Advances on sight documents and the discounting of usance documents are special features of the application. Advance and discounting are available for export and import documents, export collections, import collections and documents under a transfer; it requires the installation of one the listed business sectors, which will then be available for the respective sector. The modification transactions are then integrated accordingly into the export and import documents, export collections, import collections, and documents under a transfer. The data for advance and discounting are stored in separate database tables. The advanced or discounted documents are handled as subcontracts of the respective export/import documents (BE) and (BR), export collections (BO), import collections (BC), or documents under a transfer (BT).

For all advances prepared in connection with a main contract, it is possible to create an advance in some other currency than that of the main contract.

Usually, the advance takes place because of respective instructions and an agreement with the exporter. The advancing of debts is done up to the total amount of the documentary value, depending on the exporter's credit standing. The advanced amount is debited on a separate advance account and the interest for the advance is deducted from the net amount. As soon as the funds have been received, the advance must be settled first. If there are amounts left for the exporter, as not 100% of the documentary value have been advanced, the repatriation of the advanced amount and the pay-out of the remaining amount to the exporter can be done together in the settlement. Discounting of usance amounts is processed in a uniform manner.

As the advance and the discounting of export/import documents, export collections, import collections and the documents under a transfer are integrated into the processing of the transactions, the relevant effects on liability and limits are described in the respective business sectors.

An advance can also be opened directly (i.e. without having a parent contract).

The application supports discounting of export bills prior to receipt of acceptance from the Issuing bank. This is done against the customer's risk. However, provision is available to change this risk to the Issuing bank upon receiving their acceptance for the documents. For more details, please refer to 'Transfer of Risk' in Amending.

In addition to the default advance types available within the product, the application allows for additional customer-specific advance types to be defined in customer overlays. In the process, each advance type can be given a sub-panel of its own. The sub-panels are displayed on the overview panel, depending on the advance type selected. Moreover, additional panels can be created to accommodate the additional data per advance type.
The following model implementations for special advance types were realised in the application:

A 'Bankers Acceptance' (BA) is a short-term loan (up to one year) and is based on a bill of exchange drawn by the customer and issued to own order. The bill of exchange is payable on a fixed future date and accepted by the bank for the purpose of funding a trade transaction (import, export).

This type of advance enables the customer to receive funding in local currency, helping to improve the customer's cash flow.

The 'Bankers Acceptance' has been incorporated in the application as an example to show how a customer-specific advance payment requirement can be implemented in projects and that the currency of the advance payment contract (BP) is not tied to the currency of the underlying main contract.

Within the application, it is possible to define own, separate sub-panels with special fields for each type of advance. A separate sub-panel was added for 'Bankers Acceptance'.

Moreover, additional panels may be defined for each advance type. For the advance type 'Bankers Acceptance', the “Invoices” panel was created. This panel is used to record the details of the individual invoices that are funded in advance by means of the 'Bankers Acceptance'.

The application can determine the due date of a Bankers Acceptance based on the start date and the standard tenor. The start date of a Bankers Acceptance is the earliest invoice date of all the recorded invoices. The number of due dates to be proposed for a Bankers Acceptance can be saved in the party's static data. If this field in the static data has already been filled, then its contents will be copied into the Standard Tenor field and used to calculate the due date.

The financing period indicates the number of interest days to be financed. These are calculated based on the difference between the due date minus the opening date. In the case of Bankers Acceptance, the financing period must be at least 21 days and no more than 365 days.

ECR stands for 'Export Credit Refinancing'. This is a refinancing option available for Malaysian banks. This option is offered by Export Import Bank of Malaysia Berhad (EXIM Bank) to promote foreign trade engaged in by Malaysian importers and exporters. The importers and exports benefit from lower costs since the risks are covered by EXIM Bank. ECR financing can be granted before or after shipment of the merchandise. In the 'Advance' (BP) sector, the funding is implemented prior to shipment.

A separate sub-panel was added to the product for 'ECR Loans'.

Moreover, additional panels may be defined for each advance type. The “ECR Details” panel was created for advance type 'ECR Financing'. Further details of the ECR loan are recorded in this panel.