where you can, in the section, "SEPA direct debit orders" indicate that you want to use this cash instrument for SEPA direct debit orders.
9. You can also indicate whether you want to use batch delivery.
10. At the field "Creditor ID' you need to enter your unique identification number. You can get that number from your bank. With this number you can be identified in the entire SEPA Area. You send this identification number along with every direct debit order. The bank will mention your ID at every withdrawal of a direct debit at your debtor.
11. Make sure a mandate is linked to the terms.
12. Assign a runnumber to the terms via SDD management.
13. You can send a pre-notification to your debtor to inform him about the upcoming direct debit transaction. You can add a pre-notification on the invoice or send a separate pre-notification.
14. Process the SDD batch.
15. The created direct debit file can be delivered to your bank.

More information

• SEPA Start page
• Frequently Asked Questions IBAN BIC Service