Additional options
Retarus eSign can be augmented with supplementary fee-based options. These functions serve to maximize convenience, improve workflow increase acceptance on the part of invoice recipients, and satisfy the requirements of various languages.
Automatic verification
Retarus eSign Service enables verification and the generation of a test report immediately after a signature is provided. If it is related to a PDF document’s signature item, the report is attached to the document. If the document is later revised and the revision is related to the qualified electronic signature, the signature remains unchanged.
This procedure significantly increases invoice recipients’ acceptance of electronic invoices because they only have to archive them digitally. Additional tasks, e.g., signature verification and saving the test report have already been done for them.
Bounce Management
The optional Bounce Management feature is used during the email transmission of signed invoices. Typing errors in email addresses, full mailboxes, etc., lead to error reports for the transmission, i.e., the so-called “bounce”. This bounce is received by our system, analyzed, augmented with additional information and forwarded to your help desk or customer service department as an email in order to fix the problem (e.g., the recipient’s email address doesn’t exist).
Functions
Each email is sent with a unique sender email address
Receipt of the bounce report and association with the original document due to the unique email address
Storage of signed documents in the eSign Archive for up to seven days
Forwarding of bounces to the invoice issuer’s email addresses (these are configurable at runtime)
Error escalation from the primary processing to various feedback channels that can be selected at runtime
General approach
The optional eSign Bounce Management feature enables the convenient evaluation and processing of inbound messages that were not accepted when electronically-signed invoices are sent via email while simultaneously managing the signature process centrally.
Before an email is sent, it receives a unique email sender address (“unique From-Address”). The signed document is stored in the eSign Archive for a maximum of seven days. If the email is not accepted by the inbound email server and returned to the Retarus system, it can be mapped to the respective eSign job via its unique Email Sender ID. The bounce report is updated in the Retarus Archive and forwarded to the invoice issuer.
Technical implementation
The “fromAddress” XML tag consists of two parts:
the technical section (the email address)
the non-technical section (the "Friendly From" or "Nice" section)
Both sections are crucial for Bounce Management. The nice portion of the email address is obtained as such and is used for email transmission. The technical portion is saved, serves as the mailbox for transmission of bounce messages, and is replaced by the “unique From-Address”. For example, from the "fromAddress" contained in the XML file: the “My Name” address my.name@invoiceissuer.com becomes “My Name” 12AB34-CD56E-789FA@senderdomain.com.
The sender domain portion is customizable and can accept every mail domain for which the so-called MX record is transmitted (e.g., invoice.invoiceissuer.com. Retarus can also make subdomains under its own domains available (e.g., http://customer.rmx.com). When bounces occur, the email server invoice recipient’s email server then sends this back to the "from address", which in this example is “12AB34-CD56E-789FA@senderdomain.com”. Retarus’ systems receive them in a “catch-all” inbox and transfer them to the eSign service’s area of responsibility. eSign enhances the bounce email in the corresponding archive link and forwards it to the invoice issuer’s saved sender address (in this example: my.name@invoiceissuer.com). The signed document is saved for up to seven days in the Retarus Archive.
Configurable parameters
The sender domain (eSign application settings)
Nice section of the “fromAddress” for the transmission (configurable for the runtime)
Technical section of the “fromAddress” for the receipt of potential bounces (also configurable for the runtime)
Error escalation from the primary processing
Bounce Management has an additional function which convienently takes care of the escalation of errors from the primary processing (e.g., email addresses with invalid syntax). The Retarus eSign Service checks the email for syntactic accuracy prior to sending it to the invoice recipient. If it‘s determined that that the email address has inaccurate syntax (e.g., myname @ invoicerecipient- the top-level domain name is missing), it will undergo normal processing, i.e., signature provision and all booked supplementary services; however, the message will not be forwarded to the invoice recipient. The original email message will be sent to the email address on file with Retarus (this can be selected at runtime via “feedbackChannelName”. The “nice” part of the recipient address will be enhanced using the invoice recipient’s inaccurate email address.
Various feedback channels
To be able to perform processing of errors that occur in the primary processing, Retarus eSign offers the option of multiple feedback channels as a core component of Bounce Management. The feedback channels are configured in the eSign standard settings and contain verified email addresses (e.g., the one belonging to invoice issuer’s help desk). The desired feedback channel can be selected at runtime using the “feedbackChannelName” XML tag, and is required to have the the name of a valid configuration saved with Retarus. The feedback channel’s settings cannot be modified at runtime.
Data Extraction from PDF documents
Optional data extraction from PDF documents serves as a quick and convenient method of retrieving archived invoice documents from the eSign Archive. Information such as the Customer Number, Invoice Number, invoice amount, VAT ID (or the local equivalent), etc., is parsed from the document and saved in the archive database. As an alternative to data extraction, this information can be transferred as the contents of an XML attribute.
Processing of structured data formats
Structured data in almost any format can be processed instead of PDF documents, including formats such as IDocs, EDI and EDIFACT files, files in CSV-, XML,- or text format, etc.
Our system offers two different methods of signing these documents:
Signature for the file – The transferred file is signed and directly sent to the invoice recipient.
File conversion with subsequent signing – the conversion results can be in a differently-structured data format as well as being a PDF document. For the first scenario, we merely need the invoice recipient’s desired format to be defined, otherwise we copy your invoice layout from our systems according to your specifications.
Generation of PDF documents
Through this function, Retarus eSign offers a simple option for producing a PDF document with the desired invoice layout from your structured data (e.g., EDI, IDoc, etc.) which is then signed and can be sent.
Archiving
It is possible to activate a so-called archive within the scope of Retarus eSign’s extended performance capabilities. This supplementary service is subject to an additional fee and archives each document signed by Retarus for a maximum of two years. Its objective is the convenient access to all documents for issuers.
Multi-language package
With this packet, you’ll receive all of the options you’ll need to process your invoice documents in multiple languages. The functions offer multilingual options for, among other things, badges, email texts, verification reports, and error messages.