Hello, today I would like to tell you how to clear open items.
Agenda
What is an open item?
To begin with, let's check what is the open items.
Example of open items are accounts receivable, accounts payable, and so on. When we talk about open items, they are accounts and their balances which are going to be cleared in the future, but not yet leared.
For example, accounts receivable is one of balance sheet account and it would be cleared by incoming payment from customer in the future. Similarly, accounts payable would be cleared in the future by outgoing payment.
Before the clearing, these account and their balances are called as open items.
Post with clearing [F-04]
Operation image
Following shows image of how we are going to clear open items. For example, let's say we have accounts receivables. Based on the incoming payment from customer, the one which should be cleared from open items is determined and picked.
For that open item, another accounting document to clear the open item is generated and posted. This is the flow of post with clearing.
Steps in post with clearing
Then, let's see how the operation is like. Target open item is shown as below. This is an accounts receivable recognized for one of customer, the amount is JPY 1,100.
This receivable is not yet paid by customer, so it's open item.
Then, let's suppose we received incoming payment from customer. The amount was exactly the same for the accounts receivable recognized previously.
In this step, we use Tr-code : F-04, Post with Clearing. In the first line item, we need to specify account used to clear the open item. In this case, we enter bank account to clear accounts receivable.
In the first line item, we enter amount and click 'Choose open items', to specify which open item should be cleared.
Specifying account and account type, and clicking 'Process Open Items' will lead you to screen to pick open items.
You need to pick account type for the account which you are going to clear. In case of accounts receivable, the account type is D: Customers.
Following is a list of Account types selected.
| A | Assets |
| D | Customers |
| K | Vendors |
| M | Material |
| S | G/L accounts |
In next screen, you can see list of open items. Initially, all the open items are selected. Clicking deselecting button, and double clicking one of the line item will leave only one line item selected.
In this case, let's leave line item with amount JPY 1,100. As a result of choosing correctly the line items, field 'Not Assigned' would become zero.
If the field has balances not equal to zero, posting is not possible.
When you correctly select open item, then you can simulate.
('Document' in header bar ⇒ 'Simulation' )
In the simulation result, if you find no error, then you can post.
When you post, the accounting document for clearing is generated. The document number generated is assigned to the open item, which you can see in the original accounting document. With this, you can see the line item in the original accounting document is cleared.
Partial payment and Residual item
General concept and operational step for posting with clearing are explained as above. In this section, as one of deviation, I would like to talk about partial payment case
There is a case that customer pays partially for the ordered amount. For example, accounts receivable for the customer is JPY 1,100 but customer pays JPY 500.
The process and steps are slightly changed from the case of fully payment.
Operation in case of partial payment [F-04]
Transaction code that we use is the same, TR-Code: F-04.
Let's say we received payment from customer, JPY 500. After entering the amount, we click 'Choose open items'.
In the next screen, we will enter account and account type. (This screen shot is skipped because it's nothing but same as already given in above section)
Then the accounting documents are listed. If you know the target document has amount of JPY 1,100, it's a partial payment scenario, because the actual received amount is JPY 500. In this case, you need to change the tab from 'Standard' to 'Partial Pmt'.
And, you enter the payment amount. In this case, JPY 500. This will make the field 'Not Assigned' as zero.
Then, let's simulate. ('Document' in Header bar ⇒ 'Simulate')
If there is no issue, you can post.
Status after partial payment
So, the partial payment is done. If this was fully payment case, the original accounting document should have been cleared. What about this case?
Following shows the status of original accounting document, which captures accounts receivable in this case. You can see that there is no clearing accounting document information yet.
How about the accounting document generated as a result of partial payment? Following shoes the line item of the document.
Payment amount is 500, and original accounting document number is mentioned so that you can see this payment was for that accounts receivable.
Payment for the rest
Let's see how it would be like, to handle the payment for the rest.
In this case, the rest of the amount to be paid is JPY 600. (JPY 1,100 - JPY 500) Let's see the screen to pick open items.
Following shows the screen. The thing we need to be careful is, we need to change the tab to 'Res Items', and we need to enter the total amount minus the amount paid in the field of 'Residual Items'. This is a little bit tricky.
So in this case, you want to post with JPY 600, and the amount your enter would be, JPY 1,100 - JPY 600 = JPY 500.
This will make the field 'Not Assigned' as zero.
When you simulate, 3 line items are seen. 1st one is incoming payment, 2nd once is residual item, and the last one is line item in the original accounting document.
Line item highlighted in blue means it is requesting an review, or error correction. If you need it, you can double click to edit the lien item and leave the text to tell that this line item is for residual item.
Status after payment for the rest
So, the accounting document for the payment to the rest is generated. Let's see the document generated, and original accounting document.
As you can see, the original accounting document now has an accounting document number to clear the open item. After partial payment, this clearing accounting document field is not seen but now it can be seen and filled with clearing accounting document number.
Summary
Open items such as accounts receivable or accounts payable need to be cleared by incoming payment or outgoing payment.
In SAP, Tr-Code: F-04 supports posting with clearing. 1st, you enter the account used for clearing and then, you will select which open items to be cleared.
Partial payment and payment for residual item are also supported by F-04.