Introducing Basic Bank Account Management (BFA)

The two Manage Banks apps offer a wide array of functionality to manage bank data in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition.

Master Data Specialists use the app Manage Banks - Bank data to upload external bank directories to store public bank data in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system. Individual corporate data can be enhanced by the Manage Banks - Cash Management app where additional information for business partners or house banks is maintained.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud and the functions of Basic Bank Account Management help enterprises to run more effectively by breaking down silos, reducing manual effort, and standardizing processes.

Hierarchies

Managing bank hierarchies for banks and accounts helps organizations to manage bank accounts and bank account relationships.

Revision Process

For the approval process of bank accounts opening, changing, and closing, the solution provides direct revision activation. In the Basic Bank Account Management scope item, only this simplified version is available.

Mass Maintenance

The Upload and the Download Bank Accounts functionality helps customers to migrate bank account or make mass changes to bank accounts. Customers can download all the bank accounts into a Microsoft Excel file, make the mass change, and upload the file again to the system.

All of the above facilitate simplified and auditable bank account management processes. Organizations are thereby enabled to streamline the processes of opening, maintaining, and closing accounts. Reduced effort to administer workflows and reports results in cost savings in the overall Cash Management area.

The app Manage Banks - Cash Management enables you can display banks that have already been created in your SAP system and supplement banks with data that is essential for using these banks in cash management and payments, such as house banks, business partners, and bank service mappings.

With the app you can supplement banks with your corporate data which is essential for using these banks in cash management and payment activities. One of the most important attributes is the House bank information.

For each bank, you can assign the business partners listed below:

• Risk business partner: The risk counterparty of the bank. It is used to construct the bank hierarchy.

  For each bank, you can assign a risk business partner with the BP role TR0703 (Bank).

• Netting business partner: A legal entity that is under the same netting agreement in the sense of IAS 32 and IFRS 7. You specify a netting business partner for banks when using bank reconciliation accounts in G/L account assignments. The attribute can be used to identify bank accounts that belong to the same netting agreement in financial statements.

  The assignment of a netting business partner is time-dependent. You can assign different netting business partners for different periods. The business partner assigned as a netting business partner must have the BP role TR0703 (Bank).

• Bank contact person: Bank contact persons are external to the company. They are managed in the Manage Business Partners app and displayed in the Manage Banks - Cash Management app.

  To define a contact person for a bank, open the Manage Business Partners app and proceed as follows:

  • Create a business partner with the BP role BUP001 (Contact Person).
  • Assign the business partner to the corresponding risk business partner that represents the bank.

Bank service mappings are used to calculate bank service volumes from bank statements. The volumes calculated can then be used to validate the service volume from bank services billing files in the Monitor Bank Fees app.

After bank fees are imported into your system, the system performs a validation check to see whether there are any mistakes or improper bank fee charges according to the defined conditions.

A prerequisite to use this validation function is the mapping of bank services to payment transaction types and external transaction codes in the Manage Banks app.

This mapping enables the system to calculate the volume of bank services based on imported end-of-day bank statements (bank statement type 0001).

Select the play button to watch the video about features and functions of the Manage Banks - Cash Management app in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition.

You can use the Manage Bank Accounts app to define bank accounts according to your company's business requirements. Bank account master data provides the following attributes or functions:

• General data that enables you to check common account properties, such as the bank account number, account holder, IBAN, bank control key, and customer-defined attributes.
• Bank relationship data that enables you to maintain bank-related information, such as internal and bank contact persons, and bank statement data.
• House bank account connectivity that enables you to configure the integration from a bank account to the corresponding house bank accounts or other account records, in either the central system or other remote systems.
• Overdraft limits that enable you to manage the overdraft limits of a bank account.
• Multi-language descriptions that allow you to define account descriptions in different languages.
• File or hyperlink attachments as reference documents.

The master data of a bank account in SAP S/4HANA Cloud consists of the following tabs and information:

General Data

The General Data tab contains information on the company code and account details like IBAN or SWIFT/BIC code.

Bank Relationship

The Bank Relationship tab contains data about the (external) bank contact persons, cut-off times, or the internal bank supervisor.

House Bank Account Connectivity

The house bank and house bank account are maintained on this tab.

Overdraft Limits

Specific to the currency (for example, USD or EUR), the overdraft limits are set on the account and outlined on this tab.

Multi-Language Descriptions

The account description for each language is set on this tab.

The overdraft limit of the account specifies the credit amount the bank agrees to offer for this bank account.

On the House Bank Connectivity tab, you can define connectivity entries for remote SAP systems or non-SAP systems. The following setup is recommended depending on your scenario:

Central System

For house bank accounts that exist in the central cash management system, select Central System: House Bank Account and specify the following:

• Company code
• House bank ID
• House bank account ID
• Validity period

For G/L accounts that exist in the central cash management system, choose Central System: G/L Account and specify the following:

• Company code
• Validity period
• G/L account

Remote System

For house bank accounts that exist in a remote SAP Business Suite application, choose Remote System: House Bank Account and specify the following:

• Remote system ID
• Company code
• House bank ID
• House bank account ID
• Validity period

For G/L accounts that exist in a remote SAP Business Suite application, choose Remote System: G/L Account and specify the following:

• Remote system ID
• Company code
• Additional ID: Enter the G/L account number
• Validity period

Others

For non-SAP systems, choose Others and specify the following:

• Additional ID: Enter an identifier that points to the target account in the non-SAP system
• Validity period

For the Basic Cash Management version, the bank account revision is set to Activate Directly. Having configured this, an activation step is now required after a user creates a new bank account and saves the data. The user who created the account or other authorized users can activate the new bank account by choosing the Activate button.

The following activities are not affected and do not require activation:

• Making changes to an existing bank account in the Activate Directly mode
• Importing bank accounts using the Import and Export Bank Accounts function
• Migrating house bank accounts to create bank accounts

Using the Define Bank Account Settings - Bank Statements app, you can define settings for integrating end-of-day electronic bank statements with cash management at bank-account level. You define how bank statement data is consumed by cash management, and whether posting is needed after bank statements are imported.

You can use this app to do the following:

• Retrieve default settings defined for company codes

  You can choose the Retrieve Default Settings button to retrieve all bank accounts that belong to the company codes that have configuration defined in the configuration step Integrate with End-of-Day Bank Statements. The configuration settings defined for company codes are also retrieved and stored with these bank accounts. You can find this configuration step in the Manage Your Solution app, under Finance Cash and Liquidity Management Bank Account Management.

• Change settings for individual bank accounts

  You can change the default settings for individual bank accounts as required. The setting is time-dependent. You can define different settings for different validity periods.

  Note

  By default, the system uses the following logic for bank accounts when there are no relevant settings defined in this app or in the configuration step Integrate with End-of-Day Bank Statements:

  • Posting Category: Posting to Be Processed
  • Transfer Mode: Bank Statement Items Only

Settings on how the end-of-day statements should be processed are maintained in the configuration step Manage Your Solution app. Go to Finance → Cash and Liquidity Management → Bank Account Management → Integrate with End-of-Day Statements. Here you set the default values that can be retrieved in the Define Bank Account Settings - Bank Statements app later on. The values are set per company code and have a validity period, meaning they are time-dependent.

Use the areas in light yellow of the interactive element to learn more about account settings for bank accounts in SAP S/4HANA, public cloud edition.

If the transaction type is maintained in the Manage Bank Accounts app, the system automatically uses this information for the import of the bank statement. If you do not maintain the transaction type in the Manage Bank Accounts app, the system is not able to post and clear bank statement items correctly or to post and clear them at all. To avoid this problem in the area of bank statement processing, we recommend that you maintain the Transaction Type field for every bank account manually in the Manage Bank Accounts app.

The Basic Bank Account Management solution supports the import and export of bank accounts.

For example, if you want to export information from your production system to one of the test environments, navigate to the Manage Bank Accounts app and choose Import and Export Bank Accounts.

Use the Import and Export Bank Accounts tool to complete the following tasks:

• Export bank accounts to an XML file for batch editing.
• Import bank accounts from a source file.

  To import the bank accounts, specify the import path of the XML source data file and then choose Import to upload the file. You can choose either of the following modes for the import:

  • Overwrite Mode

    By selecting the Overwrite option, if you leave a field blank in the source file, the respective field in the bank account master data will be erased after the import.

  • Update Mode

    By deselecting the Overwrite option, empty fields in the source file will be ignored during the import. Only fields with values are updated after the import.

• Enhance the template and validation schema for customer-defined fields.

You can add additional fields according to your business needs by appending the structure CI_AMD_EXT to the database table FCLM_BAM_AMD. To enhance the template for importing and exporting bank accounts and assign checks for custom fields, edit the downloaded file XML_Schema_Import.xml with Notepad or another XML editing tool.

An account within the SAP S/4HANA Cloud suite can hold several different statuses. At the beginning of the bank account lifecycle, you can distinguish between inactive accounts and active accounts. Right at the beginning you are able to delete a bank account in the system. With time, at the end of the lifecycle, you might want to close down an account or even consider reopening accounts.

Depending on the status of the bank account, only specified actions are available for the account.

The standard logic for the bank account status is as follows:

• A bank account is created and saved with the status Inactive.
• A bank account with the status Inactive can either be activated (status Active) or deleted (status Deleted).
• A bank account that has the status Active can only be closed (status Closed). When a bank account has been activated, it can not be deleted due to audit purposes.
• A bank account that has the status Inactive and is in an approval workflow process cannot be deleted until the approver rejects the workflow.

The figure, Active Bank Accounts, illustrates that Close is the only option available for an activated bank account.

Usually the bank account can not be closed with a non-zero closing balance. If you want to perform this action, see SAP Note 2778069 - Manage Bank Accounts: Enable Closure on Account with Non-Zero Closing Balance for more information.

If you no longer use a bank account and the bank account has the status Active, you can close the bank account. You can also reopen a closed bank account if necessary.

You can only close bank accounts with the status Active.

To close a bank account, complete the following steps:

1. In the Manage Bank Accounts app, find the bank account and then open it.

2. Choose one of the following options:

   • Mark for Closing

     Choose this button to initiate the closing process. The bank account is then set to the Marked for Closing status.

   • Confirm Closing at Bank

     If the bank account has already been closed at its bank, choose this button to set the bank account to the Closed at Bank status.

   • Send Closing Request to Bank

     Choose this button to confirm that you are about to send a bank account closing request to the bank or that you have already done so. The bank account status is then set to Closing Request Sent to Bank.

   • Additionally, depending on your settings, a bank account closing request letter can be automatically generated and sent to the bank account contact person using email. The receiver can then send the letter to the corresponding bank to request closure of the bank account.

3. When the bank account is closed at the bank, you can close it completely in the system by choosing the Confirm Closing at Bank button.
4. In the Set Up Bank Determination for Payment Transactions configuration step, check and update the payment settings of the house bank accounts that are linked to this bank account.

In the Manage Bank Accounts app, select the bank account which is about to be closed. Depending on the current status of the account (02 – Active), subsequent processing options are available.

Choose the account status according to your underlying business process.

Bank accounts with the Marked for Closing status can still be viewed or processed in the following apps:

• Review Bank Accounts

  Review bank accounts with this status.

• Maintain Payment Approver - For Multiple Bank Accounts

  Update payment approvers for bank accounts with this status.

• Import Bank Fees

  Import bank fee data for bank accounts with this status.

• Monitor Bank Fees

  Monitor bank fee import status for bank accounts with this status.

• Bank Statement Monitor - Intraday

  Monitor the import of intraday bank statements for bank accounts with this status.

• Bank Statement Monitor - End-of-Day

  Monitor the import of end-of-day bank statements for bank accounts with this status.

• Manage Bank Account Balances

  Enter or import bank account balances for bank accounts with this status.

• Monitor Bank Account Balances

  Monitor bank account balances for bank accounts with this status.

If necessary, you can reopen a bank account that was previously closed.

To reopen a bank account, complete the following steps:

1. In the Manage Bank Accounts app, find the bank account that you want to reopen.

2. Choose the Initiate Reopening button.

   The bank account status is set back to Closed at Bank.

3. Depending on the process used to close the bank account, you can reopen it using either of the following buttons:

   • Change Back to Active

     If you started the closing process directly using the Confirm Closing at Bank button, you can choose this button to change the bank account status back to Active.

   • Reopen at Bank

     If you started the closing process using the Send Closing Request to Bank button and then the Confirm Closing at Bank button, you can choose the Confirm Closing at Bank button to change the bank account status first to Closing Request Sent to Bank and then use the Change Back to Active button to set the bank account back to Active.

If reopening a bank account, the process starts with an already closed bank account at the bank. For this bank account several processing options are available.

Either complete the closing of the account or revert back to active.