SWIFT MT940 is a common bank statement file across Europe. S.W.I.F.T. (or SWIFT) stands for
Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It was established by European
bankers who needed a more efficient and secure system for inter bank communications and
transfer of funds and securities. SWIFT messages are preset and referred to by category
numbers called MT numbers. Cashbook has an integrated SWIFT MT940 solution which allows
companies to upload a bank statement and algorithms are applied so that cash receipts and
manual payments are automatically applied to customer invoices. The module can automate
anything from 30-90% of your daily cash transactions.

SWIFT MT940 Upload

The process begins with uploading an MT940 (or other bank format for that matter) bank
statement into Cashbook. If the bank statement includes good quality reference data our solution
can automatically suggest invoice allocations for accounts receivable transactions. We also
suggest manual journal postings as well based upon the reference data in the bank statement.
The word “suggest” is used as no automatic postings are completed, everything must be
approved by the appropriate credit controller.

Some bank files do not provide standard, mandatory reference data records, specifically record
86, in the MT940 file format. Bank contacts should be requested to improve the data supplied.

The variation in automation from 30-80% depends upon the bank that your business is using and
the way your customers pay you. We can easily assess the level of automation you are likely to
get at no charge if you supply an example of one of your daily bank statements. This module can
be implemented in the Benelux region or anywhere across Europe. Our experience has been
excellent (70-90%) in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and The
Netherlands, okay in France and Belgium (30-50%) and across the UK the auto-matching is
limited (10-20%) due to the quality of the bank statement data. The good news is with SEPA
changes to the structure of payment files, our auto-matching with the SWIFT MT940 bank
statement files will result in higher automation percentages in the future.

Features:

JDBC access to multiple ERP systems either directly integrating with system data or via
staging databases
Can be adapted for any Bank globally
Standard bank statement upload process no matter what bank/currency or ERP you are
using
Supports algorithms across customer numbers, invoices, sales orders, customer bank
accounts, pick list, packing numbers, customer purchase orders, shipment numbers, sales
orders
Uploads and stores multiple bank accounts, bank statement numbers, opening and closing
bank balances
Excellent validation rules around postings
Reports on all cash automatically applied and manually matched
Can alias bank statement information that is incoming to improve auto-matching and not-
upload specific bank account details
Caters for partial payments, credit/debit notes, unallocated payments, multiple discount
terms, foreign exchange gain or losses, write-offs, bank charges, suspense account
postings
Integrated with Excel, EDI, PDF and Customer Lockbox Modules and Bank Reconciliation
which enables usage with high and low volume customers
Multiple sites, environments or ERP systems can be catered for
Where codes or ‘character strings’ are used to identify transaction types and / or amounts
– example ‘SKT’ = discount – we will automatically code these references to specific
general ledger accounts
Ability to view all bank statement information through Cashbook journals

Benefits:

Elimination of manual effort allows companies to allocate more staff time to other higher-
value activities
Creates the ability to run Shared Service Centers without the need for a common ERP
platform or version updates
Global companies can employ a global solution for all sites across multiple different banks

View our MT940 Cash Application Webinar here >>

Project Example:

The matching process will incorporate the following rules:

Only numeric characters will be searched. Any non-numeric will be ignored with the exception of
special characters ‘+’ (plus), ‘-‘ (minus or hyphen), ‘/’ (slash), ‘,’ and ‘ ‘ (space).

The process will start from the left and if no successful invoice matches are found then the
search will end
Identification of the AR Customer for each AR receipt is dependant on finding a complete
document number that falls within the range of open documents for the company/entity. If a
complete valid document number is not found, there will be no proposed matches for the
transaction
Invoice allocation records for each search will be restricted to the company/entity of each
Bank Account
The proposed Matches will apply to invoices, credit notes and debit notes (all records with
balances outstanding on the invoice allocation file)
Discount will be assumed in all cases. Cashbook will analyse from the customer payment
the discount due date of the invoice and accept the discount if it is within a two days
tolerance of the due date
Any matches proposed by Cashbook’s SWIFT MT940 solution will be available for
amendment by the users. No updates take place in AR or the general ledger until the full
Bank Statement journal is posted
At each search step, as invoices are matched, the total amount of the transaction will be
compared to the amount to be allocated against the selected invoices (including discount).
If the remaining amount to be allocated (whether positive or negative) falls outside the
defined variance, the next search step will be applied
Searching will continue over the reference details until all references have been matched,
even if the remaining amount equals zero. This will avoid omitting matches on invoice and
credit notes of equal value
Invoice ranges must include “-“ (with no spaces) between the two numeric fields. This
separator shall be defined in a Java Bean Discriminator

Click to zoom

MT940 File Upload

The new version of Cashbook is really
an improvement to the old Cashbook.
It is a much more stable program, and a
user friendly product.

Margreet Peverelli – Cashbook User, Skiffy
BV