Show TOC

Component documentationOutbound Interface for Postings to Business Partner

 

With the outbound interface of Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable (FI-CA), you can forward information about business partner postings to external systems.

Example Example

You do not enter documents directly in the SAP system, but instead transfer them from one or more systems using an interface. These systems are dependent on information being returned, such as incoming payments or reversals, in order to be able to react in follow-on processes.

End of the example.

Features

Flow of the Data Transfer

The outbound interface for postings to the business partner is based on the creation of trigger entries at the time of posting. Whenever you require data in an external system, you can start a mass run for the transfer. This transfers the data to the external system using trigger records. (On the SAP Easy Access screen, choose Start of the navigation path Periodic Processing Next navigation step Data for Externals Next navigation step Outbound Interface Business Partner Postings End of the navigation path). The mass activity sends the data to a central integration server using messages of SAP Exchange Infrastructure. From there the data can be forwarded to the receiver system. To enable the infrastructure to correctly determine the receiver of the message, each message contains data for only one receiver system and the ID of that receiver system.

You can transfer the following information to external systems using this interface:

  • Open items of business partner

  • Cleared items of business partner since last transfer

  • Incoming payments since last transfer

  • Information about reopened documents

  • Detailed information about installment plans

You can influence which information is to be transferred to each external system by means of Customizing settings at company code level or for each receiver system. You make these settings in Customizing for Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable under Start of the navigation path Data Transfer Next navigation step Outbound Interface End of the navigation path. Also read the documentation for the individual activities.

Note Note

Note for the industry component Public Sector Contract Accounts Receivable and Payable

Using the settings in the Customizing activity Define Settings for Public Sector-Specific Trigger Filtering, you can filter the data dependent on the contract account category and contract object type.

End of the note.

Note Note

Change of Trigger Tables

As of SAP enhancement package 7 for SAP ERP 6.0, tables DFKK_TRIGX_OP, DFKK_TRIGX_CL, DFKK_TRIGX_PAY and DFKK_TRIGX_RCL replace tables DFKK_TRIGGER_OP, DFKK_TRIGGER_CL, DFKK_TRIGGER_PAY and DFKK_TRIGGER_RCL. To prevent problems with parallel updates, the system writes a separate trigger entry for each triggering document. The mass run then considers all business partners, for whom there is at least one trigger entry in table DFKK_TRIGX_OP with status 1 (Preselected for Transfer). Entries in the old trigger table DFKK_TRIGGER_OP that were not yet transferred are automatically moved to the new table DFKK_TRIGX_OP. The mass activity works primarily with the new trigger table DFKK_TRIGX_OP, but also considers not yet processed data in the old trigger tables DFKK_TRIGGER_CL, DFKK_TRIGGER_PAY and DFKK_TRIGGER_RCL.

End of the note.

Constraints

When documents are changed, for example, by manual change, dunning, or deferral, the system does not create trigger entries. Therefore, the changed document information cannot be transferred to the external system. A changed open item is not transferred to the external system until a new document is posted and open items are transferred again.

The interface only recognizes payments as such and transfers them if they were posted using a payment lot, the cash desk, or the payment program. Payments that you post using the transaction Post Document (FPE1) for example, are transferred to the external system as open or cleared items but not as payments. The same applies for follow-on processes for payments, such as the transfer posting of a payment.

The transfer of collective bills is not supported.

Example

In telecommunications companies, external billing systems print the invoices. In addition to the invoice items, further information, such as charge postings or incoming payments are displayed on the invoice. To make this information available for the invoice, the billing system requires the complete current account balance of the business partner and information about incoming payments and document clearing.

In Public Sector, it is often the case that several external systems are connected to the SAP system. Invoices from different areas are transferred to FI-CA using the interfaces of these systems. Examples are trade tax, childcare contributions, or receivables from minor offenses. These systems are dependent on information from FI-CA about the postings to the business partners to trigger follow-on processes in the case of missing or late incoming payments (for example, conversion of a minor offense into a fine). There are certain special considerations in these cases. When you transfer business partner postings to the external system, for reasons of data protection you should consider that only data relevant for the respective external system is allowed to be transferred. For example, information about trade tax must not be transferred to the system that manages minor offenses, and vice versa. This means that in these cases, only parts of the account balance of a business partner and never the entire balance should be transferred to an external system. You can keep the data separate using the contract account or contract.