Introduction
Check printing is the most common form of the payments however nowadays with more and more companies are automating their payments and submitting their payments to banks in electronic format due to cost effectiveness,security and ease.
There are multiple Bank transfer formats available and usually differ by country.
However we will be focusing on the creation of the Bank transfer file submitted to Banks from the USA perspective though please note that the configuration steps are very similar in other types of formats.
As of release 4.6C , the Payment Medium Work Bench was introduced which is a generic payment medium program and can be used in place old payment medium program RFFOUS_T US Domestic Bank Transfer.
In this document we will explain the creation of NACHA format file ( National Automated Clearing House Association) which need to be submitted to Banks for processing the ACH ( Automated Clearing House) transaction.
Configuration Steps
Step 1 Ensure that country specific checks are set to these values Transaction code OY17
Step 2 Please ensure that all the setting have been maintained for the Automatic Payments using the transaction code FBZP
As shown in the below screen shot by going on each tab. For processing the ACH payments we need to use the Payment Method T
2A Click on All company codes tab and make the settings by clicking the new entries in our case we have the Paying and sending company codes as same though it can be different
2B Click on the paying company code and make the settings
2C Click Payments method country and update the selection to use Payment Medium Work Bench
We are using the format ACH which is for US domestic Transfers. ( there are also other formats available for USA which you can use based on your requirements)
We are using the CTX as format supplement however there are other format supplement also available.
Please see the below screen shot.
2D Make the settings for Payments method in company code
2E Make the settings for the Bank Determination and make the settings for each section as shown on the left corner on screen shown below
2F Make the settings for the House banks and bank accounts (You can go directly from the house bank Tab in FBZP or use House Bank Transaction code FI12)
Create the house bank with below settings as shown in the screen shot and its important to maintain these settings to correctly create a NACHA file format
After maintaining the fields as shown in the below screen shot click on change tab as shown in the screen shot
In the below Pop up screen maintain the Bank Address data. The grayed out fields have been auto populated based on the earlier settings as shown in the previous screens
Expand the EDI Tab and update the company number which the company Tax identification number. Please add 1 before the number of your company
Click on the Bank Accounts on left side of the House Bank Screen and update the details of the GL and Bank Account number, Control key etc use 01 for checking account in control key
Step 3 Execute the transaction code OBPM1 which shown the payment medium formats. We will using the ACH format and use the SAP standard settings and will not be modifying anything in the standard settings. You can double the selected ACH format to review the settings.
Step 4 Create the Payment medium selection variant. Transaction code OBPM4 and in the screen mention the Payment variant and click on the arrow next to it and it will ask whether you want to create payment variant as shown in the below screen and you need to click on Yes
Make the selection as shown in the below screen shot and press continue
Update the settings as shown the below screen shot and and also click on the tab Format Parameters and Maintain small screen pop too with identification what are you paying and also company identification ( Your company EIN/TIN with suffix of 1) and Save it
Step 5 Please make sure the Vendors Bank master data is maintained and Payments method is maintained in the Vendor master records.
Step 6 Execute the Payment run using the Transaction code F110 and in the parameter screen select the payment method as T and once the payment run have been completed ACH NACHA file will be generated.Please note we are not covering the steps how run a payment run.
Once the payment run have been completed go the Environment -Payment Medium and then select DME Administration ( Transaction code FDTA)
Though the NACHA file would have already downloaded in the directory defined in the earlier settings which may be secured FTP/Local Machine/SAP directory .
However below screen shows you how to access the file and download it again
Double click on the selection and click on down load on the pop up screen you can see the NACHA file which have been downloaded and you can again down load the same . (You can see the spool using the transaction code SP02)
Please see the below screen shot showing the NACHA file created which can be transmitted to Bank for processing the ACH payments.