Managing Payment Differences

Specifications for permitted payment differences are found in both G/L account and customer or vendor tolerance groups. These specifications control the automatic posting of cash discount adjustments and unauthorized customer deductions.

SAP S/4HANA considers the entries in both groups during clearing. The payment difference must be within both tolerances to be handled automatically.

Consider the following example of the treatment of payment differences:

• A payment difference must be lower than 3.00 and 2.00 currency units to be written off automatically as a cash discount adjustment.
• A payment difference must be lower than 200.00 and 100.00 currency units. It must also be lower than 2.5% and 2.0% of the open amount. When both the conditions are true, then the payment difference can be written off automatically as an unauthorized deduction. The lower of the two tolerances always applies. For example, for an open amount of 1,000 currency units, an unauthorized customer deduction of 20 currency units applies. For an open amount of 100,000 currency units, an unauthorized customer deduction of 100 currency units applies.

The entries in the tolerance groups are always in the local currency.

A payment difference normally occurs during the clearing of an open item. SAP S/4HANA then compares this difference to the tolerance groups of the employee and the customer or vendor.

If the payment difference is within tolerances, the difference is automatically posted as either cash discount adjustment or unauthorized deduction. Otherwise, the difference is processed manually.

If the payment difference is immaterial, SAP S/4HANA may process it automatically by performing the following steps:

• Adjusting the cash discount up to certain amounts
• Writing off the payment difference to a special account

You can define the limits within which a payment difference is considered to be immaterial in a tolerance group. Within the tolerance group for an employee, you can allow an adjustment of the cash discount within defined limits. This measure ensures that the employee is authorized to make the adjustment. When defining tolerance groups for employees, predefine the maximum cash discount percentage that an employee can grant for business partners in a line item. Predefining the cash discount percentage enables you to post the payment difference by adjusting the cash discount (when within the defined limits) or by posting to a separate expense or revenue account.

If you want to define different tolerances for employees, specify the amount limits for each employee group. If you have defined differing tolerance groups, you have to assign employees to a specific tolerance group by selecting the activity "assign users to tolerance group". This is where you enter the employees in the relevant group by giving special tolerances to a group so that the employees in this group are authorized to adjust the cash discount up to the limit prescribed in the tolerance group.

If the payment difference is beyond the tolerance limit, you must manually process it.

You can use the following options to manually process the payment difference:

• Post the payment difference as a partial payment

  All the documents remain in the account as open items.

• Post the payment difference as a residual item

  Only the residual item remains in the account. The original document and the payment are cleared. SAP S/4HANA creates a new document number with reference to the original documents.

• Post the payment difference to a different account

  This is a different posting that uses reason codes and automatic determination.

• Write off the payment difference

  This is manual account assignment.

The customer or vendor tolerance groups contain entries that control the residual items and specify the following conditions:

• Whether the terms of payment for a residual item are the same as the terms of the cleared item or whether the terms of payment are fixed.
• Whether a cash discount is only partially granted.
• Whether the residual item has a maximum dunning level or is printed separately, using a specific dunning key.

If you know the reason for a payment difference, you can enter a reason code.