Raw

**To:** Robert Salton
**From:** John Jackson
**Subject:** We can accept Big Chief's monthly file and single payment

Big Chief (account 8306) has asked to replace individual delivery-ticket settlement with an electronic monthly file and one prepaid payment. We reviewed how that would work, and we recommend accepting it: the arrangement gives us the ticket data we need, keeps control of the cash, and runs through the national-accounts system as it stands.

**1. We keep every identifier the settlement process depends on.**
The file must carry parent number, outlet number, ticket number, ticket amount and delivery date. Where Big Chief cannot supply the parent and outlet numbers, we can issue them from the customer master file for use in later submissions.

**2. We keep control of the cash.**
Big Chief sends the file to Data Processing and the cheque, with a detailed listing, to the lockbox. We balance the file under the prescribed procedure, and the cheque total and file detail must net to zero before anything proceeds.

**3. We change nothing in our own systems.**
Big Chief writes the extraction program against its accounts-payable file, in the format our national-accounts cash-receipt system already accepts. Once balanced, the monthly file runs through the national-accounts system, matches ticket numbers against statement history and produces the billing records.

**What I need from you:** your approval to proceed with Big Chief on this basis.