Postbank has now linked payment in the internet shop with accounts, thereby solving a problem particularly beleaguering larger companies that sell their products over the internet.

While small internet shops predominantly look for simple shop interfaces when selecting an ePayment system, larger companies are facing a completely different battle. The payment flows generated via the internet shop must be brought into line with the accounts. It is particularly difficult if mail order shipping or a call centre are to be operated alongside the internet shop, as these payment flows must also be incorporated into the accounts.

The electronic payment systems, which are usually encapsulated, do not generally allow incorporation into operational data flows for practical applications. To rectify this deficiency, Postbank has now equipped its internet payment platform PaySolution with a user-friendly file interface. Data on payment transactions completed online can be downloaded from the PaySolution system as a file, for example as an ordinary Excel table. This file can be imported into the accounts, thus merging the two sets of accounts. Conversely, payment transactions from the call centre or mail order shipping can be collated in a file before the whole file is loaded onto the Postbank server, where it is booked as a package.

The results of the bookings are available for downloading as a results file. The Accounting department can thus discover immediately which data records constitute accounts receivable and which can be assigned to the recycle bin. And when the account or credit card statements arrive in the morning post, all payments can easily be accounted for.

Even before the official start of sales at the end of 2002, nearly all major Postbank traders got themselves linked to the new service - another sign that when it comes to ePayment, traders are not primarily looking for new payment systems, but for a practical incorporation of established procedures into their corporate infrastructure.

Postbank will pursue this solution further. Accounting and ePayment are set to be brought even closer together. Further information on the new upload/download module can be found at  www.postbank.de/paysolution