Accounts receivable accounting keeps and manages the account records of all customers and is also an integral part of sales controlling.

This scenario describes the processes that are used in handling business transactions with customers.

As long as you receive all necessary information in a customer invoice or credit memo, you can directly enter and post a document in the system.

You can use the system to make manual payments. You enter a bank line item and can clear the customer item, or generate a partial payment or a residual item with or without a reason code. You can also use the automatic payment program, which has been developed for payment transactions with domestic and international customers.

You create down payment requests if you wish to use the automatic payment program and/or the dunning program. However, you can also create a down payment manually, without having to create a down payment request. When the final invoice has been issued, this can be used to clear the down payment either manually or automatically. You also have the option of making a transfer posting of the down payment from the special G/L account to the receivables account, without clearing it with an invoice.

You post bill of exchange payments to clear the receivables owed by customers. You post a bill of exchange usage and reverse the commitment once the bill of exchange matures.

You can use this function manually or via the clearing program to clear debit and credit amounts that balance to zero (such as invoices and payments that you have already entered).

You can use workflow functions to release customer credit memos for payment.

The document parking function enables you to enter and store (park) incomplete documents in the SAP System without requiring extensive input checks. Parked documents can be completed, checked, and posted - where necessary, by another user - at a later date.
Parked documents do not update any data, such as the transaction figures, except in Cash Management.

You create a payment request if you want the payment program to pay a parked invoice or a credit memo, or to make a partial payment.

The system also allows you to use payment cards to settle customer invoices.

You can enter payment advice notes, which are then used to automatically find and assign open items when the payment is made.

Customer account analysis includes:

• Credit management analysis (information for credit control)
• Line item analysis
• Balance analysis
• Evaluations (payment history, credit limit, days in arrears, net/cash discount overview)

Sometimes customers may fall behind in making payment to you. You can remind them of their outstanding debts by sending them payment reminders or dunning notices.

You can calculate interest either on the account balance or on the arrears when calculating interest for a customer account.