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 4^th (in some cases 5^th) 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.