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Author's profile photo Tomas Machacek

Structured Format for Field :86: in MT940 Bank Statement

In this blog post, you will learn how Field :86: in MT940 Bank Statement is structured and how to apply proper techniques in your own settings.

The field :86: in MT940 bank statement contains detailed information about the transaction. In structured format, the 4th (in some cases 5th) character after :86: is a separator. The field :86: is divided into subfields (also called subtags) by this separator.

 

External Transaction

External transactions (also known as business transaction codes) are bank-specific codes for business transactions, each of which defines a different type of payment. The external transaction code is issued by banks in the electronic bank statement.

SAP system needs the External Transaction to identify the business transaction. The system converts the typical bank transactions to internal system transactions (meaning posting rules), which in turn trigger certain posting transactions.

Examples of bank-defined external transactions are:

  • 020 Transfer order
  • 051 Transfer credit memo
  • 206 Foreign bank transfer

 

The system can determine the external transaction from the following data specified by the bank:

  • Business transaction code
  • Text key
  • Posting key

Note: If no business transaction code is supplied, the system uses the text key or posting text.

In Customizing, you assign different external transactions to a transaction category.

 

Subtags

As I mentioned in the beginning, the field :86: is divided into subfields (also called subtags) by a separator.

Usually, the first information preceding the separator contains transaction code, which can be used to identify the reason of the transaction and assign proper posting rule.

As you can see, in our example the transaction code is ‘835’.

Other subtags are: ‘00’, ‘20’, ‘21’, ‘31’.

 

:86:835?00xxxxxxxxx?20xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?21xxxxxxxxxx?31xxx

 

The meaning of other subtags is specific for the bank and can also be specific for each transaction code.

Note: See format specification provided by the bank to see the detailed description of transaction types and subtags used.

Separator

A separator is used to differentiate the content of the field :86:. It separates the whole tag into subtags that provide additional information for SAP system.

As you can see, in our example the separator is ‘?’.

 

:86:835?00xxxxxxxxx?20xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx?21xxxxxxxxxx?31xxx

Customizing

To demonstrate customizing, I will show you how to do a basic setup using “UNALLOCATED” to allow to process all external transactions and subtags.

The content of each subtag will be stored in the Memo Line (FEBRE).

 

Log with user that is assigned to role SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT and enter Fiori application Manage Your Solution.

Select “Configure Your Solution”.

To find Electronic Bank Statement, set filters:

  • Application Area to “Finance”
  • Sub Application Area to “Bank Accounting”

or

  • Search for “Electronic Bank Statement”.

 

Select the item “Electronic Bank Statement” to see all the configuration you need.

From this point, you can select “Map Data for MT940 Bank Statement Import” by clicking on “Configure”.

 

Defining new entries

Now let’s create a new entry by clicking on “New Entries”.

To create a new entry, you should fill in the “Ctry”, “Bank Key” and “Delimiter” fields.

  • Put the code of country into Ctry
  • Put the bank key code in Bank Key
  • Put separator in Delimiter

 

As soon as we have the new entry created, the “Transaction Codes” can be customized, too.

In the example, we define new entry for transaction code “UNALLOCATED”.

Note: This entry will be used for all transaction types in the bank statement file for which no specific entry is defined.

 

You can define rules for tag named “UNALLOCATED” in “Subtags”:

  • Subtag Content Offset to skip the first ‘x’ characters in each subtag

Example: subtag content is ‘21VS:123456’; the imported content will be ‘VS:123456’.

  • Subtag Content Length to limit the length of the content
  • Check App.Memo to store all the data from :86: into payment notes (the case in the example)

 

 

Assigning Posting Rules

To assign posting rules to external transactions, you should go back to “Electronic Bank Statement” and select “Make Global Settings for Electronic Bank Statement”.

There, first, the chart of accounts needs to be specified.

After selecting the chart of accounts, you can click on “Create Transaction Type” and select the transaction type from the list.

Go to “Electronic Bank Statement” and select “Map Data for MT940 Bank Statement Import” by clicking on “Configure”.

Double-clicking on “Assign External Transaction Type to Posting Rules” will open the customizing in which you can set the posting rules.

 

 

Value from Subtag as External Operation and as Posting Text

Sometimes you would like to post different bank charges to different cost accounts. Therefore, we use text from one subtag as an external operation.

So, how to do it?

Go to “Electronic Bank Statement” and select “Map Data for MT940 Bank Statement Import” by clicking on “Configure”.

Select bank and follow to “Transaction Code”.

Bank charges can be recognized by external transaction 808.

Now we can follow to “Subtags”.

  • Subtag 00 – In some cases, the external transaction is not enough to assign proper posting rules, so we can take the value from a subtag and use it as external transaction. To do this, we define the mapping for subtag 00 to field FEBEP-VGEXT. As we don’t need this subtag in payment notes anymore, we uncheck “App.Memo”.
  • Subtag 20 contains a description of the transaction, therefore we assign the subtag to field FEBEP-BUTXT.
  • Subtag 24 does not contain any interesting information, in this case, therefore we uncheck “App.Memo” to exclude this from payment notes.

Additionally, country-specific customizing with the intention to assign posting rules to the new external transaction is required to perform.

Once the posting rules are assigned, your customization is complete.

 

Learn more about Structured Field 86 in Documentation.

Read more about Formats for Electronic Bank Statement here.

 


Do you have any comments or questions regarding Field 86? Do not forget to let us know your experience in the comment section below.

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      18 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Lister Villarroel
      Lister Villarroel

      Dear, great explanation! Is this only applicable to S4 versions? I'm having issues with a 4 digit tag86 in one of our banks's EBS as SAP only considers the first 3 and we are not upgraded yet S4.

      Author's profile photo Michal Pandoscak
      Michal Pandoscak

      Hi there,

       

      implement the SAP note https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2710026 which enables 4 digit code.

       

      Best regards,

      Michal

      Author's profile photo Tomas Machacek
      Tomas Machacek
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Lister,

      Complete functionality described in this blog post is available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud and as from SAP S/4HANA 2009 On-Premise.

      The modification related to extension of processing of external transactions having 4 digits is being shipped with the SAP note 2710026 - MT940: Business transaction code has four digits instead of three and is available as from SAP ERP 6.0 EhP5.

       

      Best regards,

      Tomas

      Author's profile photo Lister Villarroel
      Lister Villarroel

      Hello Tomas,

       

      We have implemented these notes but our company also has 3 digit external transaction MT940 from other banks. Is this solution only for one case?

       

      Best regards

      Author's profile photo Tomas Machacek
      Tomas Machacek
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Lister,

      The solution is not just for one case. It should apply to every case.

      Best regards,

      Tomas

      Author's profile photo Lister Villarroel
      Lister Villarroel

      Hello Tomas, thank you for your reply.

       

      What I mean is that now 3 digit statements are being considered as 4 digits. Does this means that we should adapt to this new behavior of the system?

       

      Best regards

      Author's profile photo Tomas Machacek
      Tomas Machacek
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Lister,

      After applying the note, the system looks for the separator in the 4th or 5th position. This means that the Business Transaction Code can have 3 or 4 digits.

      I hope your issue is now fixed.

      Best regards,

      Tomas

       

      Author's profile photo Lister Villarroel
      Lister Villarroel

      Tomas,

       

      Thanks a lot for your reply, that means that we now have to consider the parameter for the user to include the separator for 3 digit and 4 digit statements, correct?

       

      Best regards

      Author's profile photo Tomas Machacek
      Tomas Machacek
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Lister,

      The bank should choose between structured and unstructured format. In the structured format, the 4th or 5th character is a separator (usually "?").

      If the bank is using the unstructured format, the 4th (5th) character should not be the separator.

      This means that the only parameter you are considering is: Structured/Unstructured format.

      Best regards,

      Tomas

      Author's profile photo Lister Villarroel
      Lister Villarroel

      Hello Tomas,

       

      Unfortunately our company has over 10 countries using MT940 and is not possible to change all those banks, we even have one country with one bank using structured format and one using unstructured format, but I understand your point and how the system behaves.

       

      Thanks for the help and best regards

      Author's profile photo Lister Villarroel
      Lister Villarroel

      Dear, thanks a lot for your replies, we will implement this note.

       

      Best regards

      Author's profile photo Christoph Bürgmayr-Posseth
      Christoph Bürgmayr-Posseth

      Hi Tomas,

       

      great article, only one question, is this still available in S/4Hana cloud Version 2202?

      best regards

      Christoph

      Author's profile photo Tomas Machacek
      Tomas Machacek
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Christoph,

       

      this customizing activity is still available, try searching the activity by its ID: 103349 (Map Data for MT940 Bank Statement Import).

       

      Kind regards,

      Tomas

      Author's profile photo Christoph Bürgmayr-Posseth
      Christoph Bürgmayr-Posseth

      Hi Tomas,

       

      thanks for your reply. I found the issue, this is country specific and only available for CZ.

       

      best regards

      Christoph

       

      Author's profile photo Masato Morito
      Masato Morito

      Hi Tomas,

       

      Thank you for sharing, this blog is very useful.

      By the way, do you know how to apply this technical setting mentioned by this blog in S4HANA on premise version?

      In my understanding, Fiori application Manage Your Solution is only available for S4HANA Cloud version.

      I want to control Subtag(Tag86) in MT940 by own setting.

       

      Best regards

      Masato

      Author's profile photo Michal Pandoscak
      Michal Pandoscak

      Hi Mosato,

       

      The customizing is delivered with SAP S4/HANA 2020 OP and all following releases.

       

      Maintenance of the IDFI_MT940_C (MT940 Bank Specific Mapping) view cluster can be done via transaction SM34

       

      Best regards,

      Michal

      Author's profile photo Manoj Kumar Bansal
      Manoj Kumar Bansal

      Hi All,

      Business transaction code (Ex: 211 and 835) reading from tag 86 for structured bank statement but we have requirement to read the business transaction codes from tag 61 which are 4 characters (Ex: NTRF) .

      For unstructured banks business transaction codes are reading from tag 61 and those external transaction codes are mapped to posting rules in sap.

      Structured bank external codes are reading from tag 86 with three characters (Ex: 211 and 835) and not mapped to any posting rules but external transactions NTRF are available in tag 61 but not reading.

      Do we need to map 3 characters business transactions codes from structured bank statement to posting rules or any configuration required to pick the external transaction code from tag 61 instead of 86?

      Author's profile photo Michal Pandoscak
      Michal Pandoscak

      HI,

      Usually, the structured tag 86 provides better external code information that can be used to determine the proper posting rule than the information from tag 61.

      So in case, you want to use the functionality described in this blog you need to maintain the external transaction codes based on the first 3 (this length can be also customized) characters from tag 86.

      There is also the option to use the Search String as described in this blog  https://blogs.sap.com/2014/05/06/ebs-configuration-of-search-string-part-1/

       

      Miso