Closing Accounts 

In Bank Customer Accounts (BCA), you revoke a business connection by the closure of one or more accounts. A closure involves both the master data of the account and the balancing runs.

You can close accounts in two ways:

·        Close a single account by using the Direct Closure function

·        Close several accounts by using the mass run

Prerequisites

·        There may be no outstanding checks (PF). Any checks that still exist must have the Returned or Locked status (only applies for banks).

·        Payment items may not be In Postprocessing or subject to Dual Control.

·        Account closure must be allowed for the product on which the account is based.

See the table at the end of this section for a complete list of checks.

Process Flow for Closing a Single Account

You need to carry out the following activities to close a single account:

...

       1.      Choose Account ® Change.

The system displays the initial screen for the display of an account.

       2.      Enter the bank area, account number, and, if required, the business partner data.

       3.      Choose Continue.

The account maintenance screen appears.

       4.      On the Basic Data tab page, set the closure date.

The account is flagged for release when you change the account closure date, if you have activated the principle of dual control in Customizing for BCA by choosing Master Data ® Account ® Principle of Dual Control for Account Closure.

       5.      Choose Account ® Direct Closure ® To Internal Account or To External Account.

       6.      On the screen that appears, specify the account details of the reference account on which the system must post the result of the account closure.

For accounts with an external reference account (for account closure), you can define a special suspense account for collecting the debit balance on account closure. Define this suspense account in Customizing for BCA by choosing Account Management ® Maintain CpD-Accounts for Special Purposes.

Payment notes are also available if you have enabled payment note lines for the type of account closure reference account (internal or external). You can enable payment notes in Customizing for BCA by choosing Master Data ® Product Definition ® Product ® Create Product or Change Product.

If you have set up the principle of dual control for the bank area, the product and/or the type of reference account in Customizing for BCA, the account is flagged for release (account closure).

If you have not set up the principle of dual control, the account is automatically closed and released.

Process Flow for Releasing Account Closure

...

       1.      Choose Account ® Release ® Release Account Closure.

       2.      Enter the required data.

       3.      Choose Execute.

The system lists the account closures to be released, according to your selection criteria.

       4.      Double-click an account number.

The account data is displayed.

       5.      Check the data for the account that has to be released.

       6.      Choose Back twice.

       7.      To release the account closure, select the account, and choose Release.

       8.      The list of account closures to be released appears again.

The released account closure now has the Released status.

       9.      Repeat the previous steps for all account closures that you want to release.

Process Flow for Closing Several Accounts

...

       1.      Choose Account ® Change.

The system displays the initial screen for the display of an account.

       2.      Enter the bank area, account number, and, if required, the business partner data.

       3.      Choose Continue.

The account maintenance screen appears.

       4.      On the Basic Data tab page, set the closure date.

       5.      Choose Account ® Direct Closure ® To Internal Account or To External Account.

On the screen that appears, specify the account details of the reference account on which the system must post the result of the account closure.

Payment notes are also available if you have enabled payment note lines for the type of account closure reference account (internal or external). You can enable payment notes in Customizing for BCA by choosing Master Data ® Product Definition ® Product ® Create Product or Change Product.

For accounts with an external reference account (for account closure), you can define a special suspense account for collecting the debit balance on account closure. Define this suspense account in Customizing for BCA by choosing Account Management ® Maintain CpD-Accounts for Special Purposes.

If you have set up the principle of dual control for the bank area, the product and/or the type of reference account in Customizing for BCA (by choosing Master Data ® Account ® Principle of Dual Control for Account Closure),the account is flagged for release (account closure).

       6.      Balance the account by using either a single account balancing run or a mass run. If you are using a mass run, note the following:

Accounts with a closure date before the current balancing date are selected automatically. You must start the balancing mass run again if there is another regular balancing date between the last balancing date of the account and the closure date. In the first run, the account is balanced on the regular date and in the second run on the closure date. (Note: You can avoid this procedure by balancing accounts on a daily basis).

You only need to balance the account on the closure date if the balancing type Account Balancing and the corresponding time periods are defined in the account master. Otherwise, the account is closed without final interest or charges being calculated.

       7.      Choose Periodic Tasks ® Account Closure to start an account closure run.

If you have defined a charge condition for account closure, the closure charge is calculated and posted to the account.

The system creates a payment order to transfer the final account balance to the reference account.

 Background:

The account closure process ends with an error if any of the following checks fail during direct or mass closure:

Check	Description
Account	The account is not locked by any other process.
Product	The Account Closure feature is enabled for the product.
Checks (only applies for banks)	Locked or Issued checks (PF) do not exist for the account.
Standing orders (only applies for banks)	Standing orders are not due for execution before the account closure date.
Locks	Credit or debit locks do not exist for the account.
Individual value adjustment (IVA)	IVA postings do not exist for the account
Reference account	The account is not a reference account for account closure or balancing.
Reference account for account closure	A reference account for account closure is defined for the account.
Member of an account hierarchy	The account does not belong to an account hierarchy.
Payment items	Payment items with the In Postprocessing or a control status do not exist. Payment items with a value date after the account closure date do not exist.
Forward orders	Forward orders in which the account is an ordering party do not exist.
Planned items	Planned items do not exist for the account.
Amount notices	If the Amount Notices feature is enabled, full amount notice with closure is specified for the account.
Reserved amount (hold)	Active holds do not exist on the account.
Account balancing	The account balancing does not fail during the account closure process.
Bank statement	The bank statement generated during the account closure process does not fail.

Result

When you complete these steps, the system prepares the data for the bank statement and supplies it to the bank statement interface. It creates a payment order for the remaining balance and sets the account status to Closed/Flagged for Archiving.

In addition, the system restricts the validity of released limits to the closure date, if limits that are valid after the account closure date exist. Limits that are not yet released are deleted.

Change documents record all the changes, including those made to the limits. This document is the basis for limit reactivation.