Technical Articles
Search string in EBS, part 3 – bank charges
Hello SAPers!
6 years ago I’ve published two posts on use of search string for bank statement in SAP (you can find them following these links: part 1, part 2). These posts became quite popular, reaching over 65 thousand views in total. So I’ve decided to write another post describing the option of this functionality, which is probably the least used in community. What’s worse, I could not find any proper documentation describing at least the basic scenario for this option.
You can find another post of mine, where I describe the business scenario behind handling of bank charges. This post will explore how search string can be used to determine the amount of bank fees and update this information for a line of bank statement into field FEBEP-SPESK. Once the amount of bank charges will be updated in this field, SAP will be able to post bank charges as a separate line item in accounting document in subledger posting area.
Let’s assume that bank statement MT940 line item looks as follows:
The purpose of the search string would be to find the amount of 10.00 and save it as fees amount.
Go to transaction code OTPM and define search string as follows – CHARGES #+.##. This entry means that SAP will look for any number that is proceed by fixed word “charges” and has two decimals.
Define search string use by assigning it to an appropriate combination of company code, house bank and account ID. Make sure to indicate correct external transaction code and the same interpretation mechanism that is used in mapping of external business transaction code to posting rule (i.e. in OT83, under “Assign External Transaction Types to Posting Rules”). Use target field “EBSPESK – Fees in account currency” – this is an update mechanism that will trigger saving of fees amount into FEBEP-SPESK.
Load bank statement and check the result in FEBAN to make sure that bank fee amount is not empty:
Check appropriate value in FEBEP :
Well… that’s basically it – easy and elegant way to extract bank charges information for a bank statement line item. What’s more important it doesn’t require any complicated development efforts. However, end result depends on the quality of bank statement information. If information is presented in a consistent manner, the chances are that this solution will work very well.
Your suggestions and comments are welcome!
Regards,
Bohdan Petrushchak
Thank you! I was surprised - all of a sudden I saw a third blog, where I was used to your part 1 & 2. Nice.
I'm actually looking for a way to use the incoming amount without any information in the note to payee to post it in a certain way. All the amounts of 10 and 20 which come in have to be posted in a certain way. There is no other way of identifying them (notes to payee are all the same, as well for the other amounts). Is there a way to use the amount as a source field for a search string? Again thanks for your blogs!
Regards, Alexis
Hi Alexis Otto,
Thanks for your interest in my blogs. I actually think that I might prepare another post about search strings, but so far I'm not sure I have enough material:)
With regards to your question - you can use only information that is part of note to payee i.e. information stored in table FEBRE and linked to specific item of bank statement. If payment amount is available in this table, you can use it. Otherwise, it is not possible - at least to my knowledge.
Regards, Bohdan
Ok, too bad, but thank you for your quick reply!
Hi Bohdan Petrushchak,
Thank you for the nice article.
We have a similar kind of requirement for Treasury deals for forward products where we exchange (buy and sell) currencies
Actual FX Deal Amount is 10453500.10
The total amount in the Bank statement including Bank charges (4 euros) is 10453504.10
after we process the FX Confirmation (MT300) directly the bank will pay in our account and in the bank statement, we receive an additional bank charge 4 euros with the total amount.
In this scenario how can we handle bank charges and auto-clear the bank statements?
how search string can be used to determine the amount of bank fees and update this information for a line of bank statement into field FEBEP-SPESK? Once the amount of bank charges will be updated in this field?
is it possible SAP will be able to post bank charges as a separate line item in the accounting document in the sub-ledger posting area?
Could you please help us in this scenario how can we approach.
Regards,
Prasad
Hi Bohdan,
Thanks for this wonderful documents. All 3 parts I have read and these are really informative.
Currently I am working on a project where they will use CAMT.053.001.02 format (xml) for EBS. So this search string functionality will work for this format?
My scenario is, we want to post the customer receipt entry in Customer Line item. Our Bank will provide us the SAP Customer Code in Payment Reference Field (CdtrRefInf > Ref). Therefore I tried to pick the customer code via Search String but its not working for me.
Could you please suggest how to configure the same.
Thanks in advance.
Regards,
Subrata
Hi Subrata,
I'm not sure if search string will work for XML-based bank statement, because as a matter of fact, I never tried search string for this purpose. But you can check yourself if it works. But bear in mind, that search string works based on the data of note to payee i.e. entries that you see for bank statement line in table FEBRE. If you not able to see payment reference field (i.e. CdtrRefInf > Ref) in this table, than it's not possible to use search string.
But you can do it via enhancement. Check out the following suggestions:
Regards,
Bohdan
Hi
BTC 491 posting Key KR01--- we using bank clearing GL account based on document search
same BTC 491 can we use to clear payment amounts based on search string with different posting rule.
Regards,
Rama
what about the default cost center for bank charges postings? should be defined in OKB9?
Hi Ewelina Czekaj,
Yes, you're right - standard OKB9 settings should be used for this purpose.
Regards,
Bohdan
Thank you! 🙂
Hi Bohdan Petrushchak,
I have another problem. For outgoing payments the bank charges 2900 fee. For example, 10,000 is paid with F110, in the bank statement comes the amount incl. the fee of 2900, e.g.
:61:2101060106DR12900,NTRF2900001332/CTC/MSC/GIRO PAYMENT
:86:/PT/FT/PY/ADVANCED TELKOM USAGE/JAKARTA/Charge/IDR2900,
Using the search pattern, I can write the 2900 in the field SPESK. But since I only post in posting area 1, I want to post the expenses in a 3rd line:
Dr. incoming 10.000
Dr. Fees 2.900
Cr. Bank 12.900
How can this done with search pattern?
Thanks
Mike
Hi Michael Heine,
Please check the first blog on the topic of bank charges (link). It describes a posting rule with two areas for incoming payment. But you can do it with one posting area if you remove clearing entry to account type "BANK_IN". I imagine that the same should be true for outgoing payments - just configure regular posting rule for outgoing payments, configure GL account for bank charges and fill the amount of bank charges. It should work.
Regards,
Bohdan
Thanks Bohdan Petrushchak for the quick response.
Unfortunately, the solution you mentioned doesn't work, as in my example I don't have a sub ledger posting. The vendor invoice was clreared in F110. Therefore I need to do the fee posting in a 3rd line in posting area 1.
Best regards
Mike
Hi Michael,
I have a similar issue. I was able to handle bank charges for outgoing payments using search string as described in this blog - many thanks to Bohdan Petrushchak !
As a result I'm able to clear the ''BANK_OUT'' (type 4) and post the bank charges in a separate line item, all in one single posting area 1 - Perfect !
However, if clearing fails we would like to post 'on account' (BSCAK) so that it is correctly posted, but not cleared - however this is not working due to the balance not being = 0.
Here are the postings:
F110
Dt Vendor 100
Cr BANK_OUT 100
Feban
Dt Bank Costs 5
Dt BANK_OUT 105
Cr MAIN BANK 105
Correct posting would be:
Dt Bank Costs 5
Dt BANK_OUT 100
Cr MAIN BANK 105
Any clue how to achieve this ?
Best Regards,
M Yernaux
Hello Bohdan,
Thanks to you for this valuable inputs. Is there a way we can handle defaulting a transaction type for a G/L account just like how we handle cost centers? We have a requirement to default certain value in the field 'TTYP' when posting to a G/L. Thanks
Thank you, it's realy great support, I like it, it's nice article.
BR
Dawit
Bohdan PetrushchakBohdan Petrushchak
It is good article to me and know the functionary ,but i'd like to know how to define mapping rule,
so it is good if have the user manual for the customizing and user manual
Thanks!