SAP Note 13674 - BACS and RFFOGB_T - GB, UK and Eire Bank Payments

Symptom:

BACS Solutions

Reason and Prerequisites

Customer and prospect requests for information about payment programs for use in the UK and Eire.

Solution
What is BACS?
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BACS is a national computer system for handling UK bank transactions, both payments and receipts. It is owned by the major domestic banks, acts as a central clearing system and has existed for over 30 years. Data was once transferred by diskette and tape but with effect from
from December 1, 1998, all data must be sent by the BACSTEL (modem) method.

BACS and EDI
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BACS uses a unique EDI standard called BACSTEL and will not accept any other standard such as Tradacoms, ANSI-X12 or EDIFACT. This has led to a number of specialist companies manufacturing modems and software to deal with this. Most UK banks also offer BACSTEL products.

BACSTEL-IP
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Update July 2004: In February 2003 BACS announced a new method of accessing its payment services, called BACSTEL-IP (based on internet protocols and using new security technologies). The new method will be phased in between 2003 and 2005. UK businesses must now plan an upgrade of their third party BACSTEL product.The suppliers of BACSTEL products (see below) have adapted and upgraded their products as necessary. SAP UK expects that there is no need to adapt the output file from the SAP software.

What is available in SAP?
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The SAP Report RFFOGB_T is the standard report to produce payment files for use with BACSTEL products.

The report RFFOGB_T supports the format of two BACSTEL suppliers Microgen-Telesmart and Bottomline Technologies.
It also supports two main Irish formats.

SAP UK does not however endorse any one BACSTEL product in particular.

There are other suppliers of BACSTEL software which can accept SAP files. Most UK banks can supply a similar list:
The main product/suppliers/telephone numbers are:

BACWAY products, Microgen Telesmart, 01707 355555
Various, Bottomline Technologies (formerly Checkpoint) 0870 0818250
I-BACS, Elsewhere Ltd 01438 317966
ALBACS, Albany Software, 01420 547650
AzTECH BACS, Intersoft Solutions, 0870 7874433
MICROBANK, ABM Ltd, 01270 759911 (in May 2004 acquired by Bottomline)
BACSLink, Access Europe Ltd, 0208 408 7888
BACCSESS, Barron McCann, 01462 482333

With the Release of R/3 Enterprise, SAP, in addition, delivers 3 payment medium formats, GB_BACS, IE_AIB, and IE_BOI for use with the Payment Medium Workbench (PMW). Please refer to the online documentation for more information.

Testing
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Each customer must arrange testing with BACS individually. BACS does not grant approval to software companies such as SAP for a generic solution. Additionally, it is not possible for SAP to set up any test facilities with BACS. Therefore, if a new format were to be offered by SAP, it must be tested with the co-operation of a customer on a project basis. This is set by BACS, not by SAP.

Configuration
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Please also refer to the program documentation for RFFOGB_T and to the sample customizing which is delivered with Release 3.0.

Example: User Numbers (Table T042M):
CC Cty Banknumber User number Passw.hold.i d.
0001 GB 309955 ....301215
0001 GB 404622 ....400000
0001 GB 602334 ....600000

Example: Bank Transaction codes (Table T042N):
Cty PM Bank number Ptr.bk Tran. code
GB D 17 Direct debit payment 99
GB E 99 Incoming payments 17

Direct Debits
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SAP Accounts Receivable supports a basic direct debit solution but not a complete AUDDIS solution. This requires bespoke work. With effect from 19 November 2001, even Non-AUDDIS originators must use transaction code 01 for new direct debits when a customer transfers his bank account to a new bank. As the SAP table T042N can only link one transaction code to a payment method, it is suggested that for the first collection from the new bank account, a new payment method is used in the field bseg-zlsch in the SAP documents. Additional payment program configuration will also be necessary.

Other terms

Key word: BACS, BACSTEL, BACSTEL-IP, RFFOGB_T, AUDDIS, Ireland