Weekly Settlement - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The migration will start in May 2007. May will be a full month, but with the weekly settlement Closure Date of 7 June. June 2007 will have two periods, the first closing on 28June, and the second closing on 9 July. This will be the first weekly settlement.

Under the current Regulation 26 (a), items may only be cleared if they relate to the open Clearance period. In other words, even if the January period closes on 19 February, and you have processed February transactions, those February transactions cannot be cleared until the February Clearance. The January Period is thus Closed – closed to any transactions occurring after 31 January.

 

UATP, on the other hand, is covered under Regulation 26 (b). This states that any UATP transactions on hand may be processed in the currently-open Clearance. Therefore a 15 February UATP transaction can be processed in the January Clearance if you wish. The Clearance is therefore Open for UATP

All Periods will be in future be Open, for all types of transaction, with one exception: Period 4 will be a Closed period for Passenger and Cargo transactions. This means that Passenger and Cargo transactions included in Period 4 must relate to the month in process. Therefore, in Period 4 of September, only September P and C items can be included, but October U and M items can be included if you wish.

Please note that the ACH treats Period 4 as Closed in the case of Miscellaneous transactions, and users of the ICH/ACH Interclearance need to act accordingly

Items from prior months can be included in any Period (eg. January items may be included in February Period 4).

Yes, it is now final, and copies can be downloaded from this website.

The changes will be minor, as the process of entering data will be the same. The Clearance Periods as displayed will be different. A full update on the changes to the system will be published as soon as available

The only change will be to the Period coding. The Clearance is currently shown as 200605 for May 2006. The new format will be YYMMPP, or year, month period. April 2007 will therefore be 200704, May 2007 will be 070504, The first Period in June will be 070603, and the second Period in June will be 070604. Thereafter the form will be 070701, 070702, 070703, 070704, and so on.

The revised specifications are available for download from this website.

May has been defined as Closed Period, and therefore has the Period code 04.

The same logic applies to June. The last week in June is a closed period, and has been coded 070604. The previous period has therefore been coded 070603

No, in the same way that you do not have to submit claims on a monthly basis – not all airlines do. BUT you do have to settle weekly based on your Form 3. There may be major implications for your cash flow if you have not submitted your own claim for the same period, but other airlines have claimed against you.

Yes, there is an additional field in the header record to show the Period code as 2 digits. This is shown in the RAM 2007, available in December 2006.

IDEC files will also run twice per month from 2007, rather than three times per month as now.

Invoices must be consolidated on a weekly basis, but must be dispatched on a monthly basis unless otherwise agreed between the parties. To avoid a protest in the event of a query, the issuing airline must make the supporting data available to the querying airline by the quickest means

The ACH is moving to weekly settlement according to the same schedule as the ICH. The process has been agreed between the Clearing Houses to try and keep disruption to the minimum.

The ACH and the ICH are working to the same Calendar for Periods and Closure Dates, but thereafter the processes differ between the two Clearing Houses. The dates of other ACH activities do not apply to ICH members, nor do the other activities on the ICH Calendar apply to ACH members.

The FDR will continue to be supplied and used on a monthly basis. The only change is that the 5 days used for selection have been moved up from the period ending the 20th of the month, to the period ending the 25th of the month. This is to bring the selection period into better alignment with the settlement month.

The MMR will now be applicable if the currency moves by 10%, rather than 6% as now. Changes to the calendar mean that MMRs can only be billed as adjustments, rather than in the initial billing. The change takes place in May 2007.

The Call Day Report will continue to be produced on a monthly basis, but the report will cover all four of the periods, with the variances that were applicable to each, subject to the minimum threshold defined in Regulation 17. The minimum threshold will be increased to USD1000 effective from May 2007.

Claims and adjustments must be submitted by close of business on Closure Day in Montreal (1700, 5pm). Effective from January 2007, there will be an administrative charge of USD1000 for the inclusion of late claims or adjustments. If the amount claimed is small, it may be more appropriate to include the items in the following period rather than incur the charge.

Only if their contract with the Airline Member permits it. Airline Members have an automatic right to bill weekly. Associate Members may only bill as agreed with the Airline Member. If the contract specifies monthly billing and settlement, it will require the agreement of both parties to change this.

No. The Protest process is unchanged. As now, if you see a claim against you in the ICH Web which may be in error, you should contact the billing airline directly, copying the ICH, and ask for a copy of the invoice details by e-mail or fax. If there is an error, the claim should be adjusted by the billing airline. If no adjustment is agreed, the billed airline may issue a Protest.

No. If your agreement with the airline specifies monthly settlement, you can only claim once per month. However your claim may be entered as soon as the service has been delivered and the invoice produced, unless the contract says differently. So claims may be entered in whichever Period is convenient, and it does not have to be the same Period for every airline, nor the same Period in every month.

No. Invoice numbers must be unique in each period. However a Period indicator (1, 2, 3, 4, 01, 02, 03, 04) could be contained in the invoice number for your own convenience if you wish, provided that the resulting number is in accordance with the Revenue Accounting Manual.

No. You still have to check your Form 3 each week, and watch out for Advice Day messages. This applies to all Members, but particularly if you are an Associate Member. You could receive reject billings in any period, so you may have a balance to pay the ICH even though you can only claim on a monthly basis. Please ensure your Finance department is aware of this, and knows the ICH bank account details for settlement.

No, unfortunately you can't. There will be some irregularity during the first few months, as different airlines and Associate Members set up their systems to cope with the changed cycles. Also, there is an imbalance between the Periods themselves, with the effect of Open and Closed Periods. That means that it is very unlikely that your net position each week will be a quarter of your monthly net position. Please make sure your Treasury department understands this.