How to use Bank Reconciliation Account in Payment Program

SAP introduces a new G/L account type C (Cash Account), which has two sub types B (Bank Reconciliation Account) and S (Bank Subaccount).This new feature can help customer significantly reduce the numbers of G/L accounts.

In this blog post I’ll guide you how to implement the new feature in payment program step by step.

Error of G/L Account Determination

Once the new bank reconciliation account is used in the house bank account, it will impact on the G/L account determination in payment program.

If you schedule a payment run then, you get an error message FZ 314 “G/L account does not exist in company code” in the log of the payment program.

Error log of payment program

Before we know how to resolve this issue, I would like to introduce the new concept of the bank reconciliation account.

Bank Reconciliation Account

Traditionally, a bank account is represented with a set of G/L accounts often constructed in the following way:

Bank GL logic at SAP

Here, G/L subaccounts on a bank current account are just like “legs on a spider.” The system must provide a set of G/L subaccounts for every bank account, thus making the number of G/L accounts huge. In some extreme cases, 70% of G/L accounts are occupied by banks.

Why can’t we re-model the relationship between a bank account and a G/L account? Just let numbers of bank accounts use one special G/L account, that is a bank reconciliation account.

Then, we just need one set of subaccounts to manage different clearing methods.

The classic G/L account representation of a bank account and the new bank reconciliation account can run side by side. It just depends on what kind of G/L account is used in the house bank account.

The new model brings the following benefits:

• Simplify the bank account set-up process and reduce the number of G/L accounts.
• De-couple bank account from G/L account and production system settings from quality system ones.
• Open and close a bank account quickly.

Definition of Bank Reconciliation Accounts and Subaccounts

SAP introduces a new G/L account type C (Cash Account) and two sub types B (Bank Account) and S (Bank Subaccount):

We can log in to the system to see the new functionality. If you are a G/L accountant, you can open the app “Manage G/L Account Master Data.” Below are screenshots of a bank reconciliation account and of a bank subaccount:

Bank Reconciliation Account

Bank Sub GL Account

I will explain how to assign the house bank account to the reconciliation account in the next step.

Defining a House Bank Account

If you are a cash specialist, you can open the app “Manage Bank Account”, select a house bank account, and then go to House Bank Account Connectivity:

House Bank Account Data

If you enter a bank reconciliation account, the property “Bank Reconciliation Account” will be populated automatically.

The question then is how to find out which subaccount should be used in the payment program.

Bank Account Determination

For the automatic payment program, we can use the SSCUI Set Up Bank Determination for Payment Transactions (1010045).

Bank Determination

It’s still possible to config the bank subaccount as a classic bank G/L account just like the house bank account DEBK2/DEAC2 in the screenshot. However, once you set a house bank account to new bank reconciliation account, just like DEBK1/DEAC1 in the screenshot, the legacy configuration of bank subaccount becomes grayed out. If you’re trying to create a new config record for DEAC1, you will find that you can’t enter a bank subaccount any more.

The last question is how to find the subaccounts for different payment methods.

Account Symbols

Configuration for account symbols reuses the functionality of Electronic Bank Statement.

Go to the configuration for Electronic Bank Statement via the SSCUI Make Global Settings for Electronic Bank Statement (101024). First, you need to create an account symbol and select the SIP (self-initiated payment) relevant checkbox.

Then, assign an overlaid rule to the account symbol.

You can now assign the account symbol to payment methods in the SSCUI Assign Account Symbol to Payment Methods (103557).

We can open the app “Manage Automatic Payments” to delete the proposal and re-run it.

The proposal and the payment document are generated on the sub G/L account successfully.

Call to Action

If you want to know more about the relevant master data and configuration maintenance, you can refer to the following links,

Defining House Bank Accounts

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD/ac319d8fa4ea4624b40a58d23e3c4627/579e2d551c03bc06e10000000a441470.html

Define G/L Accounts for Payment Processes -> Use Bank Reconciliation Accounts

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD/651d8af3ea974ad1a4d74449122c620e/5c1eb2ea64bb425abd373c98c96db0c1.html

Assigning G/L Accounts to House Bank Accounts

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD/ac319d8fa4ea4624b40a58d23e3c4627/3247e8093a34431ab7423653835a1d8f.html

Automatic Determination of Bank Subaccounts

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_CLOUD/031c345485b84c8c94265be9ef61d3a8/72f6dbff22504808ba732b13ce591f1e.html

In case of any further questions, please leave a comment below and I will try to answer you.