Product documentation
If a customer pays many invoices in a single payment, they will often provide an ‘External Specification’. Depending on how they generate such an external specification, it can be a relatively simple csv-file, or it can be a more complex XML file. Dynamics Banking contains functionality that allows a user to specify per customer, vendor, customer group, vendor group or all customers or all vendors, what their external specification looks like. That way, customer A can provide a simple txt-file, and customer B can send an XML.
Importing of the External Specification is done after the bank statement (MT940 or CAMT053) has been imported, and the customer or vendor has been found/specified. The external specification should contain information about the invoicenumber and the (paid) invoice amount. When importing, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations validates that the total amount of the specification is the same as the total payment amount. During and after importing, the imported data can be reviewed. And if present, the Reconciliation process will use the external specification, instead of the payment notes, to settle open invoices against the payment.
The setup of External Payment Specifications can be accessed from Customers, Vendors and General Ledger, under Payment Specification Mapping.
Depending on the filetype (csv or XML), different information needs to be provided in the mapping.
| Field | Description |
| Has header | The external file has a single row of header information, identifying the columns. If this is switched on, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations will skip the first row of the file |
| Decimal seperator | The character used to specify the decimal seperator. This is usually dependent on the country / language |
| Seperator | The character used to seperate the different columns in the file. Often a ; is used, but other characters are also allowed. Try to avoid characters . and , because they can also be used as decimal seperators |
| Split payment Lines | Defaults a standard value into the External Specification dialog. If set there, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations will split a single bank line into multiple journal lines, using the invoice numbers specified in the external specification |
| Reconciliation | Indicates if the system should try to reconcile the lines on importing the Payment Specification |
| Invoice | The number of the column, holding the invoice number. The first column has number 1, the second columns has number 2, etc |
| Amount | The number of the column, holding the paid invoice amount. The first column has number 1, the second columns has number 2, etc |
| Reference | The number of the column, holding an additional reference. The first column has number 1, the second columns has number 2, etc |
An example of a csv-file with a header, a comma as a decimal separator and a semi-colon as column separator would be this:
Invoice;Amount;Reference
FTI-000001;121,00;referenceA
FTI-000002;568,12;refB
FTI-000176;-1000,00;credit
| Field | Description |
| Decimal seperator | The character used to specify the decimal seperator. This is usually dependent on the country / language |
| Split payment Lines | Defaults a standard value into the External Specification dialog. If set there, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations will split a single bank line into multiple journal lines, using the invoice numbers specified in the external specification |
| Line | The xml-tag, identifying the node for a payment line. Each seperate combination of invoice, amount and reference will be grouped in such a node |
| Invoice | The xml-tag identifying the paid invoice |
| Amount | The xml-tag identifying the paid invoice amount |
| Reference | The xml-tag identifying an additional reference. |
An example of an xml would be this, with tag <Payment> identifying a new node:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<PaymentSpecification>
<Payment>
<Invoice>FTI-000018</Invoice>
<Amount>119</Amount>
<Reference>Reference invoice 01</Reference>
</Payment>
<Payment>
<Invoice>FTI-000020</Invoice>
<Amount>119</Amount>
<Reference>Reference invoice 02</Reference>
</Payment>
</PaymentSpecification>
After importing the bank transactions (using MT940, CAMT053, or even creating a line manually), it is necessary to have the customer or vendor specified. Usually this will have happened during the import of the bank transactions, but if Dynamics Banking hasn't been able to do this yet, a manual selection may be needed.
In the General Journal there is now a tabpage ‘Payment Specification’, which allows the import and reviewing of the external payment specification.
By clicking button ‘Import external specifications’, a dialog opens, allowing the user to select a file by clicking the 'browse-button'. After selecting a file, the system will provide a preview and a validation against the amount in the Journal, in the dialog. It is not possible to make any changes to the dialog, so the user either accepts it, or they cancel. On clicking ‘OK’, the lines are brought to the journal.
The results show in the Payment Specification grid of the journal. When clicking functions / reconciliation, Dynamics Banking will use the External Specification to find and settle against open invoices (and will no longer use the payment notes, like it does if there are no external specifications). If the button ‘Split Payments’ is set to ‘Yes’, it will split by customer (as found on the invoice). If the button 'Reconcile' in the dialog is set to 'Yes', it will try to reconcile the created lines during the import.
The setup of the mapping and the process also work for Vendors and their invoices. If e.g the user has paid a list of vendor invoices, and wants to settle those, the External Payment specification could be used for that.