Defining Rule-Based Clearing​

Watch the following video to learn the process of uploading bank statements and clearing payments in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Understand the methods, rules, and steps involved in automating and managing bank statement items.

In the previous unit, we outlined how external bank statements are being fed into the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system. There are several ways that this can be accomplished. The following graphic illustrates how SAP Multi-Bank Connectivity acts as a mediator between the house banks and our SAP S/4HANA Cloud system:

Once the bank statements are imported to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, the system will initially attempt to match open items and bank statement items using automated processing rules and configured posting rules with the underlying interpretation algorithms. Within the configuration activity for the Electronic Bank Statement's global settings, it's possible to specify the association between external transaction types and particular posting rules. The system registers any open items that match as preliminary clearing suggestions within a database table.

It's important to note that in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, posting rules are predefined and preconfigured and cannot be altered by customers. These rules are standardized to ensure consistency and compliance across the platform. However, customers do have the flexibility to adapt and modify processing rules according to their specific needs. This distinction allows for a balance between maintaining system integrity and providing customization options where appropriate in the reconciliation process.

Rule-based clearing passes through several processing steps. It starts with the externally provided bank statements in which external transaction codes are contained. With the import of statements to the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system, line-item information is processed. The external transaction code of each transaction is interpreted and matched against an SAP internal posting rule to perform an account determination.

To clear customer open items with the received bank statement line-item information, several interpretation algorithms are available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. In this way, you inform the system which information from the memo line of a transaction should be matched against data in the open items table. Possible scenarios would be a document number search, reference document number search, or, for example, the payment order number. The setup is very much dependent on the information provided on the invoice and the information that you require the customer to return in case of payment.

In case a match is found, the system saves matching open items as interim clearing proposals in a database table. If incoming payments cannot be matched to an open item given the provided reference information, the system initiates the second phase of the posting and clearing procedure.

If the system fails to match the incoming payment with a customer open item using predefined posting rules, the remaining bank statement information is checked against custom processing rules.

This next layer of bank statement processing is characterized by an effortless, user-friendly creation of reprocessing rules. The built-in feature of the SAP Fiori app Manage Processing Rules - For Bank Statements makes it easy for you to build and manage rules and adjust them whenever new business needs arise. Even though the rules are custom-tailored, they can be shared with your team too. To top it all off, you can conveniently upload and download these rules, making it a breeze to move them across different system landscapes. It's an all-in-one tool that simplifies your financial operations.

Learn how to set up automated processing rules for bank statement processing in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Explore step-by-step instructions on creating, applying, and automating rules for efficient financial operations. Select the play button to learn more:

In general, automated processing rules run in the background and process your bank statement items and lockbox items automatically. Thus, you reduce your manual workload. You can define which of your processing rules are useful to be automated and you can enhance the posting procedure by adapting some of your processing rules so that they initiate a two-step posting when they run automatically.

Processing rules are a powerful tool for end-users, offering several key benefits:

Agility: Users can quickly adopt and test clearing rules by themselves, without the need for IT involvement.

Flexibility: This allows for fast reactions to changing business scenarios or models.

Efficiency: The use of processing rules helps avoid long, tedious manual clearing processes.

User Empowerment: End-users can take control of their financial processes, tailoring them to specific needs without technical expertise.

By using these processing rules, organizations can significantly streamline their bank statement reconciliation process, leading to improved accuracy and reduced processing time.

Another way to improve processing efficiency when working with bank statements is to create template-based processing rules. For this functionality, the system analyzes your past postings and clearings and uses your past data to generate templates for processing rules that are tailored to your individual needs. Creating processing rules based on templates reduces your manual workload and is a quick way to get efficient processing rules with which you can process your bank statement items.