Identifying Customer Transactions in the Receivables Management and in the General Ledger

Linda realized that each Customer receives its own account within the system. Now she wants to navigate to the postings she made. This is where she realizes that the outstanding posted invoices can be analyzed on each separate Customer account within the receivables management work area. However, she remembers that each Customer transaction also needs to be represented within the General Ledger, because General Ledger is an overview of all company’s financial operations. She dives into the system and realizes that Receivables Management and General Ledger are connected via reconciliation accounts.

After learning about reconciliation accounts and their role in connecting Receivables Management and General Ledger, Linda would like to discover where can she find its Customer transactions in the Bike Company’s financial statements, like balance sheet and profit and loss statement. She needs to do that to make sure that Bike Company’s external reporting is consistent.

Working with many Customer invoices every day you might want to have a Big Picture view on you company’s Customer operations. So does Linda think. After processing multiple Customer invoices, she would like to generate a few reports with the most important Customer-related key performance indicators (KPIs). Luckily SAP provides functionality that Linda is looking for.

SAP provides several valuable apps with embedded analytics functionality that deliver important insights on the company’s operations.

In the Receivables Management there is a central app that showcases all important receivables management KPIs – Accounts Receivable Overview. With this analytical overview app, you can monitor important accounts receivable indicators and access further accounts receivable analytical apps. This is a central entry point for the receivables management accountant or a receivables management manager to get a holistic big picture overview on one screen.

From this app you may navigate to further analytical apps for more detailed information. Apps like:

• Days Sales Outstanding: The representation of an average amount of days your customers take to pay their invoices
• Receivable Aging (Aging Analysis)
  • The representation your outstanding invoice’s lifetime since the posting date
  • Can be represented as an overdue or not yet due report

There are also many more analytical apps not included in the accounts receivable overview. One worth to mention would be the Overdue Receivables app. With this app you can check the amount of your customers’ overdue receivable amount. You can monitor the status of the overdue incoming payments for critical customers in your area of responsibility. You can also find out about the potential risks and notify the responsible persons to take action.

Linda learned a lot of fundamentals about Receivables Management. She is able to describe all main functions of this work area including Customer master data creation and invoice posting. However, this is just the beginning. Linda will continue exploring Receivables Management to expand her skills and knowledge. But already now she is ready to tackle new challenges as a receivables management accountant.