Customer payment validation

[kapil_mehta]

Hi FI Gurus

I have a following requirement from Indian client. Please let me know your feedback, and best practice for this requirement.

Client receives Incoming payment ( Cheque/Bank Transfer) and posts it in SAP using F-28. Cheque number or NEFT Transaction number is manually stored by user in assignment field in payment document for future reference.

Now customer wants a validation in SAP which should prevent same Cheque number / NEFT Transaction number being used more than once.

E.G. If cheque is already used to clear customer invoice(s) and user tries to post payment again with same cheque, system should give message that cheque is already applied to clear customer invoices.

Please share your experience if you have faced such scenarios before.

Through ABAP coding we can validate cheque number in assignment field, but it will be a very time consuming search.

Thanks and Regards

Kapil

[sanilbhandari]

Hi

This process has open questions:

1. Can two customers not submit the same cheque no? What would be the expectation in such a case.

2. Why not use standard functionality like EBS rather by building an interface with your banks? Most big banks like HDFC, ICICI and SBI do have files in MT940 format which can automate your clearing and ensure invoices are cleared correctly and postings happen on customer account automatically?

Regards

Sanil Bhandari

[kapil_mehta]

Hi Sanil

If I use EBS - Cheque may take 2-3 days to clear and appear as credit in bank account, and in MT940 statement. So even customer invoice clearing will take after 2-3 days.

So should we keep customer invoice open for 2-3 days after receipt of cheque till payment is reflected in MT940 ?

Thanks !

Kapil

[sanilbhandari]

Hi

For manual cheques received from customer use F-28 to book the same so that customer invoices are cleared and posted to incoming bank account. When EBS is updates, it would transfer from incoming bank account to main bank GL. So that should take care of your customer ageing issues. Secondly, why not shift your customers to NEFT /ECS/RTGS over time so that credit is instant rather than 2-3 days of clearance time. This should be a process improvement you should implement? Secondly what is the rationale for building validation on check no since two customers can give the same check no as well and if you are using EBS, the same gets updated anyways in assignment based on the file provided by most Banks in India. Given that I do not see any logical reason for this kind of enhancement.

Thanks & Regards

Sanil Bhandari