Accelerated Pay 

The function is designed to satisfy the Accelerated Pay requirement in the Prompt Payment Act (PPA).

Accelerated Pay (AP) differs from the Fast Pay (FP) function in the following ways:

·         The invoice amount, not the purchase order amount, is the controlling factor.

·         It typically deals with small amounts - $2500 or less- or unique vendors.

·         Though individual agencies can stipulate otherwise, some evidence of the goods being received is usually required.

·         If known, the AP payment terms must be entered in the vendor master.

·         The decision as to whether an invoice can be treated as an accelerated payment can be taken at any of the following stages of purchase order processing:

·         In the vendor master for the purchase order. This means all purchase orders for the vendor are treated as accelerated payments

·         In the purchase order itself

·         When the invoice arrives

The Example below illustrates how this works.

Prerequisites

·        You have installed the SAP Federal Government solution and have the PPA feature up and  running.

For details on setting up PPA, see Prompt Payment Act: Customizing.

Note that, for Accelerated Pay, you are best advised to select "Pay at the earliest" as your invoice splitting option.

·        You have installed, configured, and activated the SAP Materials Management (MM) application component.

Process Flow

Before you can use the AP function, there is some customizing you need to do in addition to the MM and general PPA customizing. Proceed as follows:

...

       1.      In the PPA section of the Funds Management Government IMG, choose Maintain Payment Terms.

The Change View: "Fast/Accelerated Payment Term Maintenance": Overview screen appears.

       2.      To add payment terms to the list, choose New Entries and enter the ID for the term(s), stipulating Accelerated Pay in the payment type column.

       3.      Save your work. Finally, you need to enter maximum amounts per company code. To do this, return to the Accelerated Pay IMG and choose Stipulate Fast Pay Maximum Amounts.

The Change View: "Fast/Accelerated Pay Maximum Amount": Overview screen appears.

       4.      Choose New Entries and enter:

¡        Your company code

¡        Accelerated Pay

¡        The amount and currency you want to apply as the maximum

       5.      Save your work. The name of your company appears in the Name column.

       6.      A Business Add-In (BAdI) is also available. You can use it to change how delivered messages behave in the Prompt Payment Act. We deliver the messages as warnings (W). You can change them to any of the other categories available, such as error (E).

Result

Customizing in the IMG is now complete. See below for an example of how purchase orders subject to Accelerated Pay are processed.

Example

...

       1.      You stipulate the following:

¡        USFG as one of your Accelerated Pay (AP) material groups

¡        A maximum amount of $1000 for AP

       2.      Next, you create a purchase order for four widgets in material group USFG. The widgets cost $200 each. For AP to apply, you must:

¡        Enter the ID you defined for AP as the payment terms

¡        Check the GR non-valuated box

       3.      When you have entered your data, save the purchase order. The system issues a document number.

       4.      You receive the invoice for $800 and post it. AP requires that the goods ordered should be received before the invoice; this means that payment of the invoice is blocked until the goods are received. The vendor’s payment terms are 30 days net.

       5.      When you post, the system checks that the vendor master contains AP payment terms. If it does, the posting goes directly through.

       6.      If the vendor master does not contain AP payment terms, and the purchase order does not either, but, as here, the invoice otherwise falls within AP parameters, the system asks if you want to treat the invoice as an AP document.

¡        If you choose not to, processing continues as before.

¡        If you choose to do so, the system applies your AP settings to the document. This is important for the purpose of PPA calculations.

       7.      With the document entered, you now need to calculate when to pay it to satisfy PPA requirements.

¡        If the invoice is not AP, pay it within the normal PPA terms – that is, net within 30 days unless there is an appreciable discount for paying earlier.

¡        If the invoice is AP, it is due now. However, a problem may occur if, for example, your agency’s next payment run is 10 days from now.

¡        In such cases, the check is drawn in that run and sent to the vendor immediately afterward. This is deemed to satisfy the AP requirement.

       8.      This completes AP processing. You can view details of the transaction in the Business Warehouse (if installed).