Accounts Payable (A/P)

Question 1

What is the additional log in the AP payment program and how can it be used for troubleshooting?

Answer 1

The additional log is an important setting in performing a payment run.

The amount of information stored in the log can be selected.

If there are any errors in the payments run (due to missing/incorrect master data settings, negative balances due to red memos), the system will report these in the additional log

Question 2

How can you link customer and vendor master records?

And what is the purpose of doing so?

Answer 2

How: On the customer master, there is a field called “vendor”. Likewise on the vendor master there is a field called “customer”.

Purpose: By entering these master data numbers, a link can e created between the AP/AR sub ledgers for use in the payment program, dunning routine, and the clearing of open items. Example: In the payment program, if a specific business partner is your vendor but also your customer, linking the master data records together will allow the open AR invoices to be offset against the outstanding AP invoices

Question 3

What are payment terms and where are they stored?

Answer 3

Payment terms are created in configuration and determine the payment due date for customer & vendor invoices.

They are stored on the customer & vendor master record and are pulled through onto the customer & vendor invoice postings. The due date derived via the payment can be changed on each individual invoices if required.

Question 4

What is meant by a baseline date in SAP AR and AP?

Answer 4

The baseline date is the date form which the payment terms₁ apply. Usually, this is the document date on the invoice but can also be the date of entry or posting date form the ledger.

1 - Payment Terms Config T-Code: OBB

Question 5

What are one-time vendors?

Answer 5

In certain industries (typically where there are a high volume of cash transactions), it is not practical to create new master records for every vendor trading partner.

One-time vendors allow for a dummy vendor code to be used on invoice entry and the information which is normally stored in the vendor master (payment terms, address, etc.), is keyed on the invoices itself.

Question 6

What factors should be considered when configuring an Accounts Payable Vendor Group?

Answer 6

AP Vendor Group Setup Transaction: OBD3

• Whether the vendors in this group are one-time vendors (i.e. no master record is created but the address and payments details are entered against each invoice to this vendor)
• Field status group - which fields on the vendor master are suppressed, optional, or mandatory when creating vendors belonging to this group₁
• The vendor number ranges* need to be assigned to your vendor account groups₂
• The decision needs to be made whether to assign an external number range (where the user chooses the master record number) or an internal number range (system assigned).

1 - Vendor Number Ranges Transaction: XKN1

2 - Assign Vendor Number Ranges to Vendor Account Groups Transaction: OBAS

Question 7

Name the standard stages of the SAP Payment Run

Answer 7

1) Entering of Parameters

Company codes, payment methods, vendor accounts, etc.

2) Proposal Scheduling

The system proposes a list of invoices to be paid

3) Payment Booking

The booking of the actual payments into the ledger

4) Printing of Payment Forms

Checks

Question 8

What is the purpose of payment methods and where are they stored?

Answer 8

Payment methods are one-digit alphanumeric identifiers that indicate the types of payments made to vendors or received from customers.

There are many standard delivered SAP entries for each country.

The payment methods are stored in the customer/vendor master record as well as on the vendor/customer line items. The default from the master record can be changed during manual postings)

Example for UK (GB):

B - Direct Debit/Standing Order

C - Cheque

D - Direct Deposit (DFS UK)

M - Manual Post/PRINT

S - SWIFT - Transfer

T - Bank transfer

W - Wired payment posting

Question 9

Explain how you can import electronic bank statements into SAP

Answer 9

• A text file is received from the bank which is then uploaded into SAP.
• The file contains details of the company’s bank movements (e.g. checks, bank interest, bank charges, cash receipts, etc.)
• Depending on system configuration, SAP will attempt to book these transactions automatically to the correct accounts to avoid the need for manual entries by SAP users.
• Any postings which the system cannot derive automatically can be booked through “post-processing”