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**Subject:** Approve Big Chief’s monthly electronic settlement – conditional on data completeness and adherence to our file‑format and balancing procedures  

**Situation** – Finance currently settles each delivery ticket individually; Big Chief (account 8306) proposes to submit a single monthly file and make one prepaid payment.  

**Complication** – Our national‑accounts system can only process external files that contain the parent number, outlet number, ticket number, amount and delivery date, and the file must balance to zero before it can be posted.  

**Question** – Can we accept Big Chief’s request under these constraints?  

**Answer** – Yes – we can accommodate the monthly electronic settlement provided Big Chief supplies the required identifiers (or we supply them from the customer master) and follows the prescribed file format and balancing steps.  

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### 1. Data requirements (identifiers)  
- Each record must include **parent number, outlet number, ticket number, ticket amount, and delivery date**.  
- If Big Chief cannot provide the first two identifiers, Finance will add them from the customer master file.  

### 2. File format and transmission  
- Big Chief will develop an extraction program that produces an accounts‑payable file in the **format accepted by our national‑accounts cash‑receipt system**.  
- The file is to be sent to **Data Processing**, and the accompanying prepaid cheque (with a detailed listing) to the **lockbox**.  

### 3. Reconciliation and posting  
- Finance will **balance the file** against the cheque total; the two must net to zero.  
- Once balanced, the file will run through the national‑accounts system, **match ticket numbers to statement history**, and generate the appropriate billing records.  

**Next step:** Confirm Big Chief’s ability to meet the identifier and format specifications and schedule the first monthly file submission.