bank acco

Bank Accounting (User's Guide)

We cover bank accounting in this section, which is the basis for representing central bank account tasks within an enterprise. We will include some examples regarding electronic bank statements, check deposit transaction, cash journal and bill of exchange management.

I do have a whole section on bank accounting in my FI configuration and setup section, this covers the subject from a configuration point of view.

In the newer releases (available from ERP 6.0 enhancement package 2) SAP has an important feature that enables enterprises to send payment media and receive bank statements, the entire process can be mapped within the SAP system. We will also discuss the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) and the evaluation options for liquidity management and the monitoring of outgoing checks.

Bank accounting is a subarea of financial accounting, all business transactions concerning banking are entered and managed here, the main role is to process and document all payment transactions that is all cash inflows and outflows. A business can be doing well but has zero liquidity which in affect means it is insolvent, the bank accounting department must retain an overview of all incoming and outgoing payments at all times to ensure that the enterprise has liquid funds on an ongoing basis.

The FI-BL module is not a subledger, information is stored in the general ledger and in the subledger's of accounts payable and accounts receivable. The FI-BL component (bank ledger) manages bank master data in a central SAP bank directory, both the enterprise's own house banks and the commercial banks of the vendors and customers are defined in the system (these are maintained in the master data), SEPA will alter some things here because it will replace the national special features of 33 countries with one uniform standard. FI-BL is also concerned with cash balance management for checks and bills of exchange, here incoming and outgoing payments are documented in electronic bank statements.

Master Data

The transactions on a bank account are mapped to a G/L account, we can use transaction code FIBHU, the screenshot on the left is the filter screen that allows you to select specific bank chains, the results screen displays the house banks, the account ID and the G/L bank accounts. Try to keep the number of house bank as low as possible this keeps maintenance and configuration simple. However one point to make that the enterprise should have a number of ways to get liquidity so make sure that there are a number of banks and ones that may not all merge into one bank, keep your options open when it comes to lines of credit.

Now lets discuss SAP internal bank directory, here we define information concerning the business partners bank in the master data, any information is checked against the internal SAP bank directory, this ensures that incorrect entries are kept to a minimum, for a program that transfers data directly into the SAP system we can use transaction code BAUP or use the SAP easy access menu

The report reads a file in ASCII format and can convert the formats of the following countries, for any other country use the transaction code BIC that allows transfers from a BIC file.

• Austria• Canada• Great Britain• South Africa• Denmark• Spain• Switzerland• Germany• Italy• USA

Page 1 of 13SAP - User Guide Bank Accounting

1/22/2015http://www.datadisk.co.uk/html_docs/sap/fi_user_guide/bank_accounting.htm

To create a bank manually we can use transaction code FI01, the initial screen (left-hand screenshot) requests for the bank country and a bank key, the key is checked to conform with the country format, the bank details screen (middle screenshot) requests for the bank's location , swift code, once you saved the configuration SAP will confirm, see right-hand screenshot. Once the bank has been created it can be used as both a house bank and a bank for customers and vendors. The options of importing or manually maintaining bank master data as a house bank or as a bank for business partners in the bank directory are inextricably linked to SEPA, this is a significant change to the master data of payment transactions conducted in Euro's, we will discuss this in more detail next.

SEPA

Single European Payments Area (SEPA) affects Euro payment transactions in 33 countries, this new standard which has been introduced for all bank transfers as of 28/01/2008 will replace the national payment methods and payment media after a period of coexistence, the procedure for SEPA debit memos was adopted in 2009, the new XML payment formats are based on a common standard in accordance with ISO 20022.

Using transaction code FK02, and using vendor10 we can see the bank key and the bank account, national bank numbers will be replaced with International Bank Account Number (IBAN), you can see the IBAN column in the screenshot below, if we double-click the IBAN button we can see the IBAN for this account

The IBAN itself is made up of a country code, check digit, bank code and an account number, the system can generate this new information as well but it is also better to check with the bank as well.



There may be times when the customer only knows the IBAN number and not their bank key or bank number, therefore master data such as the bank key and number may not be defined first in the SAP bank directory, to obtain an IBAN abbreviation when entering data you must maintain table TIBAN_WO_ACCNO using transaction code SM30 and selecting maintain, the setting in the right-hand screen enables you to maintain the IBAN of a business partner in the bank directory without having to enter the bank number.

Now when you select the IBAN button without a bank number you will see the below screen

Payment Transaction

In bank accounting we must ensure smooth and efficient processing of payment transactions, and in addition to incoming payments which are usually processed in electronic bank statements. We start with the payment program for the house banks and the available amounts, using transaction code S_ALR_87001486 or the SAP easy access menu we can setup to pay invoices up to the amount configured

You can see that company code DD11 has the below limits regarding the payment program.

Incoming payments can be an automated or a manual process, bank account must find out which offsettings items are suitable for the debit posting on the cash receipt account, this may concern several invoices whose absolute amount may also differ from the incoming payment amount. Lets use transaction code F-28 to post an incoming payment from a customer manually (you can use transaction code FB70 to create a customers invoice). The initial screen is the header details, here I have entered the minimum, however notice the open item selection and particular the account section, here you see that we will use this payment against the DDCUS01customer, when complete select the process open items button to obtain a list of the open items for the customer



The next screen returns all the open items of the customer, here we can match the payment with an invoice, this may not always be the case, the payment may be more or less covering a number of invoices. Notice in the red box that some items are in black and one is in blue, if you double click on a item you can make it available or unavailable to the payment, in my case I have selected just one item for payment document number 4000000005, also notice that the not assigned amount is zero.

Again we can simulate the transaction

Once happy you can post the document and SAP will confirm if it was successful

Now we can use transaction code FBL5N to check the previously open item, and as you can see the item is now cleared

Now when using the automated method the system searches the customer account, if there is a match then this invoice will be cleared however these ideal scenarios do not always occur in reality, instead it is necessary to distinguish between the following scenarios

• Underpayment within the tolerance - as you known you can define tolerance groups, the group is assigned to each individual customer and the SAP system automatically posts minor differences to a predefined account.

• Underpayment above the tolerance and creation of a partial payment - in the clearing transaction an accounting clerk can decide how to deal with the payment differences, partial payment is one option, which involves linking incoming payments with invoices, only one assignment take place and all items remain open.

• Underpayment above the tolerance and creation of a residual item - unlike partial payment, the original items are cleared for residual items, another difference is that a proportional cash discount is granted for this procedure.

• Payment on account - the customer has been found and you are completely free to choose the invoices that are to be cleared with the incoming payment (we see this example above), you can also use this for open item management.

Outgoing payments again can automated or be a manual process, lets see an example of a payment by check using transaction code F-58 (you can create a vendor invoice using transaction code FB60), the initial screen is the document header information, here you select the company code, the payment method, the house bank and a check lot number, I have already discussed setting up bank accounting in my FI setup and configuration section,



The next screen continues with the header data, which also includes the amount and payee, when complete select the process open items button to obtain a list of open items for the vendor

The next screen contains the list of open items, double-click the items that you want to include for payment, these should be highlighted in blue, in this case I just have one item selected

Once you post you are taken to the check screen (left-hand screenshot) double-click on the check and then you are taken to the list of spool screen (right-hand screenshot), double-click the icon in the type column and you will see the the check

The check the information does contains the payment and the correct details



Using transaction code FBL1N we can see that the document has cleared

You can also use transaction code FCH7 to reprint a check or transaction code FBZ4 payment with printout, you can also use transaction code FHCU, to update the check number in a payment document, you can choose what field you want the cheque number to appear in, see below screenshot, this information will override any assignments (possible sort key) that you have made in the field of your choice.

As an alternative to payments by check you can generate a bank transfer for an adhoc payment using transaction code FIBLFFP, this scenario does not need an invoice on the vendor account for clearing purposes

There are a number of check transaction code which can be seen below, a useful transaction code is FCHT which can be used to reassign checks to documents.



Processing Bank Statements

There will be many bank statements which need to be overviewed, the bank statements of house banks provide not only the bank account department with valuable information about liquid funds available but especially the accounts receivable accounting departments which is also involved. There is a close relationship between bank account department and the accounts receivable department. Bank information generally imported in electronic form using transaction FF_5, you can choose from many different formats, I have an example of a MT940 format in the right-hand screenshot. Notice the the do not post option, this is ideal if you just want to test and not post

The diagram below outlines a brief scenario, if an enterprise receives money from a customer for a receivable, this results in two posting documents, debit the bank and credit the cash receipt and debit the cash receipt and credit the customer, you can always implement the first posting transaction directly, it provides the bank accounting department with more information about the house banks account balance at present. The second posting (to the customer) can be more difficult, the system automatically makes the posting depending on whether an open item can be found and cleared, when post processing bank statements, accounts receivable accountants try to determine the customer and item(s) for which a cash receipt was intended. The post processing screen is available using transaction code FEBA_BANK_STATEMENT, fill in the filter screen then select the clock with the green tick, I am using company code 3000 for this example

The left-hand screenshot details the bank statement numbers, you can drill down by double-clicking the document number in the red box, the output what you see in the right-hand screenshot. Keep an eye on the red icons these indicate problems with the posting, if you open these up to will not see a posting in neither posting area 1 or 2.



If you select a sale amount (either green or red) and select save the program then navigates to the posting screen, the below example was unable to post due to a posting period not being open

You can use transaction code SE38 and program RFEBKA96 to delete a bank statement/s, use transaction code FEBA_BANK_STATEMENT to obtain the statement number (ID) and then enter the details as per the below screenshot, you can also use this for deleting all bank statements if you need to.

Cash Journal

Some business transactions directly use cash, for example if a vendor has delivered some goods and wants immediate payment before handing them over to you or if a customer primarily uses cash to pay his/her receivables. These transactions are generally small amounts for example office supplies, which are not invoiced and instead paid by petty cash, which means these need to be recorded and included into the balance sheet. This is where the cash journal comes in, first you may need to create a cash journal using using the steps below

• Create petty cash G/L account• Create the cash journal

Both can be obtained by using the IMG as seen below, you can also define number ranges, amount limits, document types, etc

The left-hand screenshot is the create G/L account for cash journal and the right-hand screenshot is the set up cash journal



To use the cash journal we can use transaction code FBCJ, the first thing to do is select the right cash journal, there are two buttons to do this (see red boxes), here you can see that I have only one cash journal setup for company code DD11, a cash journal is an example of small subledger accounting, you can choose to record detailed information in the subledger only and also in the general ledger. You could have multiple cash journals point to one G/L account to keep things simple however in this case only the subledger accounting provides information about the current financial status of each cash journal. For our purposes this cash journal is connected to G/L account 100011 as per the configuration screenshot above.

You can setup business transactions (see IMG above), you can see (left-hand screenshot) that I have created a number of business transactions for company code DD11 (copied existing ones), you can then select these business transaction from the cash journal. Business transactions help to establish a connection between simple data entries and completed posting records.

If you notice you can see three tabs, cash payments, cash receipts and check receipts, we will start with cash receipts, you can see that I have made several entries already, an opening balance of 5,000.00 and a cash payment from a customer of 500.00, the screen is similar to the accounts payable and receivable screens so I won't go in to detail here. Notice the business transaction that we configured above. You can even reverse documents as seen in the below screenshot.

Again we can see the incoming check receipts



And lastly the cash payments to our customers.

If you notice the cash journal has a summary section detailing the number of record entries in each tab, it also displays their balances.

Just like account payable and accounts receivable the G/L account does not get updated until you post the entry, which means you can save a entry in the cash journal without having to post it to the G/L account. Also we can reverse entries as well, if you highlight a transaction and then select the icon in the button left-hand corner (the icon with a red line), a dialog box will be displayed requesting if you want to reverse the entry. You have to supply a reversal reason and posting date.

You can then see the original entry and the reversal document, if you hoover the mouse over the document status column you can see the entry reversed and the entry is a reversal document,

Check Deposit Transaction

Checks need to be managed efficiently to transfer them to the house bank as quickly as possible, the goal is to reduce any loss on interest, checks are generally gathered centrally in a check deposit list that is not immediately posted, changes can be made anytime before the posting begins, as of this time both the checks and the central check deposit list are transferred to the house bank both the bank accounting and receivable accounting department have a major interest in the check information. We have already discuss lockbox in our bank accounting in the FI setup and configuration section which is used in the US. We can use transaction code FF68 to manually deposit checks, the initial screen request the bank key, bank account, currency and control parameters,



The next screen you enter the items, you can get an overview of this screen after you you have finished

When you do post you get a detailed list of the postings, here we can see the account number and the batch numbers (CITI-1400, /CITI-1400)

The system should be able to create one G/L account posting without errors. The second account assignment depends on the quality of the information on the check. It must contain the customer and the open items, we can use transaction code SM35 to have a overview of the batch sessions created

• /CITI-1400 - debit the check deposit account and credit the clearing account• CITI-1400 - debit the clearing account and credit the customer

We select /CITI-1400 and press F8 the contents are then displayed, we can see the header information and the start of the first document item. The G/L account 113171 is used as a clearing account, you then press enter and then you are taken to the screen for open items, then press enter again to change the selection conditions



Evaluations

There are a number of evaluations for bank accounting, I will only show you a few examples and this is only a fraction of the many possibilities available. The bank accounting department can use the liquidity forecast evaluation to obtain a central overview of the enterprises current cash position. It provides the status on the bank account and all incoming and outgoing future payments, If the MM and SD modules are used to manage purchase orders and sales orders, this content will be incorporated as future planned payments and receipts. You can either use transaction code FF7B or the SAP easy access menu

The initial screen is a filter screen, here you can narrow specific liquidity, in may case I have entered the minimum required, I suggest that you play around with the increment and output control sections to obtain your requirements.

When you run the report a summary results screen is displayed, now you can start to drill down into the report to find the specifics that made up the value

The next is the result of me double-clicking the USD line in the above

Again we can drill more into the report, here I double-clicked on the BANKEN line

You can also double-click on an amount box, we will display the line items that make up the amount



There is a report for checks (check register), you can use transaction code FCHN to list outgoing and incoming checks and also payroll checks, again the initial screen is a filter screen

The results are displayed and we can see that two checks are to be paid to the customer Paul Valle.

You can also select the report to detail the line items as per the below screenshot, you can also double-click on a check to drill down to the original document and the original invoice.

I will have a section on reports and will link it into this section when it is complete.



bank acco

Documents

bank master data

bank accounting department

number of house bank

electronic bank statements

gl bank accounts

central sap bank directory

business partners bank

sap internal bank directory