Introducing Basic Bank Account Management (BFA)

With Basic Bank Account Management, cash managers and bank accountants can centralize the management of bank accounts using bank account master data, using a table view of banks and bank accounts.

You can manage bank and bank account master data centrally. Furthermore, you have the option to upload or download master data as needed.

Cash managers and accountants in subsidiaries can eliminate tedious manual reconciliation processes when creating, changing, or closing a bank account.

Basic Bank Account Management is equipped with the direct revision activation process flow. No information is lost along the way and the bank account information is always harmonized. Once a bank account has been opened with an external party, the creation of information in SAP S/4HANA Cloud software is straightforward.

Bank account master data is identified as house bank information and is linked to a general ledger account in financial accounting.

Using Basic Bank Account Management in SAP S/4HANA Cloud, cash managers and cash specialists can standardize and harmonize bank management.

All of the main business processes can be mapped directly to the functions and features provided by Basic Cash Management. The application supports the maintenance of general master data, the creation of bank hierarchies, the export of information to a spreadsheet, and so on.

This greatly supports cash specialists and managers in their day-to-day business to run more efficiently using best practice business processes.

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 Manage Banks app forms the central entity to facilitate further processes. If you are looking for ways to structure your banks in hierarchies or you need to understand which accounts are held with each bank, the app bundles all of that information in one place.

The Manage Banks app allows you to display, create, and change data about the banks that your company, your customers, and your suppliers use to transact business.

The main elements of a new bank in the system are outlined in the figure, Manage Banks App, and include the bank country or the bank number. You can also search or filter the criteria as business needs require.

Key features of the app include:

• View a central repository for address, risk, and other kinds of general bank data
• Create, display, and edit data for banks and house banks in which your company has one or more accounts
• Create, display, and edit data for banks that your customers and suppliers use to transact business with your company
• Associate house banks, contact persons, and business partners with your banks

The Manage Banks app provides a variety of filter options and display modes.

For the bank master, there is the option to only show banks with a linked house bank account or to filter banks by country. For example, If you are required to work on the information in a spreadsheet, you can export the data to one of the common formats like Microsoft Excel.

A new bank is easily integrated with the Create Bank feature. All of the common account properties such as general data, house bank information, and contact details can be maintained there.

When you select a bank in the list view, you can access the following types of information as shown in the figure, Display Bank:

General Data

The general data contains information on the bank country, bank key, and assigned business partner. You can also directly link to the Maintain Business Partner app or display advanced address information.

House Banks

The banks with which your company has an account. You can use them to process payment transactions.

Contact Information

Information about who to contact with questions for the account.

Related Branches

All of the related branches for the main bank are stored here.

Change History

All of the changes for the account are logged here.

You can define technical banks and technical bank accounts using the Manage Banks and Manage Bank Accounts apps.

In the bank master data, in the General Data section, use the Bank Category field to define which category applies to this specific bank.

In the Manage Bank Accounts app, you can define bank accounts for the bank.

All bank accounts defined under a technical bank are regarded as technical bank accounts.

Unlike normal bank accounts, each technical bank account is uniquely identified by the combination of company code, house bank, and house bank account ID. Therefore, for each technical bank account, you must define one and only one house bank account with the connectivity ID category of Central System: House Bank Account.

You can also use the Split Technical Bank Accounts app to process existing technical bank accounts in your system.

With this activity, you can identify bank accounts that are marked as technical bank accounts but contain multiple house bank accounts. You can use this activity to split additional house bank accounts from the original technical bank account and create a new bank account for each house bank account that has been split away. This way, you can ensure that each technical bank account is uniquely represented by one house bank account.

To split technical bank accounts, select all the entries with a red status, and choose the Split button.

If you want to process bank accounts individually, you can also select a single entry to split the bank account.

For each technical bank account, the system keeps only one house bank account and unlinks all other house bank accounts. Then the system automatically creates new bank accounts for each of the unlinked house bank accounts, with a new technical ID, the original bank account number, bank, bank country, currency, and the company code of the house bank account. Each technical bank account is uniquely identified by the combination of company code, house bank, and house bank account ID.

Note

Before you perform this activity, make sure that you have specified Activate Directly for the Bank Account Revision setting in the configuration.

The Manage Bank Accounts - Bank Hierarchy View app enables you to get an overview of your bank accounts in the bank hierarchy view and to maintain bank account groups.

The bank hierarchy view displays banks in a hierarchical structure. The hierarchical relationship is constructed by business partners that represent banks or bank groups. By default, only organization business partners assigned with the role Bank (TR0703) are displayed in the structure. If you have banks that are assigned to an organization business partner without the role Bank (TR0703), or not assigned to any business partner, they are not displayed in the bank hierarchy.

The following functions allow you to group and organize banks and bank accounts:

• Standard Bank Hierarchy:

  Add the banks into the hierarchy by leveraging the business partners. The bank accounts under each bank will be displayed automatically in the bank hierarchy. So, from this view, you can have a complete view of all the banks and bank accounts within the company.

• Account List:

  Display all bank accounts in a flat structure. By leveraging the framework of Web Dynpro tables, you can easily sort groups and bank accounts in the account list.

  In the Manage Bank Accounts - Bank Hierarchy View app, choose Bank Hierarchy → Edit.

  The left pane displays all available banks in your system. To add a bank into the bank hierarchy, on the left pane, select the bank.

  On the right pane, select a business partner under which you want to add the bank.

  Complete one of the following steps:

  • To add the bank directly under the business partner on the right pane, choose Add Bank.

  • To assign the bank to a business partner before adding it under the business partner on the right pane, choose Add Bank with BP.

  You can either use an existing business partner that is not yet in the bank hierarchy, or create a new business partner for this bank.

Banks and their corresponding business partners are displayed in the bank hierarchy in either of the following ways:

• If a business partner corresponds with multiple banks, the banks are displayed as subnodes under the business partner.

  To remove one of the banks from the bank hierarchy, select the bank and choose Remove Bank.

• If a business partner corresponds with only one bank, the bank information is displayed together with the business partner name.

To remove the bank from the bank hierarchy, select the business partner entry and choose Remove Bank.

The bank information is removed from the entry while the business partner stays in the hierarchy. If you also want to remove the business partner from the bank hierarchy, in the SAP GUI transaction BP, remove the role Bank (TR0703) from the business partner.

Before the implementation of this function, when making a payment to a business partner abroad, you had to specify your house bank and the business partner’s bank when processing payments. These two banks represented the start and end of the payment cycle and it was down to the house bank to determine via which banks the payment should be made. Using the bank chain function, you can now specify this bank chain yourself, leading to faster payment transaction processing and considerable cost savings through reduced bank charges.

With this feature, you can set up bank chains. Bank chains are used to make payments that are transferred through up to three intermediary banks before going to the beneficiary bank. You can use this app to determine a combination of intermediary banks that you previously defined.

The order of the intermediary banks in the bank chain can depend on the following factors:

• House bank
• Supplier’s bank details
• Customer’s bank details
• Currency
• Payment method supplement

If you carry out a payment run for open items or for payment requests from Treasury or Cash Management, the system determines the bank chain according to your system settings and the settings in the master data. If you have changed an entry regarding an intermediary bank that is relevant to bank chain determination during payment proposal editing, the system redetermines the bank chain, which is displayed on screen.

The system uses bank chains only for payments with payment methods that require a bank chain. This means that no bank chain is determined by the system for payments such as payments by check.

Bank chains are transferred each time a payment medium is created. The following formats are supported in this process:

• SWIFT MT101
• SWIFT MT103

Note

SWIFT stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication.

Upload files, compare them with existing bank data, and save the new and changed data in the bank master table using a global bank directory. With the Transfer BIC Data app, you can upload bank directories. The bank directory contains the bank master data, including bank address data and control data, such as the SWIFT code and bank groups.

Note

The bank directory must contain the master data for all the banks that you require for payment transactions with your business partners. Therefore, you have to include your banks and the banks of your business partners.

While uploading, there are several data administration options available. Further details on the options are as follows:

• If you want to use a specific branch for some countries, but not for all the countries contained in the file, you have to upload the file in two steps. For step one, select the Branch Code XXX for Head Office checkbox and restrict the selection of countries using the Country Key field. For step two, deselect the checkbox and exclude the countries selected in step one.
• The file you want to upload contains different branches of the same bank. This bank uses the bank number of their head office for all their branches, but the BIC is different for each branch. In the system, the bank number is used for each country, which in turn means that you cannot save all branches. Also, the SWIFT codes necessary for foreign payments are missing. Therefore, you have to change the bank key type to type 4. By doing this, you make sure that the existing bank data is not changed, and the missing banks are added with the SWIFT code being used as the bank key. Set the Bank Key when Type 4 field to National ID/BIC Code when you are uploading the data.
• You want to upload a file, but, for some banks, the SWIFT code (BIC) of the head office is used for all branches whereas different bank numbers are assigned to each branch. In the system, the bank key is the SWIFT code (type 4) for each country. This means that you cannot save all branches because the missing bank numbers are needed for domestic bank transfers. Add the missing branches by setting the Bank Key for Type 4 field to BIC Code/National ID when uploading the data. This way, the bank numbers are used as the bank key.
• You want to upload a delta file. Select the Delta Upload checkbox to make sure that the app uses the special logic for delta files.
• You want to transfer funds to a country as a Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) payment. To do this, select the SEPA Mode (IBAN BIC) checkbox. Here is what happens: First, the system transfers the IBAN data if this data is contained in the file. Next, the SWIFT code is used as the bank key and the system saves the IBAN national ID in the bank number field. If the bank key is the same as the bank number, the system saves the IBAN BIC in the SWIFT code field. This way, IBANs can be easily maintained in the system.

The system displays the changes in an ALV list. You can drill down to the old and new values by double-clicking a changed bank. The system displays a summary for each country at the end of the change overview. This summary contains the total figures of the banks that have been added, changed, or flagged for deletion. Alternatively, if the data of a country could not be processed, the summary contains an error message.

Note

We recommend that you always upload full files because delta files only contain the changes of the last full version of the file. Using delta files makes it necessary to locate the appropriate bank key first, which makes it more difficult to assign the uploaded data to the data that already exists in the system.

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.