Where to start for Customer Interface

1.The first steps would be your is preparing Receivables setup activity

• Be sure to set up new data in Receivables that the Customer Interface should import. For example:
  • AutoCash Rule Sets
  • AutoInvoice Grouping Rules
  • Collectors
  • Customer Addresses
  • Customer Bank Information
  • Customer Exemptions
  • Customer Profile Classes
  • Demand Classes
  • Dunning Letter Sets
  • Freight Carriers
  • Payment Methods
  • Payment Terms
  • Statement Cycles
  • Tax Codes
• Be sure to also set up Lookups in Receivables that the Customer Interface should import. These are the lookups:
  • Countries
  • Site Use Codes
  • Credit Ratings
  • Risk Codes
  • Account Statuses
  • Communication Types
  • Customer Classes

2. Next is to map the Interface Tables

• RA_CUSTOMER_INTERFACE_ALL
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF
  • CUSTOMER_NAME
  • CUSTOMER_STATUS
  • INSERT_UPDATE_FLAG
  • CUSTOMER_NUMBER
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_ADDRESS_REF
  • PRIMARY_SITE_USE_FLAG
  • SITE_USE_CODE
  • ADDRESS1
  • COUNTRY
  • LOCATION
• RA_CUSTOMER_PROFILES_INT_ALL
  • CUSTOMER_PROFILE_CLASS_NAME
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF
  • INSERT_UPDATE_FLAG
  • CREDIT_HOLD
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_ADDRESS_REF
• RA_CONTACT_PHONES_INT_ALL
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_TELEPHONE_REF
  • TELEPHONE
  • TELEPHONE_TYPE
  • INSERT_UPDATE_FLAG
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_ADDRESS_REF
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_CONTACT_REF
  • CONTACT_LAST_NAME
• RA_BANKS_INTERFACE
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF
  • PRIMARY_FLAG
  • START_DATE
  • BANK_ACCOUNT_NAME
  • BANK_ACCOUNT_CURRENCY_CODE
  • BANK_ACCOUNT_NUM
  • BANK_BRANCH_NAME
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_ADDRESS_REF
• RA_CUST_PAY_METHOD_INTERFACE
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_CUSTOMER_REF
  • START_DATE
  • PAYMENT_METHOD_NAME
  • PRIMARY_FLAG
  • ORIG_SYSTEM_ADDRESS_REF

3. RUN the Import Program

• Run Import after AR Customer Interface tables have been populated
• Program will validate the data in the interface table before creating records in Receivables
• Run the Customer Interface process through the Submit Request window
• But, a separate navigational path is also provided
  Interfaces -> Customer
• Check output file for errors

• Make corrections and repeat import process

Not Surprise , if you get these....Common Errors..very common

• a3: Bill_To_Orig_Address_Ref is not a valid bill-to address
  • Verify the Bill-To address reference is valid. Keep in mind that when using the bill-to reference with a ship-to address record... the bill-to must already exist in Receivables.
  • Note: Ran into this issue. Try running bill-to records through the interface first and ship-to records as second batch - this will resolve the error. Do not Interface with both in the same batch.
• a1:Customer record for insert must have validated profile record defined
  • New customers and each Bill-To record must have a customer level profile in the RA_CUSTOMER_PROFILES_INT_ALL table.
• a8: Conflicting profile classes specified for this customer/site
  • Profile classes for customer and bill-to must be the same. Sites cannot have a profile class different from the customer.
• J1: Site_USE_CODE is not updateable.
• J3: LOCATION is not updateable.
• J2: PRIMARY_SITE_USE_FLAG is not updateable.
  • Keep in mind that site_use_code, primary_use_flag, and location may not be updateable through the Customer Interface
• A3: Customer reference for insert is already defined.
• A5: Customer Number already assigned to a different customer.
  • Customer reference and Customer number are values that must be unique. Verify the customer reference or customer number does not already exist for another customer.

Tips and Technique

1. Check out some of the Profile Options hitting Customer Import

• HZ: Generate Party Number
  • This the profile option can be updated at Site, Application, Responsibility and User levels.This profile option determines whether party number should be auto-generated. If value is 'No',means party number must be passed in by the user else if 'Yes' or if the value is not set, party number will be auto-generated.
• HZ: Generate Party Site Number
  • same as above for party site number set at all leval.
• HZ: Internal Party
  • This profile option is used as a part of CRM setup. This must be set if CRM is installed. It is used for data migration purpose.
• HZ: Generate Contact Number
  • This profile option determines whether contact number should be auto-generated.If the value is 'No', contact number must be passed in by the user. If the value is 'Yes' or if the value is not set, contact number will be auto-generated.

2. Automatic sequence number for customer number

Many times AR department is not like oracle seeded number which start by default 1000.Options are there:

From R11 and 11i, you cannot change the sequence via the forms and therefore any change that you make to the sequence would have to be
through SQLPlus and that would not be supported.

To set the sequence number

Step 1. In the Application Developer responsibility,
Menu: Application=>Database=>Sequence
Step 2. Query on sequence RA_CUSTOMERS_NUM_S
This will bring up the sequence for the customer numbers and you can enter the number that you want it to start from.

To set automatic numbering for customer after setting the sequence:

Step 1. Menu:=>System=>System Options
Step 2. Region - Invoicing and Customers
Step 3. Check the box for Automatic Customer Numbering.

3. When doing Migration from other system, adviced to use TRIM Function

• When loading interface tables remove all trailing spaces from import data.
  Example: LTRIM(RTRIM(customer_name))

4.If importing large number of customers, run in smaller batches instead of all at once.

Oracle benchmark is about 10,000 records per batch is ideal, it is suggested to keep the batch size small.

5.When rolling out in Multi-Org , then you must populate the org_IDs in the interface tables and run the customer interface for each organization set-up responsiblity.