DMBM101010 - Customer Accounting Records: Create Customer Accounting Record (CAR) in SAFE: Background

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A CAR must exist before any Charge Record can be set up in SAFE.

For charges received via an Electronic Interface, for example ECS Penalties, the CAR will be created automatically. Where exceptionally a CAR is not found when a charge is being processed it is rejected and a report is produced for the attention of the SAFE Team.

There are two ways a user can create a CAR in SAFE; either:

  • as part of the ‘Raise Charge’ function
  • using the ‘Create Customer Account’ function.

Creating a CAR as part of raising a charge

When a user needs to raise a charge they will input the Customer Reference as part of the Raise Charge function. If a CAR does not already exist, the system will attempt to retrieve the name, address and certain signals from the corporate data framework. The user will check and confirm the details are correct. The CAR is then created. For MARD, PRT and pre-computer/legacy charges, it is unlikely that the name and address details will be found, and a CAR will need to be created using the Create Customer Account function.

Exceptionally for a BROCS reference, UTR or NINO, if no details are retrieved and there is no obvious reason why a match could not be found, contact the SAFE system support team.

Where a BROCS reference has been used to set up the CAR and the BROCS reference subsequently changes as a result of a re-referencing exercise (for example, an office reorganisation) the CAR customer reference will be overwritten with the new BROCS reference. Using the old BROCS reference will no longer find a match on SAFE and therefore the new customer reference should be recorded on any working papers. Access to BROCS will establish the old and new BROCS reference.

Creating a CAR using Create Customer Account

Where a CAR does not exist and you need to either create a:

  • record to obtain a reference number to prepare a payslip for a Payment on Account
  • charge for one of the charge types listed in the table below

use the function Create Customer Account. The name, address, signals and agent information will need to be input to set up the record if the details have not been imported from the corporate data frameworks. The signals that can be set are as follows.

  • RLS
  • No repayment/No reallocation
  • Welsh Language
  • Permanent Local Action (PLA)
  • Insolvency
  • Deceased
  • Foreign Address
  • Customer requirements indicator
    • Braille
    • Audio
    • Large Print

Once the CAR is created, the Business Partner reference can be cut and pasted into the Print Payslip application to create a payslip.

The reference formats required by the Create Customer Account function, where they are not a BROCS reference, UTR or NINO are listed below.

Charge Type Reference Format Example
MARD MARD9999999 MARD1234567
PRT PRT9999 PRT1234
Pre Computer/Legacy nnnaannnnnn 123DA123456

Customer Suspense Accounts

When a CAR is created in SAFE, a suspense account, known as ‘Unallocated Payments’, is created as part of the Customer Account. This allows Payments on Account received in advance of any charge, and any excess payments to be held on the CAR. See DMBM121045 for more information.