Posting Control Rules 

Purpose

In Account Management the posting control rules are used to automate processing of mass payment transactions, and to control the continued processing if problems occur during the posting of payment items (such as exceeding the available amount, or locks). This means it is possible to automatically process erroneous postings in many cases without you having to intervene manually.

You define the posting control rules in the Customizing for Account Management (FS-AM).

Prerequisites

To make full use of the posting control rules, you need to process the following IMG activities in the Customizing for Account Management under Item Management first:

·        Basic Functions ® Account Symbols ® Define Account Symbols

·        Basic Functions ® Account Symbols ® Assign Account Symbols

·        Basic Functions ® Define Rejection Reasons

·        Basic Functions ® Returns ® Define Return Reasons

·        Posting Control Rules ® Define Transaction Type Groups

·        Posting Control Rules ® Define Own Check Results

·        Posting Control Rules ® Control Calculation and Check on Available Amount

·        Posting Control Rules ® Error Types ® Define Error Types

·        Posting Control Rules ® Error Types ® Specify Amount Limits

·        Posting Control Rules ® Error Types ® Assign Error Types

·        Posting Control Rules ® Define Channels

·        Posting Control Rules ® Define Posting Control Groups

·        Posting Control Rules ® Define Field Sequence for Determination of a Rule in Main Rule Set

·        Posting Control Rules ® Define Main Rule Set

You have also programmed the Business Transaction Event (BTE) 10010 (Report Result of Processing to Feeder System) if required.

Process Flow

Integrating the posting control rules in the PLM/AM/Posting Control Office

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       1.      You post payment items in dialog processing, or the payment items come from a payment transaction system and go via a Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI) into Account Management.

       2.      During posting, the system runs a series of formal and material checks for every payment item, irrespective of whether it was entered manually or arrived in the Account Management system via a BAPI.

       3.      If these checks find formal or material errors, the system issues an error message.

       4.      The system determines the first response for all payment items that you defined for the corresponding posting problem in the IMG activity Define Main Rule Set.

The following system responses are possible:

¡        Post: The payment item is posted on the account and given the status Posted. The objects involved, general ledger, balances (account balance, transaction figures), payment forms, counters and prenotes are updated. In addition, the account status is set to active, if appropriate, and the generation of an event-controlled bank statement is triggered.

¡        Postprocessing: The payment item is assigned to the target account but it is not posted. The general ledger is updated for target payment items in postprocessing. The other objects involved are not updated. The payment item is given the In Postprocessing status. If the Posting Control Office (FS-PCO-AM) has been activated in Customizing, a posting control order is automatically generated for further processing in the Posting Control Office.

¡        Reallocation: The payment item is posted on the account and given the status Posted. If the Posting Control Office is activated in Customizing, a posting control order is created automatically to enable further processing in the Posting Control Office. Otherwise the same conditions apply as for the first response Post.

¡        Redirect: The payment item is not posted to the original target account, rather it is redirected to a suspense account or processing account. This usually happens because the actual target account cannot be determined or is inactive. You need to define an account symbol for the redirection. The payment item receives the status posted. The original recipient details are noted on the payment item. If redirection to a suspense account is executed and the Posting Control Office is activated, a posting control order is created automatically to enable further processing in the Posting Control Office. If the item is redirected to a processing account, you must manually process it in Account Management.

¡        Return: The recipient item is returned to the payment transaction system automatically by way of a payment order and is given the Returned status.

¡        Reject: Account Management does not accept the ordering party item and sends it back to the payment transaction system. The payment item is not longer traceable in the Account Management system.

In the standard system, payment items are rejected in the following cases unless Reject is set up as a response in the main rule set: The system overrides the settings in the main rule set.

·         There are formal errors to which posting control cannot be applied.

·         You have used a BAPI to set the indicator Process Incorrect Items only for Response Post (PostOrTerminate) and the response is not Post, as per the main rule set.

·         You are editing a payment item in the dialog that requires releasing, and there are formal errors that are subject to posting control, and according to the rule set, there is a response that is not Post.

The material checks are not run until the payment item is released.

·         You enter a settlement posting, and there is a response that is not Post or Reallocate as per the rule set.

·         According to the main rule set, there is a response for a subsequent position of a payment item that is not valid for the main position.

If the response Redirect is set up for the transaction charge (subsequent position) for an ordering party item (main position), the ordering party item and the charge are both rejected.

Posting control for payment items in Account Management

During the determination of the relevant first response, the system proceeds as follows:

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                            a.      If the posting problem was found when the Own Check, Access Limit, or Plan Monitoring check object is run, the system determines the error message by using the combination of the check object, check, and result number that you assigned in Customizing under Define Own Check Results. The same applies if you have specified your own posting locks for the check object Account Posting for the check Account Posting Locks in the Customizing of Account Management under Contract Management ® Account ® Define Posting Locks.

                            b.      If the posting problem is found by one of the other check objects, the system assigns the standard error message.

                            c.      The system determines the error type that you assigned to the combination of check object, check, and result number in Customizing under Assign Error Types.

                            d.      In the main rule set, the system selects the entry where your settings for the error type, payment item type, transaction type group, product, posting control group and channel match the corresponding attributes of the payment item. If it does not find a fully matching entry, it looks for the one with the most matching criteria. The sequence is taken into account that you specified in the IMG activity Define Field Sequence for Determination of a Rule in Main Rule Set.

Result

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       1.      The system executes the first response assigned to the selected entry.

If there are multiple check errors, and thus multiple entries with different initial responses apply equally, the system selects the “strongest” initial response. The following sequence of first responses applies:

                            a.      Reject

                            b.      Return

If multiple entries apply, but all of them give rise to the first response Return, the system chooses the entry with return reason that you assigned with the highest priority in the IMG activity Define Return Reasons.

                            c.      Redirect

                            d.      Postprocessing

                            e.      Reallocation

                              f.      Post

If multiple entries apply, but all give rise to the same first response, the system chooses the entry with the "hardest" final response. The following sequence of final responses applies:

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                            a.      Reverse

                            b.      Reject

                            c.      Return

If multiple entries have the same first response and final response Return, the priorities are set according to the return reason.

                            d.      Transfer Post

                            e.      Post

       2.      If the Posting Control Office is active, and if the first responses are postprocessing, reallocation, and redirect, and the redirection is to a suspense (CpD) account, the system forwards the required details for further processing to the Posting Control Office, where a posting control order is generated.

       3.      Depending on your customizing settings in the Posting Control Office, the posting control order is either processed manually in the Posting Control Office with the Posting Control Desktop, or automatically with the Automatic Processing Function. The automatic processing function ensures that Account Management executes the final response that you defined in the main rule set. The responses Post, Transfer Post, Return, Reject and Reverse are always possible end responses.

       4.      If the payment item came into Account Management via a payment transaction system, then the system returns the first response to the payment transaction system. If you have defined reasons for the initial responses Return and Reject in the main set of rules, these are also forwarded to the payment transaction system.

       5.      If a payment item is still in processing after the initial response, whereby it is initially placed in postprocessing and posted later as a final response, for example, then the information about the final response is transferred to the payment transaction system only if you have programmed the BTE 10010.