Payment methods for direct debit

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

Is it the best practice to define different payment methods for the different banks with direct debit?

Thanks,

Mario

[william_eastman · Accepted solution]

No.  A payment method should represent the technique for applying the payment, not the place it comes from.

[Former Member]

Hi Bill,

Thanks for the input, what if the different banks have different file structures? is there any standard option to deal with that with one payment method?

Additionally, wouldnt the reconciliation with the bank be easier if different payment methods are used?

Thanks again,

M.

[william_eastman]

Mario:

the payment method is on the contract account and refers to their bank.  The files generated go to the utility house bank(s).  How do you suppose that the different files will be determined?

regards,

bill.

[Former Member]

Hi Bill,

Lets put it with an example:

Customer A has direct debit with CityBank

Customer B has direct debit with Bank of America

CityBank and Bank of America have different file structures to receive the customers to be direct debited.

The utility company executes a direct the direct debit run, and must report the customers to be debited to the respective bank, in this case customer A to CItyBank with one file structure and customer B to Bank of America with another file structure.

If I dont use different payment methods, then how can send the relevant customers to the respective bank? additionally, I thought that the configuration of the payment method included the file structure generation? am I missing a configuration point?

Thanks again for your suggestions.

M.

[william_eastman]

Mario:

You are not sending the file to the customer's banks. You are sending it to the utility's house bank.  The customer bank info is not relevant in that case.  the utility house bank then sends the info to the individual customer banks.

regards,

bill.

[Former Member]

Thanks for the clarification Bill.

Now what if the banks participating in direct debit are all set as house banks, and that the utility company has to send a separated file to each of them? Is then a different payment method recommended?

Thanks again for your inputs.

M.

[william_eastman]

Mario:

How do you define which house bank should get which customers?  this is very abnormal.  A utility company normally uses one bank for direct debit purposes.  The file sent to that bank then has the payment data e.g. customer XYZ amount 111 for all required payments.

I guess that i do not understand your business process as it does not align with expectations.

regards,

bill.