An overview of managing booking acceptance through file download and upload
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The Buyer Download and subsequent Upload functions gives Buyers the option to manage their transactions outside of the platform. By exporting their data from the Transactions>Bookings grid or through a Scheduled task the Buyer can evaluate the transactions, either manually or through their back office, and assign accept/amend/reject against them before uploading back into Travel Ledger in the format detailed below.
Using the Buyer Upload File replaces (optionally) manual acceptance/amendment/rejection. This file is generated by the Buyer and uploaded into Travel Ledger, initially this will need to be done manually on the platform, but in the future we plan to support upload via email or SFTP.
The file contains a record of all transactions in the specified period that the Buyer is accepting, amending, or rejecting (with a mandatory reason code if amending or rejecting). This file would generally be uploaded after a Buyer has received and reconciled a Buyer Reconciliation download file in their Back-office system, but it can be generated independently as long as the required data is present.
A transaction can still be updated as many times as necessary before the end of the Buyer review period, either in the platform manually or through the upload file.
The file import works on the principle that ‘everything must be right’ or ‘nothing is right’. The entire file will be rejected if there are data/validation/matching issues anywhere in the file.
The Buyer is able to download their data to reconcile offline in their own back office. This will require some configuration with your IT team and/or back office supplier.
It is possible to set up an export in Settings>Task Scheduler.
The task name is 'Buyer Rec', this is a CSV format file and can be configured with your preferred settings including:
Date format: DDMMMYY, DD-MM-YY or DD/MM/YY
Decimal Separator Character: None, Full stop/Period or Comma
Encapsulation: None or Double speech marks
Delivery can be set up to email or sFTP (set up instructions can be found in Upload by Data Delivery Methods) and the time and date schedule can also be set.
Below is a screenshot of the set up of the report:
Once the download file has been reconciled in your back office a Buyer Upload is required to update Travel Ledger.
Below is a summary of the file requirements.
General conditions/assumptions
Firstly, there are a number of general conditions and assumptions that should be followed:
IMPORTANT NOTE:- The presence of a blank column name or column name that is not TL-defined will cause the entire file to be rejected
Comma separated file
File Name: The filename must have a prefix of “REC” . The remainder of the filename can be any length and consist of any standard characters (although we recommend that it is consistently named each time, and includes a date stamp, user initials etc). The file name suffix must be one of:- “.CSV”, “.TXT”, “.TRA”, or “.DAT”
Empty optional fields should not contain any data or spaces, rather they will just be ‘empty’ with a comma each side, representing the comma separator from the preceding and proceeding field. By way of example:- if there were 5 fields and fields 3 and 4 didn’t contain any data, it would be /represented thus:- “Field 1,Field 2,,,Field 5”
The file must not contain a Header record
The file must not contain a Trailer record
The first row of the file must contain column names
TL- defined column names must be used for all mandatory columns and any optional columns to be imported into the platform
All Mandatory TL defined columns must be present, else the entire file will be rejected
Any Optional TL defined columns may be present. Their presence or not will not cause the file to be rejected.
Columns with TL defined column names can be in any position in the file
A single file must only contain records of the same type
Unless specified differently, all Char fields are alphanumeric
Alpha characters can be in upper, lower, or mixed case
Use of ‘Special’ characters within char fields, including tabs, Carriage Returns [CR] and Line feeds [LF], is not permitted
Integer fields must contain only digits, no decimals
May only contain digits 0-9, an optional decimal point character and a minus sign. The presence of any other characters will cause the entire file to be rejected
Date Formats
Dates must be supplied in one of the following formats:-
DDMMMYY, no separators
DD-MM-YY
DD/MM/YY
End of line indicator should be Carriage return [CR], Line Feed [LF], or [CR][LF]
IMPORTANT NOTE:- The final record in the file must not have an EoL indicator
Attached below is a PDF containing all of the fields available in the Buyer Upload:
Below are 2 examples of files that are suitable for Buyers to submit.
1). All column names example:
2). Mandatory only column names example
