Hello everyone,

This blog will give you a step-by-step guidance of how to set up automated bank statement reprocessing rules for the cash pooling process via G/L accounts. After making the necessary settings, we will also dive into the process of importing a bank statement.

Please bear in mind that this process requires an additional license for scope item 4X8!

Basically, the process will include the following steps:

1.) Predelivered posting rule for outgoing cash pool payment (theoretical explanation)

2.) SSCUI “Make Global Settings for Electronic Bank Statements”

3.) App “Manage Bank Statement Reprocessing Rules”

4.) App “Manage Bank Statements”

5.) App “Manage Incoming Payment Files”

6.) Preparing a bank statement file

7.) App “Manage Journal Entries”

Let’s start with a short theoretical explanation.

1.) Predelivered posting rule for outgoing cash pool payment

Posting rules are predefined and preconfigured in SAP S/4HANA Cloud. They therefore cannot be changed. You can download an overview about all posting rules via this link.

The posting rule F028 for outgoing cash pool payments (only within G/L accounting) consists of two postings:

The first posting is OTHERTRANF (40 = Debit) to BANK (50 = Credit). The second posting is EMPTY (40 = Debit) to OTHERTRANSF (50 = Credit). Since our cash pooling process only applies to G/L accounting, both postings have the journal entry type SA (= ATTR1).

OTHERTRANSF and BANK are account symbols which will be maintained in SSCUI “Make Global Settings for Electronic Bank Statements” in the next step. The EMPTY spot is a placeholder for the cash pooling account created in app “Manage G/L Account Master Data” and will be assigned in step 3.

2.) SSCUI “Make Global Settings for Electronic Bank Statements”

Within this SSCUI, new account symbols can be defined and assigned either to a specific account e.g. OTHERTRANSF = 173120 or to a masked G/L accounts e.g. BANK = ++++++++++.

Here, the ++++++++++ signs are placeholders for all bank G/L accounts that are deposited in the bank account master data. Please note that renumbered G/L accounts are used in this example.

Other posting rules will require different account symbols and therefore different G/L accounts.

3.) Manage Bank Statement Reprocessing Rules

After activating scope item 4X8, it is possible to set up automated reprocessing rules for bank statements. Please bear in mind that this scope item requires additional licensing!

The header section includes information about the reprocessing rule like the description, the procedure type, the journal entry type etc. For our case, we set up a rule for outgoing payments with the journal entry type “SA” as described in the posting rule during step 1.

The conditions define under which circumstances the reprocessing rule shall be used. When the bank statement contains the information

• company code = 1001,
• external transaction = 833 and
• memo line = CASHPOOL,

the system recognizes that and executes a posting on the designated bank subaccount 173120 (= account symbol OTHERTRANSF) and G/L account 153102 (cash pooling account described as EMPTY in step 1).

4.) Preparing a Bank Statement

As a next step, let us have a look at the bank statement. In line :86: the external transaction and parts of the memo line match with the conditions of the reprocessing rule. The file is ready for import.

[Ex-course:

Short explanation of the different rows according to test script 1EG:

:20: is the bank statement reference for which the current date can be used
:25: is the account definition e.g. in the format SWIFT code or a bank key of a bank / account number
:28C: is the bank statement number
:60F: is the opening balance information on a specific date
:61: is the transaction amount including the value date
:86: is the reference or memo line of e.g. a customer invoice or internal reference for cash pooling activities
:62F: is the closing balance information on a specific date]

5.) Manage Incoming Payment Files

In this app, you can load the bank statement into the system. Click the “Import” button on the right, select the bank statement file in the pop-up and press the “Process” button.

The status will then jump from “Processing” to “Success” after the import was successful.

6.) Manage Bank Statements

After the successful import, the “Statement Status” is set to “Completed” as well. This means that the bank statement was processed successfully. This includes both required postings according to the posting rules described in step 1. Via the arrow on the right, you can receive more information on bank statement level.

On this level, the processor will get an overview about the bank statement. After clicking on the right arrow again, there will be more relevant information about the bank statement item.

The marked content on the left matches with the input of line :86: and also, with the conditions of the reprocessing rules described in steps 3 and 4.

The “Bank Ledger Doc. No.” and “Subledger Doc. No.” on the right side are the journal entries referring to the posting rules. Since those are hyperlinks, you can easily navigate to the single Journal Entries by clicking on the numbers. The content is displayed in the next screenshots.

7.) Manage Journal Entries

Journal Entry 100000952 matches the first line from the pre-delivered posting rule, while Journal Entry 100000953 matches the second line.

If needed, the information about the trading partner for our cash pool activity can be added via the settings button as well.

All necessary steps were executed, and we saw the interdependency of the posting rule, the reprocessing rule and the bank statement. I hope this blog helps you out in case you need to set up automated bank statement reprocessing rules for the cash pooling process via G/L accounts.

In case of questions or suggestions for improvement, feedback is welcome in the comment section.

Thank you and best regards

Dennis