Processing Prepayments 
Creating Prepayments
You can create prepayments in the system to prepay customers for future trade promotions.
When the prepayment is in status To Be Approved, a fund usage item is created in funds.
When the prepayment is approved, the system transfers the prepayment to the settlement due list. The prepayment amount for the fund item(s) is communicated to the Funds Management component.
When all items at item level have a status Settled, the system sets the header status to Fully Settled.
Canceling a prepayment invalidates it. A canceled prepayment still exists in the system but it cannot be used in the claim resolution process.
Approving and Settling Prepayments
Prepayments must be approved before they can be settled.
Unless you have the necessary authorizations to approve prepayments, the system triggers a workflow process. Your approval manager receives the prepayment in their waiting list. The approval manager can then set the status to Approved.
If the approval manager decides not to approve the prepayment, for example, if the amount is too high, then they can set the status to Returned. The system returns the prepayment to the user who created it. You, as that user, can change the status to In Process, and edit the prepayment.
When all items at item level have a status Settled, the system sets the header status to Fully Settled.
Note
A prepayment can only be used in the claim resolution process when it is completely settled.
Note
The statuses Written Off and Closed cannot be set in prepayments.
Transferring Prepayments
You can reassign prepaid amounts between funds, and transfer prepaid amounts to different funds entirely.
Reassigning prepaid amounts involves changing the funds involved, not the prepaid amount.
Example
You distribute EUR 20,000 between two funds evenly:
Fund 1: 10,000 dollars
Fund 2: 10,000 dollars
You then decide to transfer the prepaid amount to two different funds entirely:
Fund 3: 9,000 dollars
Fund 4: 11,000 dollars
The prepaid amount remains 20,000 dollars
You can also transfer prepaid amounts to different funds. For example, if funds need to be closed at the end of the fiscal year, you can transfer the remaining prepaid amounts to a different fund so that their original fund can be closed.
The system represents the transfer as a carried-over prepayment.
Creating Collective Prepayments
You can also combine multiple prepayments into a single collective prepayment and assign the collective prepayment to a different fund from the original individual prepayments.
Example
You want to close a fund at the end of the fiscal year, but there are still several open prepayments assigned to it, so that you cannot close the fund. One solution would be to transfer each prepayment individually to a new fund as a carried-over prepayment. However, this means a lot of extra work when each prepayment has only a small remaining amount so that the prepayments are likely to be closed themselves soon after the transfer. To minimize the work, you can create a collective prepayment from the original prepayments and assign it to a new fund. This enables you to close the original funds.
Collective prepayments behave similarly to carried-over prepayments.
ERP Integration
When the prepayment is settled, a settlement is created. This settlement creates an accounting document in ERP. The accounting document creates a dispute case. In the dispute case, the original disputed amount is equal to the original prepaid amount. When the prepayment is used in the claims process, the disputed amount in the dispute case is reduced.