Welcome to the learning Unit on the Close of Business service

Close of Business – R17 M-1

 The objectives of this session are
• Learn how COB works and the Stages of COB
• To see how processes are defined in BATCH application for COB
• execute and monitor COB in T24
• Learn the importance and usage of EB.EOD.ERROR application

Close of Business – R17 M-2

 1. COB stands for Close Of Business
2. COB marks the end of all financial transactions for the day and rolls forward the T24
date to the next business day
3. COB can be run on every working day of the bank

Let’s understand one of the processes done during COB with a simple example

Steve has taken a loan from a bank at a 10% rate of interest, payable back to the bank
in a year. This amount will be paid by him in 12 monthly installments. The bank would
like to keep a daily track of the interest amount they are due to receive from Steve at
the end of the month. So, they calculate the amount payable by him everyday. This is
done to keep the Profit and Loss/Balance sheet current. Now, this is just for one
customer. Imagine the bank has given 100,000 loans with different interest rates for
different periods of time to individuals like Steve. It’s an arduous task for the bank to do
the whole process manually. So, they automate it. However the amount payable to the
bank need not be calculated during normal working hours of the bank (because they
will be busy doing other day to day activities of the bank). So they do it at the end of
the day. The process of calculating the interest payable, but not yet fallen due for
payment, is called Accrual. Therefore, accrual is one of the processes that is done
during T24’s COB (Close of Business)

Close of Business – R17 M-3

 COB runs in five stages, A-S-R-D-O

A stands for Application stage. It involves all the individual application processes. Eg:
Forex, Funds Transfer, etc.

S stands for System Wide stage. It involves jobs that are common to T24. Eg: Interest
accrual, Interest capitalization

R stands for Reporting stage. It involves generation and printing of reports. Eg: Trial
Balance, Transaction journal etc.

D stands for Start Of Day stage. It involves all the start of day operations and date
change. Eg: Executing standing orders etc.

O stands for Online stage. It involves any non-critical reports and processes which
can be run after the system has returned to online mode. Eg: Jobs to clean up the
temporary work files, etc.

Close of Business – R17 M-4

 When you initiate COB, either in debug mode or interactive mode
1. The System Mode is changed from Online mode to Batch mode.
This is reflected in the DATES application. This is to indicate that
COB is currently running on the system
2. The Execution of COB jobs take place in A, S, R, D order
3. The System is changed to Online mode at the start of “O” stage of
COB. This is also reflected in the DATES application
4. Finally all the jobs in the online stage are completed.

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 1. Each Batch stage is suffixed with a 3 digit sequence number,
between 000-999, which will tell the system the order of execution
of COB e.g. A000, A100, S000, R099 etc.,
2. A Batch Stage consists of one or more processes. In T24, these COB
Processes are defined in an application called BATCH
3. Each Process also consists of one or more Jobs that perform a
specific task. All jobs within a process are executed in the order
they are defined and NEVER simultaneously. For E.g. In the diagram
that you see, Job 2, will never get executed before Job 1 is
complete.

Close of Business – R17 M-6

 Each Batch stage is suffixed with a 3 digit sequence number, between 000-999, which
will tell the system the order of execution of COB e.g. A000, A100, S000, R099 etc.,
Batch Stage consists of one or more processes. In T24, these COB Processes are defined
in an application called BATCH
Each Process consists of one or more Jobs that perform a specific task. All jobs within a
process are executed in the order they are defined and NEVER simultaneously. For E.g.
In the diagram that you see, Job 2, will never get executed before Job 1 is complete.
Why should the processes be executed in a particular order?
As a continuation of the previous scenario of accrual, it is time for Steve to make his
first installment of monthly interest. The bank has been calculating the interest
everyday and on that day they know the exact amount payable by Steve. The calculated
interest amount is now accounted as due for payment and is called Interest
Capitalisation. Steve should now arrange to pay through his bank
account/cash/card/cheque etc., to the bank’s account. Interest Capitalisation is also one
of the processes executed during COB.
Now, lets try to answer this question
Should I do Interest accrual first and then Interest Capitalisation, or vice versa?
The obvious answer would be first interest accrual and then interest capitalisation
otherwise the math would never be correct.
Therefore all jobs are executed in a specified order during COB.

Close of Business – R17 M-7

 1. As, you just learnt, a record in the BATCH application is called a
process. All processes are prefixed with the bank mnemonic

2. Processes to be executed during COB must belong to a Batch

Stage.

3. Processes that do not belong to a Batch Stage will be executed as

services.

Close of Business – R17 M-8

 Batch Stage Contains a character to denote the Batch Stage and a 3 digit number to
denote the sequence within the stage. Sequence numbers are in the range 000 - 999.
The first Batch stage executed during COB is A000 and the last is O999.
Job Name Contains the name of the routine to be executed. All routines defined here
will have an entry in PGM.FILE with TYPE set to ‘B’
Frequency specifies the frequency at which the batch job has to be executed. It can
have values as follows.
D specifies that the job will be executed every working day.
D nn specifies that the job will be executed every nnth working day
W specifies that the job will be executed on a weekly basis, that is every Friday
M specifies that the job will be executed on the last working day of every month
M nn nn represents the offset added to the first day of every month to arrive at
Next Run date.
Y specifies that the job will be executed last working day of the year
Y nn specifies that the job will be executed the last working day of the nn'th
month
A specifies that the job will be executed on adhoc basis. You should manually
specify a date on which the job has to be executed.

Close of Business – R17 M-9

 1. In the field Verification, you can enter the name of the job (routine) which needs to
have been executed successfully on that day before the current job is executed. For
e.g. The job COB.CHECK.EB.EOD.ERROR will be executed only if the job
COB.EXECUTE.API has been executed successfully.
NOTE: Only jobs already defined in the current record can be entered in the field
Verification. Jobs belonging to other Processes (Batch Records) cannot be entered in
this field.
2. Next Run Date contains the date when the current job has to run next. Populated
automatically on authorisation of the record (new jobs) or on successful execution
of the job. NO date is populated for Daily jobs, as the jobs needs to be run daily.
User input is required for Adhoc jobs.
3. Last Run Date is a No Input Field and is populated on successful execution of the job
during COB.

Close of Business – R17 M-10

 1. Process Status field holds the status of the Batch record. It can hold
the following values
0 specifies that the process is in Ready state
1 specifies that the process is in Running state
2 specifies that the process has Completed successfully
3 specifies that the process has stopped due to some Error

2. Job Status field Holds the status of the individual job (routine) . It
can hold the following values
0 specifies that the job is in Ready state
1 specifies that the job is in Running state
2 specifies that the job has Completed successfully
3 specifies that the job has stopped due to some Error

Close of Business – R17 M-11

 What you see here is a flowchart explaining the relationship between
process status and job status.

When a batch is loaded for execution, the process status of the batch
record is changed from 0 to 1, (Ready to Running)
The status of the first Job changes from 0 to 1 (Ready to Running)
The job is executed
After the job completes execution, the status of the job is changed
from 1 to 2 (Running to Completed Successfully) marking successful
completion of the job.
Next the batch record is checked for any other available job
If there is another job available, it is processed in the same
fashion as we saw just now
If there is no job available in the batch, the process status of the
batch record is changed from 1 to 2 (Running to Completed
Successfully)
Likewise the other batch records are processed.

Close of Business – R17 M-12

 The entire COB process is controlled by tSM
tSM stands for T24 Service Manager
As the name implies, it acts as a manager and controls all worker
processes that perform COB
Launches worker processes
Checks if worker processes are running as scheduled
If any of the worker processes are dead, launches
substitute worker processes

The actual COB process is executed by tSAs

tSA stands for T24 Service Agent (Worker processes)
Execute the jobs (routines) defined in BATCH record(s)

tSM and tSAs are started on the T24 application servers

Close of Business – R17 M-13

 A bank having multiple applications servers running T24, might want to
use both the servers to run COB. This would help them in completing
COB faster. In order to run COB in Multiple app servers, a module
named MS (Multi Server must be installed

In a multi application server scenario

• Each application server will have one tSM running. The job of
this tSM is to monitor the tSAs running on that server only

• Each of the application servers can have any number of tSAs

to run COB. However, the number of tSAs depend on the
capacity of the server (number of processors). The Default
Thumb rule is No.Of.tSA = No.of.Processors * 2

Close of Business – R17 M-14

 TSA.SERVICE, As the name signifies, it is an application in T24 where
the services are defined

In the application TSA.SERVICE, TSM is defined as a service

COB is also another service defined in TSA.SERVICE

Both services namely TSM and COB are pre-configured in the

TSA.SERVICE application. You will see quite a few records in the
TSA.SERVICE application other than TSM and COB. They are online
services (Covered as part of the session ‘Services in T24’)

Close of Business – R17 M-15

 T24 maintains it own date per company in an application called DATES.
This is date that is referred to for all financial transactions.

When do you think T24 decides it’s the next day?

This is done during COB, as it marks the end of all financial transactions
for that day and makes the system ready for the next day.

Close of Business – R17 M-16

 1. Before COB is first run on a T24 environment, there will be only 1 record per company
in the DATES application.
2. As soon as we start COB, in the batch stage A001, a job called EB.CYCLE.DATES is
executed. EB.CYCLE.DATES creates a record in the DATES application with @ID as
<Company.Code>-COB. It also advances TODAY/LAST.WORKING.DAY by 1 day and
changes the field NEXT WORKING DAY. This is done for the existing DATES record for a
COMPANY with @ID <Company.Code>. Eg: Imagine we are running COB during the end
of day of 17 Dec 2009, the following takes place - EU0010001 is the default DATES
record for the Euro Company. Notice that the field TODAY has been advanced to 18th
Dec 2009, field LAST WORKING DAY has been advanced from 16th Dec 2009 to 17th Dec
2009, field NEXT WORKING DAY has been changed to 19th Dec 2009 (taking into
account weekend days corresponding to Sat and Sun) A record with @ID EU0010001-
COB has been created with details that was held by DATES record - EU0010001, before
COB was started. When COB is run, company specific cob jobs will reference DATES
record <Company.Code>-COB and not the default DATES record for a company with
@ID <Company.Code>
3. When COB reaches batch stage D000, a job called B.DATE.CHANGE is executed. This job
changes fields TODAY, LAST WORKING DAY and NEXT WORKING DAY for the record
<Company.Code>-COB in the DATES application
4. During the beginning of the online stage, the job BATCH.DATE.RESET is executed. The
NEXT RUN DATE is updated for all jobs executed today (excluding jobs with FREQUENCY
D and A). Also, all the PROCESS.STATUS and JOB.STATUS fields in the BATCH records are
reset to zero. This is all part of the COB framework.

Close of Business – R17 M-17

 The record in the DATES application that gets created during COB
<Company.Code> – COB, does not get deleted after COB

The record will exist and will be overwritten during the next COB

COB doesn’t use the DATES record with @ID <Company.Code> for
processing

The record <Company.Code> is created and is used by the T24 system

for new transactions coming into the system while COB is running
(Possible only if NS module is installed)

Close of Business – R17 M-18

 T24 supports 24 hours non stop processing. For this a product named
NS (Non Stop) must be installed

When NS is installed, the T24 system will be available for input even when
COB is in progress. All new transactions that are input during COB, will have
the value date as next working day. The DATES record with @ID as
COMPANY.CODE will be used.

For all records that are created as part of the COB process the DATES
record with @ID COMPANY.CODE-COB will be used

Close of Business – R17 M-19

 The first agent (tSA) to be started is called the tSM (T24 Service
Manager). tSM monitors one or more agent processes called tSA (T24
Service Agent). Every time an agent is started, it will first check if it is
the tSM. If not, then it will continue to work as an agent because it
knows that an agent has already been assigned as the tSM.

tSA calls a routine called S.JOB.RUN, that in turn invokes a routine

EB.SORT.BATCH only ONCE. The work of EB.SORT.BATCH is to sort the
COB jobs in ‘A’, ‘S’, ‘R’, ‘D’, ‘O’ order and give it to the tSAs.

Close of Business – R17 M-20

 Once you list the records present in the application EB.EOD.ERROR you will be
able to see records that are date and company specific. All errors encountered
as a result of running COB on a single day are stored in one record. If multiple
errors are recorded during the same day, they are stored in the same
EB.EOD.ERROR record but multivalued.

Each error has a Detail Key populated against it which is nothing but the ID to
the application EB.EOD.ERROR
The FIX.REQUIRED field is updated by the system to ‘YES’ , for all the errors
that are crucial and are to be resolved before next COB.

Close of Business – R17 M-21

 For every error encountered during COB (for that day) there will be a
record in the application EB.EOD.ERROR.DETAIL.

The application EB.EOD.ERROR.DETAIL will contain the name of the

Process, the name of the job and the routine from which the error was
generated

The ID to a record in this application is held in the EB.EOD.ERROR file.

The main use of this application is to track down the cause of the
problem encountered during COB. This helps the consultant in fixing
the problem before starting COB the next time.

Close of Business – R17 M-22

 COB cannot run the next day without resolving errors encountered
during the previous run.

Q. How do we tell T24 that an error has been resolved?

A. Open the corresponding record in EB.EOD.ERROR in EDIT mode and
set the field Date Resolved to the date when the error was fixed.
Commit and authorise the record. This has to be done before COB is
started the next day.

Close of Business – R17 M-23

Close of Business – R17 M-24
 Check EB.EOD.ERROR. COB cannot be started if there are unresolved
errors from the previous run. Set SERVICE.CONTROL for COB to Start.
Launch the TAFJEE/Execute servlet using the URL
http://localhost:9089/TAFJEE/Execute. Type START.TSM in the text box
and click on Submit. When the COS TSS.LIST is launched, we can see
the agents are running

Close of Business – R17 M-25

 The entire process of COB can be run in phantom mode, meaning in
the background. There are various monitoring tools available that will
help you identify what is taking place with respect to COB at any given
point, this is discussed later in the session.

Step 1 : Check EB.EOD.ERROR for details. This is a file that contains all
the errors that took place during the previous COB. Any errors reported
in this file, should be corrected before starting COB. You will learn
about this in detail later.

Step 2: Set the field SERVICE.CONTROL to “START” in the records TSM

and COB in the TSA.SERVICE application. Commit and authorise both
the records.

Step 3: At the TAFJ shell prompt type the command tRun START.TSM .
This will start the TSM in phantom mode. tSM not only starts agents for
COB but also for online services set to ‘Start’ in T24.

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 COB can be run in the interactive mode too i.e. in the foreground
mode. Once the tSM is started, it finds out the number of agents that
are required to be started for COB. Since, tSM is run in interactive
mode, it prompts you to start the require number of agents. If tSM was
run in a phantom mode, then it would have started the agents
automatically.

Login to TAFJ shell prompt i.e. the backend. Type tRun START.TSM –
DEBUG to start the TSM in interactive/ debug mode. You will be
prompted to manually launch agents.

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 Launch the agents by starting a new TAFJ shell and giving the command
tRun tSA <agent number>

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 This is one utility available for monitoring COB in the T24 Classic
interface.

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 1. 1437 OUT OF 5358 JOBS HAVE BEEN PROCESSED
2. Progress Bar displaying % completion
3. While executing the enquiry, you can set the Auto Refresh Option,
this way the enquiry will keep refreshing and showing you the % of
jobs completed.

Close of Business – R17 M-30

 You know tSM launches and controls the tSAs. How does an end user know
what is happening with the tSAs? Use the enquiry AGENT.STATUS
Agent ID is the Agent Number
T24.SESSION.NO is updated with a unique number that identifies every
session in T24. A number between 1 -99999 is allocated when a session is
started in a port to uniquely identify that particular session in T24(both for
online and COB). Note: This random number is generated using a routine
called EB.ALLOCATE.SESSION.NUMBER and is stored in a common variable
called C$T24.SESSION.NO. This helps in improving the monitoring
capabilities of T24.
A live file called T24.SESSION gets updated with record key being the
T24.SESSION.NO and contains information regarding the agent to which this
session number was assigned. A record in this application gets deleted,
when the corresponding process terminates(session expires).
Server Name is the name of the server where the agent is running. Note
that details of tSAs and tSMs across application servers will be updated here
Agent Status is the status of the agent. It can hold either of the three
values. RUNNING/STOPPED/DEAD

Close of Business – R17 M-31

 Process Id is the Operating system level process ID for the agent
process that is running

Current Service is the service the agent is performing at the moment.

Note agent 1 is performing the service TSM and the others are
performing the service COB

Next Service is the service the agent is supposed to perform next.

While COB is running, if you wish to stop COB, set the field
SERVICE.CONTROL to STOP for the record COB in the TSA.SERVICE file.
Then, check the NEXT.SERVICE value for the agents running COB, it will
be set to STOP denoting that the agents needs to stop once they
complete the current transaction
Job Progress is the status of the jobs
Opens, Reads, Writes, Inputs, Executes, Deletes, Clearfiles, Memory
provides details about the number of file opens, number of I/O’s,
memory usage etc., by each agent. These details available in the
enquiry improves the monitoring capabilities of T24. It provides an
understanding on the processing done by the agent. Updated both for

Close of Business – R17 M-32

 service and online agents.

Close of Business – R17 M-32

 Last Message is the message displayed by the agents as they are
performing the jobs.

Como Name is the name of the log record ID that holds the log
information of the agent. These log records are stored in a directory
called &COMO&. The contents of these records cannot be viewed from
browser. You will have to open these records at the jBASE prompt

Close of Business – R17 M-33

 The enquiry picks up data from the TSA.STATUS live file.

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 COMO.NAME in AGENT.STATUS holds the name of the log file. Log files
are stored under a directory &COMO&. Use any text editor to view the
content of the log files
If an agent is restarted, there will be two log files for that agent as the
log file ID is based on date and time. Log files do not get cleared
automatically from the &COMO&.

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Close of Business – R17 M-36
 1. While running COB the agents suddenly stops. What to do?
Check the AGENT.STATUS enquiry output to see if there are any
errors
Check the EB.EOD.ERROR file to see if any errors have been logged
If you are running COB in interactive mode, then the TSM that is
running will prompt you to manually launch the agent.
If you are running COB in phantom mode, TSM will automatically
start the agent during the next REVIEW.TIME

2. COB stopped while running, there is no error logged in

EB.EOD.ERROR. On restarting COB, it stops at the same place. What
to do?
This error is a Critical Error. It means that COB cannot be started
without correcting the error. Run the enquiry AGENT.STATUS. It will
show the last message processed by that agent. You can also find
out the COMO ID using the AGENT.STATUS enquiry and search for
this record in &COMO& to find out the details of the error.

Close of Business – R17 M-37

 1. False
2. True
3. True
4. True

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 In this session we have seen
Learn how COB works and the Stages of COB
See how processes are defined in BATCH application for COB
Execute and monitor COB in T24
Learn the importance and usage of EB.EOD.ERROR application

Close of Business – R17 M-39