AR Remittance Mapping Overview

Who this is for. SmartCustomer users with the SuperAdmin role.

Availability. The AR Mapping tab appears in SmartCustomer when AR Mapping is enabled for your organization.

Overview

Customers send remittance advice in their own spreadsheet layouts. For example, a remittance file from Northwind Traders lists a Payment Date and a Cheque Number above the table. It also has a subtotal under the invoice lines.

An AR remittance mapping records how one customer's remittance file is laid out. You build it from real files the customer sent. It says where each table starts and ends, and which master field each value fills. Master fields are the standard header and line fields that every customer's remittance is normalized to. They come from your Payment record.

A live mapping reads every spreadsheet remittance (XLSX, XLS, or CSV) that arrives from its customer. What it reads is recorded without anyone checking it first. You build and maintain mappings on the AR Mapping tab in SmartCustomer.

Mapping editor

You build a mapping in an editor with six steps. The list of steps on the left summarizes each step in one line.

• Customer and samples. You choose the customer and upload up to five sample files. Each file's header block is checked against the customer.
• Email samples. This step is optional. You paste remittance emails when the customer states a value in the email instead of the file.
• Master fields. For each master field, you choose whether it comes from the file or the email.
• Confirm. You check where each table's header row, first data row, and last data row are.
• Field mapping. You review the proposed mappings and fix anything that is wrong or missing. Calculation and clean-up rules live on this step too, on its Rules tab. See Add and manage rules.
• Test and validate. You run the mapping against the samples to see what it extracts before it goes live.

Each step has its own article in the Create an AR Remittance Mapping section. Start with Add the customer and samples.

Navigation in the editor

These work the same on every step:

• Next moves to the next step when the current one is complete. Otherwise, the reason appears beside it.
• Back returns to the previous step.
• On a new mapping, later steps become available as you complete the earlier ones. On a saved mapping, you can open any step from the list of steps.
• To collapse the list of steps, select Collapse steps (icon) above it.
• A new mapping shows DRAFT from the start, before anything is saved.
• Save draft keeps the mapping as a draft and returns you to the mapping list. It needs at least one sample and one mapped field.
• If you select Remittance mapping to go back with unsaved changes, Discard unsaved changes? opens. Select Keep editing to stay, or Discard changes to leave without saving.
• Only Remittance mapping asks. Leaving through the main navigation, or closing the browser tab, loses unsaved changes without a warning.
• You are not asked when nothing differs from the saved mapping. Changing only the rules does not bring up the prompt either.
• A rule you add is kept at once, even if you leave without saving. Changing a rule, switching it off, or deleting it lasts only if you save the mapping.

To continue later, open the saved mapping from the list. See Edit a mapping in Manage AR remittance mappings.

Figure 1. The prompt when you leave the editor with unsaved changes

Draft and Active

A mapping is either a draft or live. The status decides whether arriving remittances are read with it.

Table 1. Mapping statuses

The status works like this:

• Only one mapping per customer can be live at a time.
• A mapping must pass Test and validate before you can activate it.
• Saving a mapping makes it a draft, even if it was live and you changed nothing. To make it live again, activate it.
• Activating asks you to confirm. The confirmation names the customer and summarizes the mapping.

Format matching

When a sample you upload matches a mapping you already saved, the Confirm step says so. It shows the match and the evidence behind it:

• The column headings
• The labels above the table
• The type of value in each column
• The layout
• The file name pattern
• The customer

Supported files

A mapping reads spreadsheet remittances. The sample upload accepts XLSX, XLS, and CSV files. Remittances that arrive as PDF files are processed separately, and a mapping does not change how they are read.

Change planning

Because only one mapping per customer can be live, plan changes before you make them. The following table matches common situations to the tasks that cover them.

Table 2. Choosing what to do with a mapping

Related information

• AR Mapping page
• Add the customer and samples
• Test and activate an AR remittance mapping
• Manage AR remittance mappings
• About AR Remittances
• Documents overview and workflow