Active Sort Module - ASM
ACTIVE SORT APPLICATIONS
AiDPS includes document
sort applications for Bulk Filing and Fine Sort. The document
sort applications sort documents based on user-defined criteria.
SORT KEYS
Documents are sorted using a sort key. During customization
customers are able to define the sort keys, which can be
comprised of single fields, multiple fields, or multiple
sub-fields from the document. A sort key can contain up
to 32 characters.
EXCEPTION ITEM PULL
Fine Sort and Bulk Filing can be set up to out-sort exception
items. Exception Items are those items marked by the bank’s
accounting system as exceptions. These items may, for instance,
be from accounts that are closed; accounts with insufficient
funds, or where the account holder has requested a stop
payment.
Exception item pull is normally performed after data export
and host account posting and are usually identified in a
file supplied by the host system. If a document appears
in the exception item file it will be sorted into one of
the exception item pockets. The exception file can optionally
indicate an “exception type” so that different
exception type items can be sorted to different pockets.
FINE SORT
The Fine Sort Application is used to sort items into a sequential
order to assist with storage or further processing. While
any document with an OCR or MICR scan line can be fine sorted,
the most common uses of fine sort are to sort checks into
branch order or account number / check-number order.
Documents are sorted by repeatedly passing them through
the transport, re-ordering the documents until the required
order is achieved.
Because Fine Sort uses an algorithm to sort documents, it
must know what documents are present in the fine sort. This
is accomplished in one of two ways; fine sort may pre-pass
documents itself or it may receive book data from AiDPS.
The use of book data from AiDPS
will eliminate one pass of fine sort.
Exception Item Pull can be performed during the first pass
of fine sort.
BULK FILING
Bulk Filing is used to prepare checks for inclusion with
customer statements when statements are generated by cycles.
Cycles are used when a bank’s accounting system splits
the accounts into a number of statement days (cycles) per
month. On each of these days, or cycles, the statements
for the selected accounts are generated.
Bulk Filing has two stages: Cycle Sort and Statement Sort.
Exception Item Pull can be performed at either Cycle Sort
or Statement Sort.
CYCLE SORT
Cycle Sort is executed each day to separate the documents
into their correct cycles, and then the items are added
to those previously accumulated for the respective cycles.
The cycles to which particular documents belong is defined
in the cycle control file that is normally obtained from
the accounting host. Frequently, banks will arrange their
work so that each cycle corresponds to a particular day
in the month when statements are rendered for all the accounts
in that cycle.
Cycle sort is normally a single pass operation. However,
cycle sort will operate on a machine which is physically
too small to contain all cycles: documents which cannot
be sorted on the first pass are sent to the re-pass pocket
and are passed and sorted again with the pockets being reassigned
to the higher cycles.
STATEMENT SORT
At statement generation time for each cycle, the accumulated
documents in the cycle to be generated are fine sorted into
account number and optionally check-number order for inclusion
with the statement. The Statement Sort Application carries
this out.
The required document order is defined in the statement
file that is normally downloaded from the account host.
The documents are sorted into statement file order as specified
in the statement file, which may or may not be in numerical
order. Any missing items are written to the audit trail.
Statement sort is a multi pass operation. Documents are
passed and re-passed until they are in the required order
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