Differences Exceeding Tolerance Limits (SAP Library - FI Accounts Receivable and Accounts Payable)

Differences Exceeding Tolerance Limits

Use

Differences exceeding the tolerance limits set for clearing them automatically may still occur during a payment transaction. This may be the case for example, if a customer has told you in a payment advice note which items a payment relates to. The amount paid however, does not correspond to the amount of the receivables.

When you process open items, you can have the following options for dealing with differences that exceed the tolerance limits:

You can treat the payment as a partial payment. The system does not clear the original receivable. It posts the payment with an invoice reference, and enters the invoice number in the Invoice reference field in the payment items. To determine the due date of the payment, the system calculates the net due date for the invoice. This date is then entered in the Baseline date field of the payment. The payment is then included in the dunning program and in cash management at this date.

You can use the payment to clear the original receivables and post the remaining amount to the customer account as a residual item. The payment amount is noted in the line item for the original receivable.

You can clear the original receivables and post the difference to an expense account.

Prerequisites

The system requires the posting keys defined in the system for each of these transactions. For more information, see Posting with Clearing

Activities

To post residual items, you have to specify what terms of payment you want to apply to these items. You can define the following for each business partner:

The terms of payment are taken from the invoice.

Predefined terms of payment are always assigned to the difference posting. You can use a terms of payment key to do this. During clearing, the system uses the terms of payment defined under the key for the residual items.

Cash discount should be granted only for the portion that was paid. The remaining cash discount is only granted after the outstanding receivable is paid in full and only if the payment deadline for cash discount is not exceeded. You should always choose this option if the terms of payment in the invoice are used for the residual items.

You should restrict the possible dunning levels. To do this, you can enter a dunning key that represents the highest dunning level. In this way, you can ensure, for example, that legal dunning proceedings are not initiated for residual items.