Dealer_Onboarding_Backend/docs/FNF_Department_Finance_No_Conflict_Flow.md

F&F Department vs Finance No-Conflict Flow

Purpose

This document defines a conflict-free Full & Final (F&F) settlement approach where:

• Departments submit and own their initial financial claims.
• Finance validates and finalizes settlement amounts.
• Final net settlement is always calculated from finance-validated values.

The objective is to prevent duplicate updates, overwritten values, and ambiguity in amount ownership.

Core Ownership Model

1) Department-Owned Fields (Claim Layer)

• department_claim_amount
• department_amount_type (Payable / Recovery / Deduction if applicable)
• department_remarks
• department_supporting_documents
• department_submission_status

Departments can only create or update this layer during the department response window.

2) Finance-Owned Fields (Validation Layer)

• finance_validated_amount
• finance_decision (Accepted / Partially Accepted / Rejected / Under Clarification)
• finance_variance_amount
• finance_variance_reason (mandatory when variance is non-zero)
• finance_supporting_documents

Finance can only update this layer after department responses are frozen.

3) System-Owned Fields

• total_payables
• total_receivables
• total_deductions
• net_settlement

System fields are read-only and formula-driven.

Workflow Stages and Edit Locks

1. Department Response Open

• Departments: Edit allowed (claim layer only).
• Finance: View only.

2. Department Response Frozen

• Departments: Read-only.
• Finance: Validation enabled.

3. Finance Reconciliation Open

• Finance: Edit allowed (validation layer only).
• Departments: Read-only (unless clarification is requested).

4. Finance Locked

• All amount fields read-only.
• Only approval/rejection/clarification routing actions are allowed.

5. Reopen (exception path)

• Reopen must create a new version; previous values must never be overwritten.

Calculation Rule (Single Source for Final Amount)

Only finance-validated values are used for final settlement:

Net Settlement = Total Payables - Total Receivables - Total Deductions

Where:

• Total Payables = sum(finance_validated_amount where type = Payable)
• Total Receivables = sum(finance_validated_amount where type = Recovery)
• Total Deductions = sum(finance_validated_amount where type = Deduction)

Interpretation:

• Positive value: Payable to Dealer.
• Negative value: Recovery from Dealer.

Clarification and Reconciliation Rules

• Finance raises clarification against specific department rows using Work Notes.
• Department responds with remarks/documents.
• If amount revision is needed after freeze, reopen the row as a new version.
• Every variance must include a reason and supporting proof.

Audit and Traceability Requirements

For each row and version, store:

• Created by / Updated by
• Timestamp
• Previous value and new value
• Decision and variance reason
• Linked document references
• Workflow state at the time of change

No hard overwrite of prior approved values is allowed.

Minimal Status Model

Department Status

• Pending
• Submitted
• Reopened
• Resubmitted

Finance Status

• Not Reviewed
• Accepted
• Partially Accepted
• Rejected
• Under Clarification

Case Status

• Dept Collection
• Dept Frozen
• Finance Reconciliation
• Finance Locked
• Approved
• Closed

Expected Outcome

• Clear ownership of amount fields.
• No parallel edit conflict between departments and finance.
• Deterministic and auditable final amount calculation.
• Faster dispute resolution with explicit variance tracking.