Paul Ovigele, Ovigele Consulting

The posting rules for Bank Statement processing have been around for over a decade, but I find that there are still a lot of people (consultants and end-users alike) that do not fully understand how they function. This is probably because businesses normally accept the standard settings made by SAP or use them as a reference for new posting rules. The problem with that is that when there is an error during the bank statement processing, or if the appropriate account is not posted to correctly it will be difficult to troubleshoot the issue without understanding the different posting rules, posting areas and posting types and what they are used for.   Now, I do not intend to go through all the steps needed to configure bank statement processing, but only the part that relates to defining posting rules.

To get to the configuration for defining posting rules, you need to go to the following configuration menu path (transaction SPRO) for Electronic bank statements:

Financial Accounting (New) -> Bank Accounting -> Business Transactions -> Payment Transactions -> Electronic Bank Statement -> Make Global Settings for Electronic Bank Statement

Or for manual bank statements:

Financial Accounting (New) -> Bank Accounting -> Business Transactions -> Payment Transactions -> Manual Bank Statement -> Define Posting Keys and Posting Rules for Manual Bank Statement

You can then double-click on the “Define Posting Rules” folder and this will bring you to the relevant screen of which I will explain the main columns:

Posting Rule: This represents the type of bank transaction – Checks out, checks in, wires out, bank fees, etc;

Posting Area: This determines whether you want the posting to only be made to the general ledger (that is to the main bank account and another G/L account) or to the vendor/customer account as well;

Posting Key (D): Debit posting key – which should only be entered if its corresponding account is not to be cleared.

Acct (Debit): This is the account symbol for the account to be debited. The account symbol can represent one account (such as the bank fees account) or a group of accounts (such as the clearing accounts representing “Checks out” from different banks);

Posting Key (C): Credit posting key – which should only be entered if its corresponding account is not to be cleared.

Acct (Credit): This is the account symbol for the account to be credited. The account symbol can represent one account (such as the bank fees account) or a group of accounts (such as the clearing accounts representing “Checks out” from different banks);

Doc. Type: This controls the type of document that will be posted for that posting rule. For example a posting from the main bank account to the clearing account could have doc. Type “SA”; a posting from a clearing account to a customer or vendor account could have a doc. Type “DZ” or “KZ” respectively.

Posting Type: This controls whether you simply want to post to the G/L or subledger account, or if you want to clear the debit or credit amount in the account with the posting from the bank.

On Account Posting Key: This is the posting key that is used when the G/L or subledger account cannot be cleared and hence the amount from the bank needs to be posted on the account.

For more information on how to optimize your SAP Financials landscape, I've put together my top tips in the book 100 Things You Should Know About Financial Accounting with SAP  which is published by SAP Press.