Maintaining Direct Debit information (19M)

In this scope item, you utilize the SEPA direct debits to collect payments from your customers in Euro.

A paying party (debitor) grants mandates to a creditor as part of a direct debit procedure. Using the SAP system, you create and maintain the mandates from the customers, which are the legal basis for the direct debit payment.

The system checks that a valid SEPA mandate exists during the payment run, saves the ID of the SEPA mandate in the payment data and creates a SEPA-specific payment medium.

You can print out mandates on paper and repeat the printing.

A representation of the business process to show how the software works as standard.

This scope item supports the following main process.

This scope item is relevant for the following countries or regions:

A SEPA direct debit (SDD) is a payment instrument for making collections in Euro throughout the SEPA region from accounts designated to accept collections.

The debitor and creditor must each hold an account with a bank located within SEPA.

Transactions for the collection of funds from a debtor's account with a debtor bank are initiated by a creditor using the creditor bank, following an agreement between debtor and creditor. This is based on an authorization for the creditor and the debtor bank given by the debtor for the debit of its account. This authorization is referred to as the mandate. Unless the creditor and the debtor (payer) have arranged a shorter period, a pre-notification must be sent at least 14 calendar days before the due date. In the case of recurring direct debits of the same amount (such as rent or insurance premiums), the payer need only be notified of a direct debit payment once, with details of all due dates. The objective is to provide fully electronic end-to-end straight-through processing (STP) of transactions. This also applies to the various processes for exception handling (such as rejects, returns, reversals, refunds, refusals, and revocations).

Between banks, the handling of mandate information is only permitted electronically.

Between debtor and creditor, a mandate can be exchanged in either paper or electronic form.

AR Accountants want to be able to make central payments using harmonized and consistent figures on the group level of the company in a central system. For the process of direct debts, SEPA mandates are required during central payments. Therefore, SEPA mandates from the source system (Cloud System) need to be replicated to the central system (On-Premise). In this use case, an SAP S/4HANA Cloud system is connected to the central on-premise finance system (aka CFIN).

With scope item 19M (Direct Debit), you can create and edit SEPA mandate information in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud source system, then the SEPA mandate data is replicated to the Central Finance system and can be used there with the activation of Central Payment. The usage data in the Central Finance system can also be transferred back to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud source system after payment.

Before a new SEPA mandate is replicated in the CFIN system, it is possible to perform mappings of unharmonized master data on the CFIN side. Appropriate error handling is enabled both on the S/4HANA Cloud side and on the CFIN side by means of AIF.

Prerequisites are as follows:

• You have installed and configured the Cloud Connector using the communication arrangement SAP_COM_0200.
• You have activated scope item 1W4.
• You have maintained value and key mapping in the Central Finance system.
• You have activated Central Payment.
• Activate the Communication Scenario SAP_COM_0674.
• Configure Central Finance system for SEPA mandate replication.
• For detailed information, see the set-up instructions for scope item 19M in the SAP Best Practices Explorer.

The payment method for the business partner describes the processes that can be used for incoming and outgoing payments. It is maintained in the FI Customer role at the company code level. Use the Payment Transactions tab to make the needed settings.

In our example, payment method E is used for the incoming payment process, and is therefore set in the master data of the business partner.

Manage Customer Line Items is a key transactional app for accounts receivable accountants and managers. Whether you use it for ad-hoc requests or recurring reports, the app enables you to easily find customer line items using a wide range of search criteria. For example, you can see all line items of a specific customer account or all unallocated payments for a specific company code at the end of a period.

In addition to displaying data, you can also take various actions such as setting a payment or dunning block. You can export the data to a file and collaborate with colleagues. The app also serves as a navigation target from other apps, allowing users to drill down into the customer line items.

Key Features:

• Find customer line items using a wide range of search criteria
• Sort and group the selected data
• Export data to a spreadsheet
• Send correspondence
• Set or remove dunning blocks or payment blocks
• Change line item attributes such as payment data, assignment, or line item text
• Create predefined queries using selection variants
• Personalize the settings of the table using layout variants
• If your company uses SAP Jam, you can post comments there. You can also send emails from this app.

With the transactional app Display Customer Balances, you can check and compare customer balances. You can see debits, credits, and balances by company code, fiscal year, and customer. The app allows you to further analyze the amounts by displaying all related line items. Furthermore, you can compare the sales between two fiscal years. To adapt the app to your needs, you can hide, unhide, and sort columns. In addition, you can create search and display variants.

Key Features:

• Display balances, debits, credits, and imputed interest
• Search by company code, fiscal year, and customer
• Compare the sales of the current and of the previous year
• Personalize the tables by adding or removing columns
• Export data to a spreadsheet (.csv format)
• Send correspondence
• If your company uses SAP Jam, you can post comments there. You can also send emails from this app.

When the system creates the payment media with a Payment Medium Workbench (PMW) payment method, it carries out a pre-service process.

The pre-service process includes the following steps:

• The system sorts the payments according to the PMW format and other format-specific fields.
• The system creates payment groups based on the level of granularity (one payment medium file is usually created for each group).
• The system generates the note to the payee.

The payment run parameters determine the accounts and documents that are included in the payment run. You are required to set these parameters before starting the payment process.

The system selects the appropriate open items to be paid based on at least the following parameters:

• Run date
• Program identification (to differentiate between program runs on the same run date)
• Posting date of the payment documents
• Entry date up to which invoices are to be selected
• Relevant company codes
• Relevant payment methods
• Next date of payment run
• Relevant customer/supplier accounts
• Additional freely selectable criteria based on invoice document or master record (optional)
• Exchange rate type (optional)

If all parameters are set, choose to schedule the payment run and pick the option, Proposal.

Once you have entered the payment run parameters, it is possible to schedule the proposal run.

You can use the Manage Automatic Display app to schedule payment proposals or schedule payments directly and get an overview of the proposal or payment status. The app identifies the overdue invoices and checks whether all the required payment information is complete.

Direct debit pre-notifications can be created, displayed, and deleted within this app.

The following activities take place in the proposal run:

• The invoices or open items to be paid are selected, based on the payment run parameters entered.
• The system groups the invoices or open items into payments and assigns the payment methods and bank details to be used.
• If the system cannot find a valid payment method or valid bank details, it adds these items to the exception list.
• The system generates the proposal and exception lists, which can be exported or reviewed online.

The proposal list shows the business partners (customers and vendors) and the amounts each owes or is owed. Depending on the line layout you choose, the associated document numbers and cash discounts can be displayed.

Any exceptions are also listed here. You can drill down to view and change the details of the individual payment items.

When you run the debit balance check after the payment proposal run, the system automatically blocks all the debit balances included in the actual payment run. After you create the payment proposal, accounting clerks will check and, if needed, edit it. When editing the payment proposal, the first screen displays a list of all the payments proposed.

You can perform the following tasks:

• Display a list of all the open items due for payment.
• Change the payment block and cash discount for each line item.
• Assign the item to a different pre-existing payment.
• Create a new payment by choosing a payment method and a house bank. After you edit the payment proposal, the system uses it as a basis for the actual payments.

After editing and saving the payment proposal, you schedule the payment run to process the payments in the proposal list. This edited payment proposal data is used as a basis for the payment run. There have been no postings up to this point. The documents included in this payment run were locked against any postings. Any invoice eligible to be paid in the current payment run is blocked for manual payment or payment in a different payment run.

In the payment run, payment documents are created, open items are cleared, and postings are made to the general and subledgers. The payment program automatically posts payments and related postings (postings for taxes, discounts, and exchange rate differences).

Using the Display Payment Lists app, you gain an overview of the payments that were created by a payment run and payment exceptions that have occurred

You can use the app "Overdue Receivables" to view the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Overdue Receivables. You can drill down to analyze the 10 highest overdue receivables by customer, which enables you to take quick action to reduce the highest amounts owing to your business. You can also analyze overdue receivables by company code or by accounting clerk. You can view the overdue receivables in a chart or a table according to company code, customer, country and region of the customer, and accounting clerk.