Show TOC

 Clearing Variants for Public Sector

Use

You use this function if you can assign open items to incoming payments and the order in which the program should clear the open items according to fixed rules.

Integration

Assigning an incoming payment to an open item should reflect the intentions expressed by the payer. In order to deduce the intention of the payer, you have the entry made in the “note to payee” as well as the amount paid to help you. SAP offers different functions which help you to preselect the items that could be assigned, based on what is written in the “note to payee”. For more information, see Evaluating the ‘Note to Payee’ with Incoming Payments .

Prerequisites

All the settings required for this function are defined in the IMG of Contract Accounting in the section Clearing Control . The following is a list of the required IMG activities and delivered settings:

  1. Define clearing types

The clearing type defines the type of payment processing (business transaction). The clearing sequence includes business transactions that are grouped together in one payment lot. The program determines the clearing type from the fieldOrigin(DFKKZK-HERKF) in the payment lot header.

  1. Define clearing categories

SAP delivers a clearing category for both public-law receivables (clearing category ÖFFR) and private-law receivables (Clearing category PRIR).

  1. Define clearing variants

SAP delivers the clearing variant 020 for the clearing sequence of public-law receivables, and clearing variant 021 for private-law receivables. You can see the definition of the individual clearing steps by selecting the clearing variant you want and then clicking on Clearing Steps .

  1. Define specifications for incoming payment

In this IMG activity, you define the default clearing variant for each clearing type (clearing variant 014 for the clearing type payment lot) and the different clearing variant for each clearing category (020 for public-law clearing and 021 for private-law clearing).

Features

Clearing variants reflect the different order in which open items are cleared from public law and private law receivables. For public-law receivables, the main receivables are cleared before the additional receivables corresponding to them. For private-law receivables, the opposite is true.

The difference between the two receivable categories is mapped by the clearing category, which is defined in the contract account. If the program finds an incoming payment with a contract account that contains one of the two clearing categories, it determines the corresponding clearing variant (clearing variant 020 for public-law receivables, clearing variant 021 for private-law receivables). The clearing steps are defined in the clearing variant. A clearing step groups payments according to the grouping and sorting attributes defined and then tries to clear the group. In a clearing step, the amount paid is only cleared if the entire group can be cleared as a whole.

The clearing steps are carried out one after another until a full clearing occurs, or a partial clearing occurs in the last step. Therefore, over- or underpayments are only possible in the last step. The program clears the last item in part for underpayments. The remaining amount is posted on account for an overpayment.

In the clearing variant for private-law receivables, all additional receivables are paid off before the main receivables. If open items are relevant for both public-law and private-law receivables for a payment (contract object or cash reference number for several contract accounts with different clearing variants), and you want to write off these payments based on the private-law clearing variant, you must assign the clearing variant for private-law receivables for the clearing type Payment Lot .

Example

You can find an example for the assignment of open items to an incoming payment due to the public law clearing variants under Example: Public Law Clearing Variants .