The problem
Where several systems coexist, the same company is often a “customer” in the sales system, a “supplier” in procurement and yet another code in finance. The consequences:
- balances have to be reconciled across systems, and receivables and payables cannot be viewed net;
- counterparty onboarding and sanctions screening are done twice – or not at all;
- materials, tax rates, ports and other reference data are defined inconsistently, so customs and accounting work is redone again and again.
How Tranexio handles it
- One record: counterparty records are keyed on the unified social credit code (the registration number for overseas companies), with customer, supplier, forwarder, customs broker, bank and other roles attached as needed.
- Onboarding and KYC: creating a record or adding a role triggers onboarding – document review, sanctions screening and due diligence – and only approved counterparties can be used in business documents.
- Scoring and tiering: counterparties are scored and tiered with a configurable scheme, and the results feed credit decisions and onboarding reviews.
- Reference data: material records carry specifications, units of measure and HS codes; tariff rates, charge items and charge templates (including the two taxes and nine fees (两税九费) of import cost) are maintained centrally.
- Governance and multilingual data: master data governance supports merging duplicates and approving changes; name fields are multilingual and display in each user’s language.
Key controls
| Control | How it works |
|---|---|
| Uniqueness | A duplicate record for the same credit code is blocked, and the user is guided to add a role to the existing record |
| Onboarding gate | Counterparties that have not passed onboarding cannot appear on contracts, orders or payments |
| Screening up front | Creating a counterparty or changing its roles triggers sanctions list screening |
| Change trail | Changes to key fields go through approval and earlier versions are kept |
| Single source | Business documents reference master data only; counterparties and materials cannot be created ad hoc on a document |