Key Terms for AR Remittances

Written by Uday Kumar Updated

This section defines key terms used in the AR Remittances product and in the rest of this guide. Use it as a reference when you configure, operate, or support AR Remittances in SmartCustomer.

Core concepts

  • AR Remittances
    A SmartCustomer capability that processes customer remittance files received in an AR mailbox and creates corresponding customer payment records in the system of record (currently Workday). It consumes email attachments (PDF, CSV, XLS, XLSX), extracts payment information, and supports writing data to Workday and an optional secondary SFTP destination.

  • SmartCustomer
    The Auditoria console where AR SmartFlows (AR Helpdesk, AR Collections, AR Remittances) are configured and operated. AR Remittances appears in SmartCustomer as:

    • A SmartFlow Skill you enable in the setup wizard, and

    • A Documents experience with Active Data and Written to SoR tabs for remittance documents.

  • SmartFlow Skill (AR Remittances skill)
    The specific SmartCustomer configuration that defines:

    • Which ERP (Workday) to use as the system of record.

    • Which mailbox AR Remittances listens to.

    • Which file types to process (PDF, CSV, XLS, XLSX).

    • Whether payments are written to SoR Autonomously or in Collaborative mode.

    • Whether to write payments to a secondary SFTP destination.

  • System of Record (SoR)
    The primary financial system where customer payments are created and maintained. For AR Remittances, the SoR is Workday in this iteration. AR Remittances creates customer payment records in Workday and uses the Workday payment identifier as the SoR external ID.

  • Customer Payment
    A Workday payment record representing money received from a customer. AR Remittances:

    • Creates customer payments based on remittance files.

    • Sends payments as unapplied to Workday, with remittance advice details used by downstream Workday jobs to apply the payment to invoices.

  • Remittance Advice / Remittance File
    A document that lists the invoices or obligations a customer has paid, along with amounts and references. In AR Remittances, this is:

    • An email attachment (PDF, CSV, XLS, XLSX) classified as an AR Remittance.

    • The source document used to create one or more customer payments.

Mailbox, documents, and views

  • AR Mailbox
    An email mailbox (for example, AR@yourcompany.com) connected to SmartCustomer. AR Remittances monitors this mailbox, ingests incoming emails and attachments, and classifies supported attachments as AR Remittance or Other.

  • Remittance Document
    The internal SmartCustomer record created for each remittance attachment. It includes:

    • The original email and attachment preview.

    • Extracted header fields (customer, payment date, amount, etc.).

    • Any extracted remittance advice lines.

    • The current processing status (for example, in Active Data vs Written to SoR).

  • File Type
    The attachment’s file format. AR Remittances supports:

    • PDF

    • CSV

    • XLS

    • XLSX
      In configuration, you can choose which of these file types should be processed for AR Remittances.

  • AR Remittance (file type classification)
    A flag on a document indicating that the attachment is treated as an AR Remittance file. Files that cannot be recognized as remittances are classified as Other. Users can reclassify some Other files as AR Remittance and manually fill in required fields.

  • Active Data (AR Remittances)
    The Documents tab that shows remittance documents not yet written to SoR. It includes:

    • All newly ingested, extracted, and in‑progress documents.

    • Documents with validation or write errors.

    • Documents awaiting manual review in Collaborative mode, or exceptions in Autonomous mode.

  • Written to SoR (AR Remittances)
    The Documents tab that lists remittance documents for which AR Remittances has:

    • Successfully created payment records in Workday, and/or

    • Written payment records to the configured secondary destination (SFTP).
      It shows final statuses, SoR external IDs, and other key fields.

Processing modes and write behavior

  • Write to SoR
    The operation that creates a customer payment record in Workday for a given remittance document (or set of documents). Write to SoR can be:

    • Triggered manually by a user (Collaborative mode).

    • Triggered automatically by the system (Autonomous mode) when criteria are met.

  • Autonomous Mode (Automatic Write to SoR)
    A processing mode where AR Remittances automatically calls Write to SoR for eligible documents. Typically:

    • Documents for known, enrolled customers with valid data are written directly to Workday.

    • Documents with errors, unknown customers, or invalid data stay in Active Data for user review.

  • Collaborative Mode (Manual Write to SoR)
    A processing mode where:

    • All remittance documents remain in Active Data until a user explicitly selects Write to SoR.

    • Users review and correct header fields or line data before creating payments in Workday.

  • SoR External ID
    The identifier of the payment record in the system of record (Workday). AR Remittances:

    • Stores this ID after a successful Write to SoR.

    • Includes it in secondary destination CSV files so downstream systems (such as Prism) can cross‑reference payments.

Data fields and line items

  • Header Fields (AR Remittances)
    Standard fields extracted at the remittance document level and shown as columns in Active Data and Written to SoR. They include:

    • Customer Name

    • File Type

    • Payment Date

    • Payment Number

    • Currency

    • Total Amount

    • Entity

    • Payment Type

    • Transaction Reference

  • Line Fields / Remittance Advice Lines
    Line‑level details extracted from the remittance document, such as:

    • Invoice number or claim number

    • PO number or policy number

    • Line amounts (for example, “Amount to Pay”)
      These are not standardized and are supported as extended fields, configured on a per‑customer and per‑format basis.

  • Extended Fields (Payments and Lines)
    Custom or non‑standard fields configured for a specific tenant, customer, or remittance format. Extended fields:

    • Appear in the AR Remittances document detail view.

    • Are included in flattened payment CSVs written to the secondary destination when configured.

  • Zero Payment Record
    A remittance where the Total Amount is zero (and all “Amount to Pay” values are zero). These may represent informational remittances where:

    • No actual cash movement occurs, or

    • Payment has already been posted.
      AR Remittances supports configuration to skip creating a Workday payment and only write such records to the secondary destination. 

Secondary destination and SFTP

  • Secondary Destination (Destination SFTP Folder)
    An optional generic ERP connection configured as a “Destination SFTP folder”. AR Remittances:

    • Writes CSV files of payment records to this location.

    • Never reads from this connection; it is write‑only for exports.

  • Write Cadence (Secondary Destination)
    The schedule at which AR Remittances writes payment CSVs to the secondary destination. Supported cadences:

    • 24 hours

    • 12 hours

    • 4 hours

    • 1 hour
      A Sync now action flushes all prepared data immediately, outside the normal cadence.

  • Flattened Payment Record
    The structure of rows in the CSV written to the secondary destination:

    • Contains payment header fields and extended fields.

    • Includes extended line items / remittance advice lines in a flattened format.

    • Uses column headers that match field names visible in the UI.

    • Always includes the SoR External ID for each payment.

Customers, enrollment, and labels

  • Customer (AR)
    A buyer or client who receives invoices and sends payments. In AR Remittances:

    • Customers come from Workday and are visible in SmartCustomer.

    • Each remittance document should be associated with a specific customer.

    • Customer association affects eligibility for Autonomous processing.

  • Customer Enrollment (for AR Remittances)
    The process of marking a customer as enrolled for SmartCustomer AR skills (AR Helpdesk, AR Collections, AR Remittances). For AR Remittances:

    • Enrolled customers can be processed more autonomously.

    • Documents for unenrolled or unknown customers stay in Active Data until a user assigns or enrolls the customer.

  • Email Labels (AR Remittances)
    Labels applied to emails processed by AR Remittances, used for classification and triage. Expected labels include:

    • HereIsNewRemittance – New remittance document received.

    • RemittanceAlreadyRecorded – Duplicate or already‑processed remittance.

    • LargeFileNeedsHumanAttention – Very large remittance document that should be reviewed by a user.

    • NeedsHumanAttention – Any remittance document requiring manual review (for example, extraction issues, unknown customer, validation error).