Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS)

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) introduced the Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS), an electronic invoicing platform for the air transport industry. The principal component of the Simplified Interline Settlement (SIS) vision is the removal of paper from the billing and settlement process. A carrier will submit electronic billing file(s) that will be converted into an invoice and a settlement file, sent to the billed airline, and cleared through the relevant Clearing House.

Carriers in the air transport industry are members of Clearing Houses that assist them in interline billing and settlement. There are three clearing house memberships available:
  • ICH - Interline Clearing House
  • ACH - American Clearing House
  • Non-ICH or ACH – Non-member of ICH or ACH (with SIS implementation)

Under SIS, electronic billing files are submitted and processed in a way that avoids duplication and minimizes the need for reconciliation with individual revenue accounting systems. Moreover, the current Clearing House activities are streamlined to allow for more effective exchange of transaction information between billing entities and their interline partners.

The following details need to be correct and set up properly for SIS Interline Billing and Settlement to work efficiently.
Table 1. SIS Details
SIS Detail Description
SIS Membership The SIS check box is selected which indicates that the carrier is using the SIS platform. The SIS check box can be found in Master Data > Carriers.
Address of the Carrier The Interline Invoice Address type is selected from the Type drop-down menu and the Full Address is entered in the text field. The full address is limited to three lines. You can set these parameters in the Address tab in Master Data > Carriers.
Rate of Exchange The Exchange Rates from FDR or MMR SIS IATA files are uploaded in Main > Reports Menu > Interline > Load IATA Monthly Mean Exch Rates (file chooser) or Load IATA Monthly Mean Exch Rates Blank Type (file chooser).
Clearance Calendar The Clearance Calendar provides more accuracy to the submission dates because this setup makes it possible to reflect actual IATA calendar, including public holidays and weekends. IATA publishes an annual Clearance Calendar for SIS members. The Clear Month and Clear period rows are added to the IataClearPeriod table in the Data Table screen. Click Master Data > Others > View Master Codes. If the IataClearPeriod table is not updated, the system prompts a message that the IATA Period End Date is not defined in the Master Codes table. The system then manually computes the clear period based on the invoice date following the proper logic.