Note to payee functionality in SAP – part 2
Hello SAPers!
Here is second part of the post on note to payee functionality in SAP. The first part was published a bit earlier and covered customizing setup for note to payee as well as one of the approaches to generation of note to payee details namely custom development using functional module. This post covers customizing approach to generation of note to payee.
1.1. Introduction
As mentioned above, there are two approaches to create note to payee in SAP – via customizing or using custom FM. Some of the settings are the same regardless the approach e.g. you should define technical requisites of note to payee in t-code OBPM1, create definition of note to payee in OBPM2, assign it to payment method in FBZP, build DMEE-tree etc. Most of these basic settings are described in my previous post. This blog will cover two areas which differ – definition of note to payee and customizing of DMEE-tree.
1.2. Create note to payee
Launch t-code OBPM2 and create note to payee by indicating its name and description. Activate checkbox “Note to payee layout using customizing” as a controlling option.
Save the entry and navigate to “Default Note to Payee” tab to define the structure of note to payee information.
Indicate note to payee type 1 and number of line item. The type of note to payee in OBPM2 should be the same as defined in technical attributes in t-code OBPM1. Indicate the reference to the variables which will be used to generate note to payee text. Note to payee can include:
– references to system variables (e.g. FPAYP-XBLNR);
– fixed text constants (e.g. “Invoice #:” etc.);
– controlling parameters (e.g. X, Z, R, S etc.) to impact the formatting of the values.
System variables include fields from the same structures FPAYP, FPAYH, FPAYHX that are used in DMEE as mapping options. To get an overview of all values, select the field “Note to payee text” and press F4 to retrieve search help:
As you can see, search help is divided into two parts – each of them is referencing the same structures, but the first one contains primarily business information (name of the vendor, invoice number etc.), whereas the second one contains fields of technical nature (sorting / grouping fields, sequential payment number etc.). Select the field you need (1) and press “Copy” (2) button to insert it into note to payee definition.
If note to payee is to be used for payments to vendors from several countries, you can define language-dependent note-to-payee. Technically speaking, configuration is the same, but you can translate fixed text elements into different languages (see example below).
Selection of note to payee depends on the language of payee (i.e. payment recipient). Note to payee maintained in language of payee has higher priority over default note to payee.
SAPscript formatting options can be used to format output of values for example:
&VARIABLE+4(X)& – Offset and take X number of characters (e.g. &FPAYH-DOC1R+4(10)&)
&VARIABLE(X)& – Display only X characters of variable value;
&VARIABLE(C)& – Condense variable value (i.e. remove empty spaces e.g);
&VARIABLE(Z)& – Remove leading zeros (e.g. &FPAYP-ZBLNR(Z)&);
&VARIABLE(.2)& – Indicate number of decimal places to be displayed;
&VARIABLE(I)& – Do not display initial value;
&VARIABLE(R)& – Right-justified display;
&VARIABLE(S)& – Remove leading sign.
1.3. Configure DMEE tree
Configuration of DMEE tree for note to payee involves creation of quite many technical nodes. To begin with create a composite node to group together 10 technical nodes which will store 10 references to vendor invoice number. The length of each node should 16 characters i.e. the same as for field BKPF-XBLNR, which stores vendor invoice number in accounting document.
These technical nodes will not be displayed in payment file but will be used as a source of data by other fields in DMEE tree. Each node contains reference ID (INV_X) which will be used by other nodes.
Each technical node uses structure field DMEE_PAYD-TEXT as a mapping option. Key field 1 in the settings of source field indicates type of note to payee. 10 consecutive references to the structure DMEE_PAYD ensure that the system will retrieve first 10 values from table DFPAYHT.
Note to payee is split into four parts i.e. segments due to layout requirements from the bank. The length of each segment is 35 characters. Thus, each segment can contain 2 maximal 3 references to vendor invoice number. Each segment uses own mapping as a mapping procedure which basically concatenates the values of all child atoms into value without spaces.
First segment contains atom “note_beginning” that contains constant value “Inv.:” that will be displayed once at the beginning of note to payee.
Each atom with name “line_x” will contain a reference to vendor invoice number. Mapping option “Reference to tree node” will be used to get values from technical nodes at the beginning of DMEE-tree (i.e. atom line_x will use Reference Node ID INV_X).
Each “delimiter” atom has a constant value “,”. To make sure that comma is not displayed unnecessary condition is set up for each delimiter. The condition checks whether a next line with vendor invoice number is not empty. Delimiter will be displayed only if next line is not empty.
That’s basically all you need to configure to generate note to payee in necessary format. The only advantage of this approach (at least for this requirement) is that you can do without any development efforts at all. Disadvantages are obvious: you’re limited to display of X invoice numbers only and you must do a lot of technical setup, which is not straightforward and might be difficult to support. Development approach i.e. via custom FM would be much more efficient and easier at least in my humble opinion?.
Hope this post was useful and you found something of value. Please comment and let me know if you have any questions or suggestions. Please also check out other posts on this and related topics.
Regards,
Bohdan Petrushchak
Hi, is it possible to capture VAT (Amounts and percentage available in BSET table) in payment file created in automatic payment program ? I am trying to avoid use of ext modules. Appreciate if you can provide can any inputs.
Hi Tatiene Pereira,
To the best of my knowledge it is not possible to capture VAT information via customizing of note to payee. You can check for yourself the content of the structures FPAYH, FPAYHX and FPAYP, there is no VAT details.
Capture of VAT details for a payment is a must for the countries in my region (Ukraine, Russia etc.) and I always deal with this requirement via FM-based note to payee. This is the most efficient method, because there are a lot of variations for determination of VAT amount depending on whether you have a regular invoice, down-payment request or partial payment.
Anyway, please let me know if you succeeded in implementing this request via customzing.
Regards,
Bohdan
Hi Bogdan,
Excellent document.
Is it possible to add space between 2 variables mentioned in notes to payee when displayed in DMEE? I know we can concatenate elements with space in DMEE. But is there any possibility to do that in notes to payee itself?
Thanks,
Arun.
Hi arun issac,
I think you can try to put something like &" "& into the definition eg. Invoice Num. &FPAYP-XBLNR&" "&FPAYP-XBLNR. Please try if that works, did not try myself.
I’m trying this as well – haven’t figured it out yet, but this one isn’t working and without the quotes doesn't work either. Still looking 🙂
But this actually works "-"
Again a great blog, thank you. Enjoyed (and needed!) your EBS explanation as well. Thanks!
Alexis Otto, thank you for nice feedback!
Hi Bohdan, I am getting Vendor invoice # and invoice date but we also need amount paid please inform how it can be added.
This is really a question. Most of the Notes To Payee functionality seems to be documented using a DME tree made for a flat file output. Is it possible to use Notes to Payee in XML on a Structured Noted for RmtInf (Remittance Information) that loops for each invoice paid with the payment document and check number?
Hello Bohdan,
thank you very much for your posts.
I would like to implement a note to payee in SAP S/4 HANA Cloud (in order to get a vendor Invoices References concatenated into one single field). More precisely, I would need to do it for MT101 format.
I would say I would rather do customizing than programing (due to Cloud multi-tenant constraints).
Would you kindly explain how to proceed in Cloud?
Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge.
Best regards,
Mercedes.