Input File
Unlike other areas in Financial where input is through transactions, Internal Billing is like Check Writer in the fact that input is through a file created from an external system. It can be referred to as an internal billing file, feeder system file, or a detail file. All are the same; a text file with the required system processing data as well as data associated with the type of goods or services being billed.
A file has the following definition rules/capabilities:
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Each data point is separated by a pipe { | }
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Blank data elements by two pipes.
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Two pipes at the beginning of a record means the 1st and 2nd fields are blank.
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Two pipes at the end of a record means the last two fields are blank.
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Three consecutive pipes means three consecutive fields are blank, whether at the beginning, middle, or end of a record.
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The end of a record is defined by a carriage return.
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Values received can be mixed cases.
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Data values cannot contain a pipe.
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Have no spaces between data and pipes.
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Do not include commas in currency fields, only a decimal for cents.
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There cannot be extra or blank rows at the bottom of a file.
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Do not put any special characters in the file name, such as the underline ( _ ).
The Internal Billing Feeder File Validation and Load process performs the following basic data validations. Edits from Configurable Validations also occur, but from the Internal Billing Details data object and not the validation process specifically.
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Key fields are given.
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File data is of the proper type to store in the respective field, for example, date, currency, Boolean, and so forth.
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Conditionally required fields are supplied based on other fields (Object given when Sub Object is specified).
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Data does not exceed the size of the intended field.
As noted later in the Internal Billing Feeder System reference page, an input file can contain only billings for external customers or for internal customers. When billings are to both types of customers, it requires two different files and two different Internal Billing Feeder System records, unless a single record is being updated between the processing of each type of customer. For this reason, it is suggested that two different feeder system records are used.
