Auto Transfer

NOTE: All functions under Administration require Administrator privileges.

The Auto Transfer capability allows organizations to significantly reduce the time/effort involved with processing recurring imports / exports. Auto Transfer allows you to schedule multiple Import & Export jobs. If D&B hosts your eRAM, this is managed by the Hosted eRAM Tech team.

Scheduling Imports

Auto Transfer Imports takes information from one or more Import Templates, retrieves the data files, runs the import, and recalculates the Credit Limits.

To schedule an import:

Click Admin in the Top Navigation Bar.
Select Auto Transfer on the left navigation panel.
Ensure that the Import radio button is selected.
Enter the date to run the automatic import.
Enter the time to run the automatic import.
Select a file from the Import Templates to Use drop-down list.

NOTE: In order for the target file to appear on the selection list, it must be uploaded into the import folder under the root eRAM directory before the scheduled process time of the import.

Select a file from the Import from File drop-down.
Click Save once complete.
Notice that the auto import job is added to the Scheduled Data Transfers section.

NOTE: When the scheduled job is complete, it will show a Status of Completed.

Scheduling Exports

Auto Transfer Exports takes information from one or more Export Templates on a scheduled basis.

To schedule an export:

Click Admin in the Top Navigation Bar.
Select Auto Transfer on the left navigation panel.
Ensure that the Export radio button is selected.
Enter the date to run the automatic export.
Enter the time to run the automatic export.
Select a file from the Export Templates to Use from the drop-down.
Enter a destination file name in the Export to File field.

NOTE: The exported file will reside in the directory specified. The Default Export folder on the server is: \<erammap installation directory>\transfer\export.

Click Save once complete.

NOTE: When the scheduled job is complete, it will show a Status of Complete.

Transfer

The Transfer screen supports the creation and modification of Import and Export Templates.

To go to the Transfer screen:

Click Admin in the Top Navigation Bar.
Select Transfer on the left navigation panel.

Import Template

The Import Tool updates data in bulk and inserts that data into the database. Import files consist of ASCII text characters whose fields are defined in an Import Template and match the fields in the eRAM database. The file formats should be comma delimited, asterisk delimited, pipe delimited, XML or tab.

To create or edit an Import Template:

Click Admin in the Top Navigation Bar.
Select Transfer on the left navigation panel.
Select the Import radio button.
Click +New.
Enter the Template Name without spaces.
Click OK and the new template will be added to the Import Templates drop-down with an IXF extension.
Select the Record Type to specify the type of delimiter in the import file.
Select the Data File from the drop-down.

NOTE: For your data file to appear on the list, it needs to be copied to the import folder under the eRAM directory on the application server or added using the Upload button

Select the Columns from the AVAILABLE COLUMNS list.
Click Add to move it to the SELECTED COLUMNS list.

NOTE: Click Filler if there are extra fields on the incoming data file that should not be imported with this template. It will appear as FILLER in the SELECTED COLUMNS field list.

Click Translate if you wish to translate incoming values to something else.
Select the appropriate translation data type.
Click OK once complete.
Click Save on the Transfer screen.

NOTE: If the required fields are not included in the new template, eRAM will automatically add them to the end of the list and alert the user.

Primary Key

The Account Number field is the primary key in the eRAM database. It tells the import engine where to write the data. The order of the fields is not important, as long as the File Layout is available when creating an import template. The File Layout is used to map data to its location in eRAM.

NOTE: Each field must be mapped to the correct table and column in the eRAM database.

eRAM uses the ISO-8859-1 character set. This character set supports the Latin alphabet.

Control character Tab is allowed for delimiting data fields.
Control characters Carriage Return and Line Feed in combination, are sometimes required for delimiting lines of data in eRAM files. Other control characters are not allowed.
Multi-byte characters are allowed for User defined Multi Lingual fields only.

Guidelines

Use the following guidelines when creating ASCII text files for importing data into eRAM. When using XML files, ignore any guidelines concerned with delimiters, e.g. 3 and 4 below:

Country Code and Currency Code are required fields.
To avoid generating an error message, avoid using a “header” record as the first record in the data file.
Separate each field with a comma and quote, tab, pipe or asterisk. Choose only one type of delimiter per file.
When using commas as the field delimiter, enclose text fields within single quote marks. This allows the Import tool to ignore commas that appear within the data itself.
When using tabs as the delimiter, use the tab key to separate character fields.
When using asterisks or pipe as the delimiter, do not use quotes around character fields.
Use the data field descriptions to determine a field’s maximum length allowed by eRAM.
Do not pad the text fields with leading or trailing spaces or zeroes (except for Account Number and DUNS Number where leading zeros are significant).
The Account Number (Acct_Num) must match the account-numbering scheme and actual account numbers used in the Trade Tape process or Accounts Receivable (AR) system.

NOTE: The account number links the D&B information and demographic data with the AR data.

In certain cases, the account number must contain leading zeros in order for account numbers to sort in sequence. For example, account number “20” will sort after account number “100.” This can be avoided by using a numbering scheme such as 00020 and 00100.

Numeric fields such as Past Due, Current Owing and so on, must be created on the import file as viewable ASCII characters.

NOTE: Packed zoned, binary or other formats are not acceptable.

Numeric data can contain decimal points. Currency data cannot contain thousands separators (commas) or currency symbols.
The State field must be a two-character text field, separate from the address line.
The Country Code must be a two-character text, field separate from the address line.
The Currency Code must be a three-character text field.
eRAM will automatically format telephone numbers. The translation option allows eRAM to ignore non-numeric characters.

Test Import

To test the import:

Click on Test Import.
The Test Import Screen displays with the database field to update, the value, and any translation of the first record in the incoming file.
Click view the raw file, click View File.

NOTE: Once viewing the file, use the First, Next, Prev, or Last button to review additional records in the incoming file.

Errors

If any problems exist, an error message will appear. If you wish to review the file and diagnose the error, click the View File button and the file will open for viewing.

Run Import

To begin the Import process:

Click Run Import.
The Import process will be scheduled in the Process Scheduler in the left navigation bar.

Export Templates

To create or edit an Export Template:

Click Admin in the Top Navigation Bar.
Select Transfer on the left navigation panel.
Click +New.
Select the Export radio button.
Enter the Template name.
Click OK. The new name will appear on the Export Templates drop-down with an EXF extension.
Select the Record Type to specify the type of delimiter in the export file.
Specify the name of the export file in the Data File field.
Select the Columns from the AVAILABLE COLUMNS list.
Click Add to move it to the SELECTED COLUMNS list.

NOTE: Click Filler if there are filler fields to add on the export file. It will appear as FILLER in the Selected Columns field list.

NOTE: If there are plans to re-import this data back into eRAM, make certain to include the Account Number, Country Code, and Currency Code with the export fields.

Click Save once complete.

Export Files

Prior to running a data export, an Export Template must be created by the preceding process.

To export a file:

Click Admin in the Top Navigation Bar.
Select Transfer on the left navigation panel.
Select the Export radio button.
Select the appropriate export template from the export templates drop-down.
Specify your export file delimiter in the Record Type.
Optional: When appropriate, you can export headers by checking off Export Headers or export tagged financial statements by checking off Export Tagged Financial Statements.
Click Save once complete.
Click Run export once ready.

NOTE: The Export Process will be scheduled in the Process Scheduler in the left navigation bar under the Tools screen in the Top Navigation bar.

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