What is Lockbox?Lockbox is a service featured in banks or other service companies wherein customers will send the payments to the bank and receipts are immediately created in oracle apps.

What is Auto lockbox in Oracle Apps Receivables?

Auto lockbox is a program available in Oracle Receivables which helps you to import payments or receipts.  In real world, Banks would provide data files which would have information about the payments made by customers.  Receivables auto-lockbox program would help you in importing information from these data files into your system.

What typical Auto lockbox transmissions do?

A typical Auto lockbox transmission has various different records, each with relevant data. Transmission, Lockbox, batch and receipt are different levels of records it will look for to process the receipts.  And at each level the validations will be done to ensure the total transmission amount, batch amount and total receipt amount.   Counts at different levels will bevalidated in the same way. Transmission also has information about the bank account (used with lockbox).  Lockbox data file has a record type that indicates the type of data the record has.  Oracle provides a default layout but depending on the requirements we can customize the layouts.

Process Flow: Graphical Representation

Auto Lockbox Interface Processing in Oracle Apps

Once the lockbox data is received from banks, move it to a directory, normally a data directory.  Control file will be placed in $AR_TOP/bin/ as a .ctl file.  Once can customize the layout and ctl file by deciding what data you will be receiving and what format will be used.

Autolockbox has three steps:

Import: Reads the lockbox data from bank file, moving it to the lockbox tables using SQL* loader script.

Validation: The validation program checks data in the AutoLockbox tables for compatibility with Receivables. Once validated, the data is transferred into QuickCash tables. At this point, you can optionally query your receipts in the QuickCash window and change how they will be applied before submitting the final step, Post QuickCash.

Post QuickCash: This step applies the receipts and updates your customers’ balances.In the Submit Lockbox Processing form:

         Check - Submit Import.         Enter the "Transmission Name" for this transmission (Give any suitable name for

your transmission). Note this name for future use.         For Data file field, enter the data file name along with full path         Enter the control file name.         Select the Transmission Format Name.         Check Submit Validation.         Select the applicable Lockbox.         Allow Payment of Unrelated Invoices – Better not to check this.         Enter the appropriate date in the GL Date (usually the deposit date). This will

usually default to system date.         Select the Report Format you wish to use (usually ‘All’).         Check - Complete Batches Only.         Check - Submit PostQuickCash.         Save.

The Lockbox Execution Report will indicate if the data was imported and validated. It also lists the possible exceptions and what they mean. If the data fails the import, the entire transmission fails and will need to be run again.

Common errors would be with count and total amounts at the transmission, Lockbox, batch or at transaction level.  You may use the Maintain Transmission data form to correct many errors.  Select the "Transmission Name" of the transmission you wish to fix and start your query.  You will see all of the records that make up the transmission, along with the status for each record.  Position the cursor on the record you wish to correct and Click on the Button for the data with the error.  Correct the error on the appropriate page, and return to the first form. Move to the next record to fix and continue until you have corrected every error.We can continue the cycle of correcting and validating the data until all records have been "transferred" as indicated on the Lockbox Execution Report.

For re-running the validation, return to submit Lockbox Processing form.         Do not check - Submit Import.         Enter the "Transmission Name" you noted above.         Do not check - Allow Payment of Unrelated Invoices.         Select (List) the applicable Lockbox.         Enter the appropriate date in the GL Date (usually the deposit date).         Check - Submit Validation.         Select (List) the Report Format you wish to use (usually Rejects only for the

subsequent passes).         Check - Complete Batches Only.         Do not check - Submit PostQuickCash. ( Let us check this when whole validation

gets over and we have proper data)         Save.

When all records are "transferred," they will be moved from the Lockbox tables to the tables used by QuickCash (the Interim Cash Receipt tables).To apply the receipts, select the "Transmission Name" and Check Submit PostQuickCash.

Return to the Submit Lockbox Processing form:         Do not check - Submit Import.         Enter the "Transmission Name" you noted above.         Do not check - Submit Validation.         Check - Complete Batches Only.         Check - Submit PostQuickCash.         Save.

After receipts get created, we are allowed to make chaneges through form also.