Documentation - DOKA-NG (Functional availability is per selected plan)

This documentation is intended for users who need to become familiar with DOKA-NG, but who have not yet had any basic introduction to, or training in, the software.

This description uses examples - which you can follow parallel to reading the text - to take you through the software, helping you understand not only how to use the application, but also help you come to terms with general procedures and the basic concepts we use. If a number of options have been described of how to use/handle the transaction, please feel free to try them all out.

You'll also find a number of references to other texts. Click these and follow the links if you want some more (or more detailed) information. You don't need these details to work through and understand the examples. You are also free to read these extra texts at a later time if you want to intensify your understanding of the subject matter.

As well as being able to access the installation technically, the only other thing you need is a User ID and the relevant password.
Please note: The User ID basically controls which functions you are entitled to use and how you can access them. For instance, clerical staff have access to business transaction functions but are not allowed to import software patches, whereas for a system administrator the rules are exactly the opposite.

If you are working in a separate test system or with one of the special User IDs in our MyModelbank, you can try out (virtually) all functions. In this case, you will be working in your own data environment and you will not affect any of the real live data. The only things you should not be 'playing with' are the more technical functions that serve to 'manage' the database.

Check out 'Users and User Profiles' to see what access rights the MyModelbank User IDs have.

Information is provided on the following topics:

• Logging in
• The Office
• Example 1 - Advising/Confirming an Export L/C
  • Interrupting the Transaction
  • Completing the Fields
    • Comboboxes
    • Fields with a magnifier icon
    • Amount Input
    • Checkboxes
    • Date Fields
    • Simple Input Boxes
    • Parties
    • Fields with selection of text modules
    • Input Grids
    • The Settlement Details Panel
    • The Settlement Panel
    • The Bookings Panel
    • The Completion Panel
    • The Messages Panel
    • Mandatory Fields, Optional Fields and Error Messages
    • Context Menu and Help texts
    • Diary Events
  • Checking and Saving Transactions with Warnings
• Example 2 - Advising/Confirming Using an Incoming Message
  • Retrieving Incoming Messages
  • Processing Incoming Messages
• Pending/Repairing Transactions
• Control and Release
• What happens next with the transaction?
• Static Data and Reports and Documentation

Start the application using the link made available to you. A window will open for you to enter your User ID and the password.

Enter the user credentials, Click [OK], or press <Enter>. The application starts and you should then see the “Office” environment. You can always cancel the login process by clicking [Cancel].

You should initially be able to see a screen as central working environment with five permanently shown areas.

• Top panel: Icons and status line.
• Left panel: The contract search field, the menu with all available business sectors and functional parts, depending on the user's profile.
• Main panel: Your personal “To DO LIST” showing all current open tasks for yourself. The type and number of items shown depend on your current settings, e.g. selections made under “Included in List”, selected user group, etc.
• Right panel: The right hand area shows the DOKA-NG Logo, the current entity (this defaults to 'HAMBURG'), the user ID, the current date and the current local time. A clipboard with pending items, which are not finally saved for release. These items normally call for your immediate attention. And on the bottom of the right panel a 'hot queue' area. These are your most urgent notifications.
• Bottom: Not available in the office environment, but showing Index tabs in most transactions.

Header area - Icons

The icon bar consists of four functional groups

• Left: Main functions - always available
• Left to the middle: Transaction functions
• Right to the middle: Functions for currently selected grid line(s)
• Right: Functions to pause and leave the transaction

If you move the cursor over an icon, you will see that the shape of the cursor changes into a hand with a pointing index finger. Whenever the cursor hovers over an object a reference description, called “hint”, is displayed. Many hints show you also information about the relevant short-cut for those users who prefer to work more keyboard-orientated.

See also overview of the icons with functional description (General Function Icons ). Simply clicking on the icon starts the relevant function. If you want to close the application,

• you can press <ESC>,
• click on the “Exit” icon,
• click on the 'X' on the blue bar at the top, right-hand corner of the program window or
• directly select an action from your personal list of selections, situated on the right-hand side of the central working area.

Menu

The main titles of all available functions are visible in collapsed mode. Just click on the titles to expand them and to see the next sub-menus. When hovering over a menu title, its color will change (from black to navy blue). After clicking and selecting a title, the menu will expand to the next sub-menu and the transaction finally selected will be marked with an asterisk.

You can close/leave any menu/sub-menu by either selecting another menu/sub-menu, returning to the main office bz clicking the icon or directly selecting a (different) contract.

Detailed information on the office and its features is available at 'The Office'.

N. B.: The representation of the office environment displayed may vary in its details depending on the User ID you are using. The titles shown on the menu/sub-menus may vary, as may the features and sub-menus behind the labels. We will try to show you alternative methods of using a given feature as the case may require.

An initial hint : if available, look for an existing transaction in your files that you can use as an example/data template. This can help you to recognize the parallels and differences to your previous procedure.

To be able to process an operation which we call a transaction, - here we will be working on advising an export L/C - you first have to select the functions for the respective business sector. To do this, first click on the Menu “Export Products” > “Export L/C ” > “Main” > “Advise / Confirm”.

Alternatively: Depending on your user profile you may have the option to click the icon “Launch Transaction”, for manual entry of a transaction code. Enter “LETOPN”

and press <“Enter”>. The following transaction panel will open:

In this example, the advise / confirm operation for an Export L/C is to take place. The transaction was started.

Transactions in the application always have a code, which tends to be six-digit (e.g., “LETOPN”), as well as a text description (e.g., “Advising/Confirming”). Both are displayed in the window's header , thus allowing you to check at any time just precisely which transaction you are at. The menu entry marked with an asterisk ('*') also highlights your current transaction.

The display instantly updates to display the transaction “Advising / Confirming”. The screen page you are viewing at any given time is known as a “Panel”. A “Panel” always has a tab at the bottom, which identifies it by name (here: “Overview”) .

A status line near the top of the window shows a message of the form, working environment/transaction code/transaction decode, e.g.

Here you can see the code “LETOPN” with the description “Advising / Confirming”. Prefixed to the code you can see the technical environment you are currently working in.

To process a transaction (abbreviated to TRN) that adds a new contract, as in this example, there are many fields that usually have to be filled in. These fields are spread over several panels. The names of these panels will be visible on the panel tabs positioned below the main input interface. You can easily navigate panels at any time by just clicking the relevant tabs.

In the top right-hand corner of any transaction panel you will find a icon and an icon.

Click to finish (leave/abort) the session/process you've started. However, doing this will mean you'll lose any unsaved data. A confirmation dialog will open giving you the following options –

• you really want to [Leave] the session without saving, which closes this session
• Clicking [Break] puts the transaction on hold, exiting your current process
• [Return] takes you back to the current transaction, where you can continue your work
• [Save] saves your entered data

Clicking on icon will produce the same outcome as using [Break], closing the current process display. All the data you have captured will be retained and a so-called SPT (System Pending Transaction) entry will be created, which you can retrieve at any later time of your choosing. Retrieving an SPT allows you to continue the session from exactly the same spot you were working on before you clicked [Break]. This paused entry will be displayed in your list of pending tasks on the right hand side, e.g.

The section 'Pending/Repairing Transactions' explains in detail the working method for processing pending items.

Fields that are enabled - i.e. fields that allow you to make a data entry - have a white fill. Disabled fields - no entry possible - have a light blue fill, the same color as the background of the main GUI. Example: The nominal amount of the L/C and the amount tolerance are filled in white (= entries possible); the maximum amount field however is light blue, because this value is automatically calculated from the other two fields.

In principle, you can enter data in the fields required in any sequence of your choosing. However, it does make sense to follow the sequence of the fields provided. Subsequent amendments to fields that have already been filled in are possible at any time.

As you fill in the panel and move from field to another, you may occasionally see error messages, i.e. information presented in yellow boxes. These are there to help you recognize and remedy missing, erroneous or inconsistent data. We shall discuss mandatory and optional fields and error messages at later stage in this tutorial.

Sometimes you will notice fields that already have content without you having entered anything there. The reason for this is that so-called default rules implemented in the software are executed transparently for you. The rules fill (or clear) fields depending on other data or field contents.

There are different types of fields that also differ in their visual appearance. We shall now review these fields, using our previously introduced example.

The first editable input box (in our example scenario) is the “Form of L/C”. Located near the right-hand edge of this field is a little button with a downward-pointing triangle.

This type of GUI control is known as a “Combobox” - an input box that only accepts input in the form of selection made from a range of pre-defined values. If you click this triangle or inside the field itself, you'll see a “drop-down list” of possible values. As you move the mouse cursor up and down this list, the entry over which the cursor moves or hovers will turn blue. Identify the entry you want and then click to select it. The drop-down list will then close, and the selected value be displayed in the box. Should the list of values in the combobox be long, you'll find a scrollbar to the right of the list to help you navigate the list.

After you have become familiar with the values that are contained in this list you can simply enter the first letter(s) of the value to select it directly. If you click on the triangle again after selecting a value, the entire drop-down list will appear again, but already focused your the selected value; you may then continue your search starting from this position.

Whether a value needs to be selected from the drop-down list in a combobox, or the field may remain empty, depends on your current business context. Some comboboxes will also permit free-text input in addition to the predefined values. Use the instructions provided to select a value for the “Form of L/C” input box.

To proceed to the next input box “Responsible User”, you can either click inside this input box or simply leave the current input box with <TAB>. The cursor will automatically jump to the next input box in the order we have defined.

The next input box 'Responsible User' is an input box with a to the right.

It already contains your User ID. You may also enter some other user ID here, but obviously only one taken from those users who are known in this environment.

There are various options for entering the desired value.

• You can type the User ID.
• You can type a string, using it as a search criterion. This method presumes the use of a partial user ID or user name, the omitted characters serving as “wildcards”. If your input returns one or more matches, you may then select the desired match.

  

  
  
• Select an entry either by
  • clicking on the entry or
  • by using the <Up> or <Down> arrows to move the cursor.
    Double-clicking or pressing <Enter> will then transfer the entry to the input field and the selection grid will close.
    
• You can also search on User IDs or user names by clicking the icon. So doing will open a pop-up panel entitled “Enhanced User Search”.
  
• Here you can specify one or more filter criteria. Clicking on [Search] will add a “selection grid” below the filter criteria, listing all the users who match the details you entered. Select an entry as mentioned in the above step. If there is only one match, then will be transferred straight away.
  If you entered a value for which there is no match, 'xyz' for instance, an error message will display inside a yellow box - “Search did not find any matching entry. Please re-specify the search criteria and search again.”. However, you will not be able to save the transaction later unless you have previously selected a valid entry.
• As soon as you have identified the right user, transfer the entry to the input field by clicking [Use] and/or review the user's profile by clicking [Display]. Clicking [Clear] as expected will purge any search criteria entered, enabling you to start over.
  

• The user profile page has the following appearance:
  

Note on sorting options for selection grids: Clicking any column header, such as 'User ID', will bring up an upward pointing open triangle, indicating the fact that the values in this column are now sorted in ascending order. A second click on the column header will flip the triangle and invert the sort order, i.e. will produce an array in descending order. By the same logic, any consecutive click on the column header will toggle the sort order.

Note on the grid column widths: Sometimes a column may contain more text than can be displayed in the space available. If you mouse-over the line separating two column titles, you'll notice how the cursor takes the shape of a double arrow. If at this point you click down, it is possible to drag the grid separators, making the desired adjustments to your column widths. This function is only available for grids where column titles are clearly visually separated.

Then, proceed to the next input box.

The “Nominal Amount” consists of two fields:

• Currency
• Amount

The currency can be selected using the comboboxes. As soon as the currency is selected the “Amount field” is automatically populated with the value 'zero', including the maximum number of decimal digits defined for the currency.

EUR, for example, defaults to '0.00', JPY, to '0', and KWD, to '0.000'. Type in the correct amount. You don't need to enter the thousands separator. As soon as you exit this input box, the separator will be added automatically. If you need to return to the amount field, you'll notice that the amount displays without the separator to make it easier to enter the value.

Now, proceed to the next field.

The “Additional Amount” (Add. Amount) box is a so-called Checkbox. A checkbox is a binary widget, implementing a binary selection: it can be checked (selected) or not checked (not selected). The former state uses a tick as its visual metaphor, whereas the latter is associated with a blank checkbox.

Usually:

• A checked checkbox means 'yes, this should apply' or 'yes, this is what I want'.
• An unchecked checkbox means 'No, this should not apply'.

Checking the “Additional Amount” box also yields another effect. In the range of panel tabs on the bottom of the screen, an additional tab appears - the “Additional Amount” panel. This can be filled in with all the necessary details later. If you remove the tick (uncheck the checkbox), the panel will also disappear. The reason for this is that every time you leave a box, the system checks whether any rules have been defined for this box, which may affect other input controls and/or panels.

Proceed to the next field. You can either enter a value in the “Amount Tolerance +/-” box or leave it empty.

The “Amount Specification” field is another type of comboboxes.

• Note The user can enter the value for the “Amount tolerance” (percentage) box or the Amount specification' box. Any input made in either one box will disable the other box.
• Note To enable “Amount Tolerance +/-” once again, click on the value of the “Amount Specification” box and press the [Delete]-button.

The “Incoming Transfer” field is another checkboxes. Decide whether such an incoming transfer applies or not.

Then proceed to the next field.

The “Issued on” field is a date field, and is depicted together with a little calendar symbol next to it. As soon as a date value has been entered, this displays the two-digit code for the corresponding weekday (e.g., 'Fr' for Friday).

If the weekday happens to be a public holiday according to the central calendar entries, the weekday will be highlighted in red font. Click on the calendar icon to access the calendar.

Clicking the calendar symbol takes you to the main calendar for this entity. Other calendars are available when hovering the mouse over the black triangle below the shown calendar month.

The basic format for representing dates in your system is set once for the whole system. This documentation assumes that the format chosen is 'DD.MM.YYYY'.

You may choose from a variety of methods to enter a date directly, calculate it or select it from a calendar. If possible, a date is determined according to your input and displayed in the set format when you leave the field.

• You can type in the date directly with its day, month and year.
  You can do this without typing any separators, but make sure that the day and month are each two digits long.
• You can type part of the date. Any input omitted for the month and/or year will be added using the current month/year. If the year is only listed in 2 digits, years < 50 are supplemented with 2000 and years >= 50 with 1900. The entry '4' or '04' would be interpreted as the 4th day of the current month, and the entry '4.12.' or '0412' would be interpreted as December 4 of the current year.
• You can use date calculation functionality in the input box. For this, you need to enter a sequence of characters that are used to calculated the date. This could include: (Input ⇒ date)
  • * ⇒ today
  • *<Count> ⇒ Today + <Number> Working days
  • *+<Count> ⇒ Today + <Number> Working days
  • *-<Count> ⇒ Today - <Number> Working days
  • +<Count> ⇒ Today + <Number> Days
  • -<Count> ⇒ Today + <Number> Days
  • <Date>+<Count> ⇒ Date + <Number> Days
• You can also click the calendar button next to the date field. A pop-up window will open to display a calendar showing a monthly view.
  • Working days are in black
  • Weekends and public holidays are in red
  • Today's date is shown in blue
• The month that matches the current entries made in the box is displayed. If the box is empty, the current month is shown.
  Below the days of the month is a description of the calendar and an input box for the number of days, as well as a checkbox entitled 'Working days'.
  The current day is highlighted by being shown inside a small rectangle with a white fill.
  You can now
  • select another day by clicking it
  • use the buttons with triangles at the top right and left to scroll backward or forward to the desired month
  • mouse-over the little arrow to the right of the calendar description to display a further pop-up panel. Here you can select another national or regional calendar to calculate the date. If the calendar selected is not the default calendar, the selected calendar's name is displayed in “italics”.
  • calculate a specific date. To do this, enter the number of days (where applicable preceded by a '-') in the 'Days' field. Check the 'Working days' box if the calculation is to be based on working days only. Click the [Calc.] button. The calendar will jump to the date calculated.
• If you found the desired date, select it by double-click or by clicking [OK]. Alternatively, you can close the calendar at any time by clicking [Cancel].

For more information on the calendar and date entries review the Calendar section.

Also select dates for the “Shipment Date” and “Expiring on” fields.

Proceed to the next field.

If a tenor for payment was agreed, enter the number of days in the “Maximum Tenor” field.

The “in (Place)/ counters of” widget is another comboboxes.

In this case, however, not only can you select one of the default values, but also enter a text of your choice, as may be required for business purposes.

In the “Confirmation Instructions” and “Confirmed by us” boxes, select (as appropriate) the relevant text from the comboboxes.

If you select “Yes” or “Silent” from the “Confirmed by us” comboboxes, subsequent fields will open for partial confirmation. As appropriate, enter either the amount or the percentage of the confirmation. The other value will be calculated automatically, and manual input disabled.

Select a value on the “Applicable Rules” box from the comboboxes. If you choose “any other rule”, the “Other Applicable Rules” box will be enabled.

This box is an example of a simple input box, into which you can simply type the desired text. The maximum length of the text depends on the length of the field; a field of this kind can also take multiple lines of text. Of course, you can also copy & paste into this box text from other sources.

N.B.: If subsequently you change the value for “Applicable Rules”, any content entered in the “Other Applicable Rules” field will be automatically deleted.

Proceed to the next field.

For the “Partial Shipment” and “Transshipment” fields, you can either select a value from the comboboxes or leave the field empty.

Proceed to the next field.

The three input boxes shown form a business related unit and each contain the details of a party involved in the contract. Such a unit normally comprises a code under which a party is stored in the system, an address block and a reference number (prescribed by the sender/party) that can be entered manually. It is technically possible to enter into this box random text, e.g., any beneficiary's name of which you may conceive. However, on performing a [Check] on your input or trying to [Save] the system will reject any entry that has no correlate in the DOKA database. To use any record not yet in the database, you will need to create a temporary party. In order to do so, click the icon next to the icon:

(Further details concerning the creation of temporary parties are discussed below.)

This unit of fields is always described by a party's business role in the contract context, the first of which is the role of 'Beneficiary'.

Enter the party's customer number or name in the Fields with a magnifier icon. Even a partial value filters for available results. As with entering the user code, use the keyboard navigation keys to select the desired entry from the list and confirm with <“Enter”> or a double-click to select an entry from the list. If you do not enter a value, use the -icon to call the search function. This also works like Fields with a magnifier icon. .

If no value is known yet, by clicking the -icon a special “Enhanced Party Search”-panel for search and selection pops-up here, which displays considerably more details of the address in the selection grid.

This means that you can - analogous to searching for a user id in our first example of such a field - now

• enter the code, if you know it
• enter a sequence of characters that you know which is part of the party's code, the party's name or the party's BIC. Click the “Search”-button and select the address required from the selection panel that appears or refine the search further by means of additional entries.
• Click the -icon to open the “Enhanced Party Search” pop-up panel, which provides similar search options as the info transaction for addresses of parties. You can search and select the desired address in this panel.

As soon as you have found and selected the desired party, the code will be transferred to the field. At the same time, the address block will be populated with the address stored for the party and become 'not editable'.

Clicking “View and Edit Partydetails” () will open the panel “Party Details of <role>”, here “Party Details of Issuing Bank” on which you can view and enter further details for the party.

Additionally, after a party is selected, upon clicking the -icon, a tabular overview shows you which other data such as accounts, limits, routing information, telephone/fax information etc. are stored for this party.

Click on the relevant -icon to show the data stored in a grid view.

Select a party as the “Beneficiary” of the L/C.

If you already know the reference number for the party in this L/C, simply enter it.

Now, move on to the fields for the next party, the “Issuer”.

Because issuers are normally banks, parties can only be selected for this field that are defined as party type 'bank' in the static data. See what happens when you try to select a party that is not a bank, for example the same party as your beneficiary. This will not work because the appropriate selection checks have been built into the system. In some very special cases an L/C may be issued by a party that is not a bank. Below the three party units, you can see the “Non-Bank Issuer” checkbox. Only when this box is checked can you select a non-bank as an issuer.

Depending on the role of the party, selection options can be restricted in terms of type (bank/corporate) or status (temporary/database address). The selection panel controlled by the shows these criteria as requested.

Select an “Issuer” and proceed to the fields for the applicant.

Unlike the beneficiary, who is usually a corporate customer known to your bank, and the issuer, who is normally a bank identified as such in your system, the applicant of an L/C is usually a company domiciled abroad. As such you don't normally hold details of this particular party on your books. Accordingly, you cannot select such parties from your static data; they need at first to be captured manually.

There are two ways to do this. In a separate transaction, you can add the party to your static data. This would allow you to select the party as we've seen above. The more simple way is to add the applicant directly in this transaction as a so-called temporary party. “Temporary parties” are only managed within the application and not in the database of address/customers at the bank. In many installations there are functions that compare address in the application's database with values stored on the host system and which can download data from there.

To add a “temporary party”, click in the address block and enter the name for the address (or at least the beginning of it). Then the -icon becomes active for a registering a new “temporary address”. When you click on -Button, the window opens the 'Create temp. applicant (APL)' panel, where you can capture all the data for the address. Any entries made in address block will be transferred. If you have entered other lines in the address block besides the first name line, these will be transferred to the structured fields in the new window. However, populating content to a structured field may not always be correct simply because the information is not always clear from the address block.

You have to fill in at least the first “name” line, the “country” and the “language” you want to correspond with the party in. On top of this you also have to select a “message” type for correspondence with the party. The choice of message type may then require other details to be entered. For 'letter', for example, beside the name and country you will also need to enter the street or post box as well as the zipcode/postcode and town/city, for a SWIFT message you will need the BIC and the an Email the relevant Email address, etc.

At the top of the panel you should see two other fields - the Comboboxes for the “Type” of address and the “Address ID”. “Type” indicates the nature of the party. You need to select the appropriate value. The address ID cannot be entered manually and is already filled in with a code under which the address is stored in your database. As a result, it can be selected directly from the database like that of any other party in case it is required later for other L/Cs (or other business).

On the top right-hand side of the panel you will see a [Save] button. Using this button you may save the address recorded to the database. Completion of this process, however, stipulates successful pass of all implemented checks for this panel's fields. Only if the system detected no errors will saving be actioned.

The “Exit”-button you will abort the data capture process. This could give you the opportunity to check whether the party you are looking for may have already been captured, for example. You will then see a message advising you that if you exit now any data entered will be lost. Click [OK] to exit, [No] to confirm the abortion, or [Cancel] to return to the panel.

You can save the address you have entered in the database by clicking [Save]. However, all of the checks implemented for the fields of this panel will be carried out first. The 'Save' process is only complete when no errors is found.

Now capture the address of the “Applicant” and save it. You will now find yourself back in the 'Overview' panel for the L/C. The fields for the “Applicant” now contain the code and the address block. You can use the icon to reopen and edit the details of this party.

Move to the next field.

Check the checkboxes for

• “Revolving L/C”
• “Assignment”
• “Participation Sold” and/or
• “Auto-Extension”,

as the case may require. If you mark the checkboxes, the respective panels will appear in the list of panels.

Information on the “Participation Sold” field can be found under “Participations Sold (Syndications)”.

We have already discussed what to do with the checkbox for “Non-Bank Issuer” when we explained how to capture data for the issuer. If necessary, remove/add the check.

If you now press <TAB>, as before you will arrive at the next field, this time however, the next field in on the next panel, the “Details” panel.

The “Available With” field is another combobox. Depending on your selection, the two following fields, in which the bank is specified more closely, are filled/closed. Select the correct entry. If you have decided in favor of a 'Named bank', select this as you did when selecting parties.

Move to the next field.

The “Available by” field is another combobox. Again, depending on your selection the following “Negotiation / Deferred Payment Details”, “Drafts at” and “Drawee” fields will be open/closed.

Select a value and fill in the related fields.

Fill in all the following fields in accordance with data stipulated in the L/C and move on to the field “Details of Charges for L/C”.

This field is an example of an Input field with a button next to it. Such fields can not only be filled with text typed into them, but can also be filled with pre-defined text modules. These should prevent you from typing manually the same texts and text phrases again and again, with all the risks of typos and omissions.

Click the button.

A pop-up window opens containing all the text modules available for this field.

In the column “Text Module” you will see the technical code of the module, next to it the “Name” and then the “Language”. If the list contains many modules, it would make sense to restrict the number of modules on display by using the “Language” comboboxes at the bottom of the pop-up. Select a language and all the text modules in other languages will be made invisible in the list. You can now select one or more text modules from the selection list to copy the texts into the input field, in this case the “Details of Charges for L/C” field.

• Clicking [→] to the right of the text module line copies the module directly into the input field. The selection list closes straight away. If only one module is to be selected, this is the quickest way to make your selection.
• Click the module you need and then click [Select].
• Move the cursor to the “Sel” column for the module you need and type either a number or a letter. The button at the bottom of the panel now changes from [Select] to [Take]:

If you wish to select more than one text module, as might be the case a little later, for example, when we take a look at the “Documents Required”, you can mark more modules with a number or letter. As soon as you have marked all the text modules you need, click [Take]. The texts relating to the modules you have selected are populated into the field “Details of Charges for L/C”, sorted in ascending order, according to the value entered in the “Sel” column. If you do not want to use any text module, simply click .

You can always click the button at any time to select a text module, regardless of whether you have typed in text manually or have just selected and transferred text modules. These added text from the modules are then placed at the position in the input field indicated by the cursor. Text copied to the input field from a text module can always be edited/deleted at any time. In this case you will only change the content of the input field itself, but not the text module.

Do note that the text container's capacity may be limited to its visible size, i.e. it does not “grow” (no scroll bars appear) as you add more content. As such, pasting in multiple modules, for example, is likely to result in truncation of your text:

Text modules with placeholders
Whenever text modules are defined, placeholders can be built into the modules.
If an asterisk '*' has been included in the module, this is a prompt for the user to enter a value manually after the text module has been selected.

An example from the list of documents of the field “Documents Required” on the panel “Documents”:

• Select the text module 'LCRDOC.AWBFRP' (Airway bill freight prepaid).
• Transfer the text
  • '+ Airway bill (original copy No. 3 for the sender) addressed to: *, marked: Freight paid to * '

As soon as you click inside the text input box, the application will position the cursor at the first asterisk and highlight it. Any text input will replace the asterisk with your text. <TAB> takes you to the next asterisk. Only when all asterisks have been replaced will <TAB> take you to the next field.
The transaction cannot be saved as long as there still is an asterisk in an input box, regardless of whether this has been copied from a text module, or entered manually. If you attempt to save the transaction, the system will take you back to the field where you will be prompted to make the appropriate change. (The DOKA system does not validate the semantics of your text input, i.e. the content will be considered acceptable provided that no asterisks remain, although simply deleting them may produce ungrammatical text. It is up to you to check your text.)

Special feature of the checkboxes for
If this checkbox is checked, both the direct <TAB> navigation to the placeholders and the check for complete replacement of the placeholders by 'correct' text are ignored.
This only is useful if you want to output the placeholder * in any case. Especially for electronic messages, in which the exact character of the placeholder may be used in the corresponding message field.

Wherever it makes sense, or is necessary, even field content can be inserted in the text of text modules by using a placeholder with the technical name of the field. This may look as follows: “{GIDGRP\REC\OWNREF}”. This entry will be resolved on saving the transaction (or before) and should not be changed by the user.

Further information on text modules and how these are compiled can be found under “General Information” on text modules.

After you have selected content for “Details of Charges for L/C”, move forward to the next field and complete the subsequent fields until you come to the “Parties” panel.

In addition to the main parties of the contract you have already captured, the “Parties” panel allows you to register any other parties involved in the contract.

For the most frequently used parties, input fields are similar to the Parties fields on the “Overview” panel.

Other parties can be entered using the grid at the bottom of the panel.

Each line of the grid contains all the fields required for a party as described above, the difference being that now they are laid out as table columns, i.e. next to one another, on a single line:

“Role”

“Party” (code)

“Name of Party”

“Reference for Address”

The “Role” must be selected by using the Comboboxes. In column “Party” you can enter directly the address number of the “Party” or parts of the party's name and make your selection using entries in the list. You can search for parties using the -icon. In the column “Reference of Address” you can enter a reference number for the respective party, which will then be used in the correspondence with this party. Further details for the correspondence with this “Party”, such as an “External Account” number, an “Organizational Unit” and a “Contact Person”, can be entered by clicking on . This example screenshot presumes the addition of a Recourse Party:

In the last column you can add a new “temporary party” by using the icon.

In the top right-hand corner of the grid are two buttons labeled [+] and [-].

• Clicking [+] inserts an additional empty line above the cursor position in the grid.
• Clicking [-] deletes the current line where the cursor is located.

If you need more gridlines than the current space permits, a scrollbar will appear on the right-hand edge of the panel to allow easy navigation.

When selecting the column header, the arrows pointing up and down on the right-hand side of each column help you to sort the data in the column in ascending/descending order.

Select all the parties you need and move on to the next field.

On the panels “Goods, Documents” and “Additional Conditions” you'll find large fields with selection of text modules (with stored text modules). Try making multiple choices, pasting text modules into text you have already entered manually and try replacing asterisks '*' contained in the text.

Move on and fill in the necessary fields.

Information on the “Participation Sold” panel can be found under “Participations Sold (Syndications)”.

Information on the “Liability” panel can be found under “LIAALL Liability”.

Move on to the “Settlement Details” panel.

You can enter data here to be taken into account for the following settlement.

Details in this context are available under “The_Settlement_Details_Panel”.

Move on to the 'Settlement' panel.

This panel is used to enter all the data required for a “settlement”.

Near the top edge you will find input boxes taking the following input parameters

• The “reference” of the current contract (if available; in our example we are adding a new contract, therefore the reference number is not supplied).
• Next to it is the “amount settled”.
• The settlement “Type” can be 'final' or 'temporary'.
  With a “final” settlement, real bookings in the form of credits and debits are created and corresponding payment messages are sent.
  With a “temporary” settlement, an invoice or claim is created which advises the recipient of the amount that will be due at a later time. No bookings are generated at this point.
  An example of a temporary settlement would be the claim for fees with a SWIFT MT x91 message.

The “Recalculate Rates” checkbox can only be used if the currency conversion service is being used, if the contract is in a foreign currency, and if the current daily rate for the currency is not known.

We shall now discuss the three Input_Grids on this panel.

The topmost grid is used to enter Foreign Commission / Charges.

Payer

Payee

Source

Disposition

Text for Payer

Text for Payee

Currency

Amount

• If you already know the “Payer” and the “Payee”, select them using the Comboboxes from the list of existing parties. Texts for these are defaulted and can be edited.
• “Source” shows whence comes the proposed fee.
• “Disposition” organizes the further handling of fees
• “Text for Payer” and “Text for Payee” are suggested. They can be edited.

Enter the “currency” and the “amount”.

The -icon at the end of the grid line allows you to enter/amend this data on a separate panel.

The middle grid, “Own Commission / Charges”, is used to enter those fees that the bank itself charges the parties to the contract.

Role

Code

Source of Fee

Disposition

Units

Long Fee Text

Currency

Amount

In many cases, fees will be defaulted here. Owing to the lack of space, you'll find that many columns in this panel only have code words for

• “Role”
• Fee “codes”
• Fee “sources”
• “Disposition” codes.

Mouse-over a role to see the name of the party captured for this role. Mouse-over such a value to see the long description to this code. The icon in these lines opens a panel where details of the fee and the parameters used to calculate them are visible. If required, changes can also be made here. This may be the case if, in special cases, variations to the conditions stored are used to calculated the fee.

The lower grid, “Settlement”, allows you to enter data on the debit/credit bookings to be made on the accounts of the parties.

Mod.

Role

in

Amount Paid

Disposition

Account

Value

Debit/Credit

Currency

Original Amount

• Displays whether a settlement amount was split. If no splitting was done, then '-' is shown in this column. This is the default case.
• You can change the default “currency” for booking by using the Comboboxes.
• Using the Comboboxes for “Disposition”, you can choose which “Disposition code” is to be used for settlement.
  A distinction here is made between 'direct accounts' at the bank and 'payments/debits using accounts at other banks'. Payment messages may be automatically generated depending on the type selected.
• The “account” at your bank used for booking is defaulted from entries made previously. If several accounts are possible, you can select the one you need using a Comboboxes.
• The -icon in these lines shows details of the booking; if bookings are made in foreign currencies, the exchange rate used can also be specified here.

Further information on the “Settlement” panel is at “SETMOD Settlement”.

Beside the bookings made in the lower grid of the “Settlement” panel, other bookings are also generated, such as the contra entry for the receipt of fees from the relevant income account, the interim bookings required in currency conversion to the currencies ledger account and the liability bookings resulting from the entries made on the “Liability” panel. These do not show on the “Settlement” panel because they are generated automatically.

The “Bookings” panel shows all bookings with

• Credit/Debit sign
• Account number
• Booking currency
• Booking amount
• Value date
• Counter currency
• Counter amount = equivalent amount in the system currency
• PN Prima nota number

This panel is for information purposes only and does not allow you to make any entries or amendment. The data is transferred at a later time via an interface to your accounting software.

Please continue forward to the next panel.

This panel is used to record any notes about this transaction that you might want to forward to the verifier for validation and release of the transaction or for subsequent investigation.

In addition, you can enter an “Execution Date” should you wish to execute the transaction at some future time instead of straight away (i.e. the pre-capture of processes). Also, you can define who should effect the release, if different from the default releaser.

Detailed information on this panel can be found under “CONINF Completion”.

Move on to the next panel.

Until now, you have only entered data. But you do these processing steps expecting an output, which can be found on this panel. Every message, regardless of the medium used to create and send, is listed here. You cannot edit the messages themselves but you can decide whether a message is to be compiled using another medium than the default one, and whether it should be really compiled, or suppressed.

Clicking the -icon in a line will display the relevant message in so-called PrettyPrint-format, i.e. made 'pretty' and legible with field descriptions in long text. Letters roughly match the appearance they have when they will be printed out later. Messages (or emails) in more of a technical format, such as SWIFT messages for example, are also displayed in a readily legible format.

Messages whose lines are written in black are compiled, while 'gray' messages are suppressed. Clicking the -icon will take you to the relevant additional panel for the message. Here, you can [Suppress] active messages and/or [Activate] suppressed messages.

You can also change the medium, where applicable, indicate the number of copies to be printed out and - depending on the medium - correct any address information. The medium indicated as the primary message output channel in the “Messages” field of the static data for this recipient is defaulted, providing the message is suitable for output using this format.

In addition, the panel also enables the user to generate special sender-to-receiver information that is saved with the message, providing this is allowed for this message.

Further information about this panel and the options available and on the subsequent “Attachments” panel is at “DOCEOT Messages”.

You have now completed all the fields needed to advise/confirm an Export L/C. In the process, you will probably have seen several messages displayed inside small yellow boxes, which alerted you to discrepancies in your input.

Many checks are stored along with the transaction to determine which fields must be filled in as mandatory fields and/or are dependent on other values, e.g. for optional fields.
Whenever you leave a particular field, checks defined in connection to that field are executed.

The error messages displayed are intended to help you identify and rectify input errors.

Nevertheless, you may occasionally find yourself looking at a certain field and being unsure as to your interaction with DOKA required at this point.

To help you in this respect, helptexts are provided to help you find your way. Place the cursor over the respective field and right-click to open the “context menu”.

The uppermost entry is “Display Context Help”. Click this and you will see a helptext displayed inside a yellow box.
Alternatively, you can open the helptext by placing the cursor inside the field itself and pressing <F1>.

In some cases you'll see a message 'No helptext found', indicating the lack of text currently provided for your language and working environment. Note that availability may be language-specific in that (say) English text is likely to take some time to be translated into other languages.

In most cases, however, you should be able to see an informative text designed to give you some guidance on the technical meaning of this field and thus assisting you in providing the required input. Please understand that the depth in which information is explained here is somewhat limited.

Example: On the “Overview” panel, let's take a look at the “Applicable Rules” field.
The helptext for this field reads: “'This field specifies the rules governing the export L/C.'” However we cannot possibly list precisely what these various rules entail and how they differ from each other. This information would be out of the scope of the helptext, especially as we need to assume that you have sufficient knowledge of your own professional context and that you understand your process as viewed from a banking perspective.

Close the helptext by

• pressing <ESC> on your keyboard
• by clicking or
• by clicking another input field.

If you wish to keep the text visible longer, drag the helptext (click the text in the top row of the helptext, press the left mouse button and 'drag' the text) to a suitable place on your screen and click on the little pin in the top left-hand corner. So doing will attach the helptext to your screen until you 'release' the text by clicking the pin again or close it with <ESC> or by clicking .

If you don't know the purpose and functionality of the transaction you are currently working on, you can also choose “Display transaction documentation” in the context menu.

The context menu provides you with many more options. They are described under “Context Menus”.

Up to now, we have not mentioned the icon on the top of the panels. Clicking this icon will open a pop-up listing all current diary entries for the selected contract.

You can

• [Add New] diary events
• [View] the selected event
• [Modify] each event
• [Delete] an event.

The diary events the system has automatically created for the contract based on rules that have been stored are usually sufficient to manage the contract.

The natural assumption at this point is that all required input is present and correct. DOKA provides functionality for verifying this premise.

On the icon header you will find a selection of “general and functional transaction icons” for

• “Checking ”
• “Saving”
• possible “Warnings”

You can click on the icon at any time, even prior to making any input. So doing will run all checks implemented in the transaction, that is, all checks designed to validate whether mandatory fields have been filled and whether dependent fields contain consistent data. If errors are present, the corresponding messages for the fields will be displayed and the cursor will be placed on the panel where the first error was reported.

If the “Warning” icon shows in gray (i.e. deactivated), there is no “warning” to display and the “status line” is highly likely to inform you that there were “No errors found on check.”

If the “warning” shows in red , some “warning” messages are still unread; “warnings” that you have read are displayed in green .

“Warnings” can come from a variety of sources. So-called “Infotexts” and “Stoptexts” can be stored for

• “Parties”
• “Accounts”
• “Contracts”
• “Fee Conditions”
• “Currencies”
• “Countries”

They contain directions relating to these objects, which need to be taken into consideration during processing. More details are described under General Information (Info- and Stoptexts)

Depending on banking requirements the content of these texts can range from “Display” through to “Stop - do not process”.

• Example 1: If a customer wishes to have a telephone call in advance of any changes, the Infotext could state, ““Advise by telephone prior to any change in the L/C'.”
• Example 2: A client is no longer to be entrusted with any other obligations - the Stoptext in this case could read, ”'No more obligations'“.

Every “Infotext” or “Stoptext” relating to the contract is shown on a panel 'located' behind the icon. You cannot save a transaction until you have read the warning provided. If you do try to save the transaction, the panel is displayed automatically.

With transactions for existing contracts, warnings are displayed whenever the transaction is started.

You can click the -icon even in a situation when you did not provide any input to the transaction. This activity will run all the checks implemented for the transaction, i.e. all checks on whether the mandatory fields have been filled in and whether interdependent fields contain consistent data. If these checks detect any errors, a relevant warning for the field will be displayed. The cursor will then move to the panel where the first error was recognized.

If no errors are found, you will see an appropriate message in the “status line” on top of the main window and below the icon bar.

Clicking the “Check & Save” icon will also run an internal check. Only when no errors have been found and when all the warnings presented have been read, will the transaction and all the data entered actually be saved. Conversely, as long as you do not click , the data you entered will not be saved to the database. As soon as you click , all the data entered will be lost. Only when you click will the system recognize the current status of the transaction and record it in an SPT ”Selecting Pending Items“. “Selecting Pending Item” means that the transaction itself and the new (or amended) contract are not actually saved and will not be visible in a report on the contract, for example.

Now click . If any errors are displayed, make the required amendments, and thereafter click again.
In the “status line” you will see the message '“The new transaction '<reference number and name of the contract>' has been saved to the database.”'

In addition, the display will change to transaction “Display an Export L/C”. The reference number of the contract you have just added can now be seen at the left-hand side of the work area. On the right side of the work area there are four information elements with more details about the contract.

• “ToDo List for the selected Contract”
• “Connected Contracts”
• “Contract Overview”
• “Transaction History for the selected Contract”

See for more in depth info Display a business contract / Contract overview (SEL Panel).

In addition, you will notice that “Menu” items have changed. For example, the menu item “Advise/Confirm” which we have just executed, is no longer visible. Instead, only possible follow-up transactions, e.g. “Amendments”, are available.

If you had interrupted the transaction and resumed to complete your processing, the display will be directed to the panel where you left the transaction.

Click to return to the office.

In the first example, you entered all the data for the Export L/C manually and thus familiarized yourself with all the types of input fields.

However, it is precisely this transaction that you actually will use primarily if you receive electronic orders from other banks, for example the SWIFT message MT 700, which already contains the L/C data. Of course DOKA-NG offers functionality to use this message and to copy its contents instead of typing all field data.

The main area of the “Office” is your “To-Do list”, which also contains “Incoming” entries for all received electronic messages. If no “incoming messages” are displayed there, the list may be full of several types of “To-Do” items and exceed the quantity that can be displayed directly. As an indication, a scroll bar will appear to the right of the list.

If the list is long or cluttered, you can sort the list by clicking on the column headers. A second click reverses the sorting order. A third click restores the initial sort order.

It is also possible to restrict your filter criteria. This performance will not impact your “To-Do list” itself, but will restrict your view of it. For demonstration's sake, assume that we wish to view “Incoming Messages” (only). To achieve this objective, disable some or all of the checkboxes positioned above the grid, keeping (at least) the checkbox “Incoming Messages” selected:

The “Search for Text” field also takes values from the grid. As concerns the previously mentioned MT 700, it suffices to enter “700” in order to view all incoming MT 700 messages. It is also possible to filter for (partial) amounts, existing reference numbers or transaction names. Should no messages be visible still, this demonstrates that none exist currently. You may wish to ask your system administrator to provide dummy messages for exploration of this feature. (We do supply sample messages as part of the MyModelbank kit.)

Additional filter criteria can be configured by clicking the Icon, as well as editing the “Selection of Users”.

N. B.: Split messages, such as a SWIFT MT700, which can consist of multiple single messages aggregated with MT 701s, but belonging together (Swift tag :27: 1/8, 2/8 up to 8/8), are automatically merged in the background and are displayed as one single entry in a line. Read more about handling incoming messages that couldn't automatically been merged under ”Handle incomplete Incoming Messages (SMHSEL)“.

In the grid you can already see some of the data from the message.

Select a message and single-click it. Use the icon to view the message in “pretty print” format:

For our “example no. 2”, look for a line with the “Transact.” code “LETOPN” for the transaction “Advise/Confirm an Export L/C” in the second column “Transact.”, if you please. You can also display the full transaction by placing the cursor on the “Transaction” abbreviation 'LETOPN'. If you do not find such a message, please have an MT700 be imported.

Select the relevant transaction, in this case, “LETOPN”. Then start it by

• doubleclicking the marked line or
• single-clicking and clicking the icon.

This performance will launch the transaction in question, in this case, “LETOPN”, which is designed to “Advise/Confirm an Export L/C”.

Other features relating to ”Selecting Pending Items“ are described separately.

As in our above Example 1 - Advising/Confirming an Export L/C, once again you have started the transaction “LETOPN Advising/Confirming”. This time however, many fields have been filled with content. Populating content from an incoming message to a transaction is known as Mapping. The field mapping transaction “SWM” determines which message tags are actually populated into which transaction fields. If required, this field mapping can be adjusted using the transaction ”Maintaining Field Mappings for Incoming Messages“ “DBISWH”.

If some message content could not automatically be populated into a data field, this is displayed by clicking the “Unmapped” icon. Like warnings, these icons are displayed in red if you did not read them or in green if you did. Each technical field number from the messages (TAG) which could not be mapped is shown here. You should use these details to decide whether field content needs to be filled in manually, or amended. You can manipulate these data using the Copy & Paste approach.

The “Route” icon is only required if the message is not to be processed with the defaulted transaction, but with another transaction that also can process the same type of electronic message.

Click the icon. You should not get a great number of error messages. It is most likely that error messages are related to the parties.

You should be able to see some parties with their details on the “Overview” panel. The code of the “Issuer” should have been filled in already. The “Issuer” will usually be the sender of the SWIFT message, which must have been identified in your database on the basis of the sender's BIC.

The names and addresses of the “Beneficiary” and the “Applicant” have been populated from the SWIFT message to the address block. However, these could not be automatically assigned to a party in your database. You have to assign them manually. Place the cursor in the code field for the beneficiary and type in part of the name (evident from the address block). A selection list will appear. Select the appropriate address.

In many cases, the spelling of the address in the SWIFT message will differ slightly from the spelling in your database. In this case, the pencil icon next to the participant number changes to green. By clicking on this icon you will be shown the “Party Details” panel, where you can see both spellings next to each other. Using the button [ Use in contract] you can copy the spelling from the database into your contract. The selected address block is used, for example, in SWIFT messages.

Proceed in a similar way with the applicant. If the applicant has not been saved in your database (either as a temporary or as a regular address), it needs to be added, as described under Parties.

Click through the panels, fill in the remaining mandatory fields and check whether you need to make any other entries. Only in exceptional circumstances will you have to make any changes to fields that have been prefilled for you. From a banking perspective, the details contained in the incoming SWIFT message are the most significant details.

Now “save” the transaction and return to The_Office

The effort involved in adding this L/C is significantly reduced, thanks to the incoming message.

If you interrupted the processing of a transaction by using the icon, you can resume it at any time and continue processing.

Such transactions can be found directly as “Paused” items

• in your “personal pending transactions” on the right-hand side of your screen
• in your “To Do List” of the “OFFICE” marked as “Paused” in column “Type”.
• in the Menu under “Business Activities” > “Business Overview” > “Recycle Bin / Pending Items”
• in the “To DO List” of the contract itself, provided that a reference number has been assigned by DOKA-NG.

In our case we go back with . Once there we select the contract directly or search for it. In order to achieve this objective, select the Checkboxes “Paused Entries”, select a task and open it by “Double-clicking” or using the icon.

You may now start the corresponding transaction using the data that was previously entered, as this is loaded and is available again.

If you no longer need a certain entry, you can simply mark it and click the icon. Data captured is discarded and the entry is marked as deleted. The task has only been deleted logically. Technically, it can still be found in the “Recycle Bin”. This means you can still retrieve it with from the “Recycle Bin” (Menu: “Business Activities” > “Business Overview” > “Recycle Bin / Pending Items”) should you ever need it again. However you will have to do so before the administrator runs the next system clean-up process (see Clean-up of Historical Data).

Now you can return to The Office .

Once you have processed and saved a business transaction, this step completes your processing of the contract. The next step, however, is to have a colleague check/verify this process who will then either return it for amendment (“Repair”) or release it. This means that the colleague's signature confirms that everything is OK and that the whole procedure can be completed. In other words, booking data can be passed on to your accounting system and messages can be generated and sent.

Selecting entries for release
In the main work area of the “Office” you can see all “Entries Waiting for release”. Only those assigned to you are displayed directly with the type “Release”. You can filter and select business transactions of other users that are subject to release via the configuration settings .

Basically, you are only entitled to release transactions if you have the appropriate release rights. Definitions determine how many releases are required for each transaction type (a transaction that generates obligations for the bank has presumably more than one transaction for which a contract reference needs to be added subsequently) and which is the relevant amount for this type (large amounts may require the signature of a different co-worker than do smaller amounts).

Excursus on User Info:
If you wish to find out more about maximum release amounts for users, click on the next to “Responsible User”. The Main Data of the user will appear in a pop-up panel. The “Release up to” amount indicates the maximum amount a user may release for another user. The “Own Amount” indicates the maximum amount users may release for transactions they themselves have captured.

Release via the “Office”
If you are entitled to release your own transactions, your signature is rendered during processing as 'is rendered'. You need not review your own processing.

In case no row is marked the context-related icons to the top right of the center are grey.
When you select a row in the grid, the icons “Assign” , “Delete” , “Repair” , “Release” and “Display” change to black. Except for “Release” and “Display” the functions will be processed directly. Otherwise, an overview of the contract requiring release is shown.

For controlling, mark now an entry, which can be a result of your own process.

With “Release” you switch to the transaction overview. If there are unconfirmed and important messages, a popup panel with “Warnings, startup warnings and startup information” will be shown. Confirm these with [ OK] or ignore them with . Then the popup-panel “Release Transaction” will be shown.

Next, you can view and review all panels and capture details.

• Red underlined fields: User input has been made.
• Dark green underlined fields: Automatically accepted values, e.g. from an electronic incoming message.
• Not underlined, filled fields: Values predefined by the application

The [Warning] icon will display any warnings. It is up to you to decide if these were adequately addressed. If warnings prior to release need to be acknowledged, click the [Warning]. Warnings already checked are shown with a green [Warning] icon and may be queried later.

Depending on the results of your verification, you have three options:

• If the transaction has been captured correctly, you can [Release] it, thereby 'endorsing' the transaction. If you don't have the required rights to release the transaction, an appropriate error message will appear.
• You can send the transaction for [Repair] if errors in the data capture were made that the user has to correct. The transaction can be picked up by the user concerned from the bottom tray on the desk in the office and saved again after it has been repaired.
• You can [Delete] the transaction if processing was actually superfluous or completely wrong. The transaction is then moved to the Recycle Bin together with your data from where it can still be retrieved until the system has been cleaned up.

You already have access to all three buttons from the selection panel, in other words, you can run these actions without first having to view the details of the transaction processing. The only time you will be taken directly to the transaction header and then to the display of the warnings after you click “Release” is when the system has issued any warnings.

Release via transaction “Control and Release”

Control and Release of transactions can also be done via the menu option “Business Activities” > “Release” > “Control and Release” of the transaction “TRNREL”.

The main difference compared to release via the “Office” is that “Diary” entries can also be shown. Details about this transaction are described under Control and Release of Transactions

For the subsequent steps, we assume that you have now released a transaction.

You have now learned how to capture and release a business transaction. But we are not completely finished yet. The letters have not been printed, the booking data has not been transferred and the SWIFT messages have not been sent.

But you really don't have to worry about all that. Instantly when you release a contract, a so-called Workflow is automatically assigned to the contract. This workflow contains all steps the transaction has to pass through before it is finally finished.

Take a look at the workflow of your released transaction on the panel 'Workflow'.

The workflow consists of a list of services the transaction has to pass through. The sequence of the services and their dependancies on each other is determined in the Maintaining Service Order. This “Workflow” panel is only shown, if at least one workflow service has not yet been completed.

There are a range of Managers in the application that ensure that the transactions passes from one service to the next. They are normally started in the background by the system administrator and are running the whole day, checking at short intervals the waiting processes and handing them over to the next appropriate services.

Users just need to capture and release the transactions. Everything else is done by the “managers”.

The system administrator's job is to ensure that these managers are up and running and to react if errors should occur. Indications of something being out of regular parameters are in evidence in the “Office” in the form of entries in red type in your Todo list or “Important Messages” being listed. Such occurrences point to problems.

For more information review 'Workflow'.

Now you can return to the “Office” .

Of course, the users' work is not restricted to capturing and releasing business transactions.

Static data such as parties, accounts and conditions have to be maintained, queries on contracts answered and reports compiled.

To maintain “Static Data” click directly the menu for “Static Data”. See more details under Static Data.

To maintain “Reports” click directly the menu for “Reports”. Details are at Reports. You will find a whole set of prepared statistics of a variety of issues as well as a series of Report Generators. You can use these to select, group, sort and total all the information on contracts or specific static data from the database as you need.

The “Info transactions” can be accessed directly via the icon. Info transactions are available for all business transactions as well as for static data.

The “DOKA-NG Manual” provides the user with the general documentation on the software. Clicking the “Online Help” icon on the left side of the top icon bar will open the online transaction documentation. Alternatively, it is possible to access the documentation by clicking the relevant entry in the context menu.

• The “DOKA-NG User Documentation” section provides you with all the information a user might need.
• The “DOKA-NG MyModelbank” section describes the data and sample process you can find in our MyModelbank. The MyModelbank comes as part of the application and gives you pre-defined users, customers and business use cases that facilitate your first steps and tests within DOKA.
• The “DOKA-NG Developer Documentation” is only interesting if you are part of a project team that is concerned with the development and customization of transactions.

Go through these topics systematically as you need them. You will find a range of usefull functions about 'Copying Contracts' or ”Special Functions / Processing Modalities', for example, but also in-depth information about how to add parties or conditions, for instance, and how you can use these in the system.