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Omprakash Ramapuram Arjuna

September 2, 2020 6 minute read

Payment approvals con guration using BCM in SAP S/4HANA

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Introduction
SAP Bank Communication Management helps in managing multiple bank interfaces. It helps in communication
with the bank and also helps in tracking the entire life cycle of a transaction.

Bank Communication Management is also responsible for the creation and approval of batches, the payment
status monitor, and the bank statement monitor.

In this blog post we will concentrate on the con guration relevant for creation and approval of batches for the
payments.

This blog post will explain the con guration and master data settings required for the BCM payment approvals
in Integration with BAM payment signatories.

In this blog post following abbreviations are used

BCM – Bank Communication Management

BAM – Bank Account Management

FSCM- Financial Supply Chain management

CLM – Cash and Liquidity Management.

Prerequisites

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The following pre-requisites are required to go ahead with the con guration for payment ap

Business Function FIN_FSCM_CLM is active

In the General settings for cash management Cash scope should be Full Scope. (can also navigate through
SM30 in the table/view FCLM_CONFIG2)
The con guration for Payment Medium Workbench is in place.

Now let’s look at the basic con gurations required under BAM
De ne Settings for Bank Account Master Data
Go to SPRO >Financial Supply Chain Management > Cash and Liquidity Management > Bank Account
Management > Basic Settings > De ne Settings for Bank Account Master Data

Account Type De nition

Here we have to create the Bank Account types, by default there are account types. This account type would be
used in the bank account master.

De ne Signatory Groups
Signatory Groups are created for each level of approval. In the above case I have considered 2 levels.

In the bank master we can assign multiple users to each signatory group, meaning approval from one of the
approvers in this group would be enough to move to the next level.

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De ne Approval Patterns
Approval Pattern determines the sequence of the approvers.

Approval Pattern can be sequential or non-sequential. In case of non-sequential minimum of two levels is
required.

Below is a sample pattern P001 for 2 levels of approval in sequence, if the amount is greater than 10,000$. In
this case if the amount is less equal to 10,000$ PMW le would generate after the rst level itself.

Assign Approval Patterns

Here we assign approval patterns to the combination of Company code and Account type.

I have assigned below the Pattern P001 to Account type 02 for my company code 1100.

In case of multiple Patterns to same combination we can set the priority. Priority 0 (blank) takes the
precedence.

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Maintain the Event Type Linkage for Triggering Work ow Processes

Go to SPRO > Financial Supply Chain Management > Cash and Liquidity Management > Bank Account
Management > Maintain the Event Type Linkage for Triggering Work ow Processes

Here we assign the Work ow to the Object type and event. This would be default available, just have to con rm
if the Type Linkage is active.

Enable Signatory Control

Go to SPRO > Financial Supply Chain Management > Cash and Liquidity Management > Bank Account
Management > Enable Signatory Control

The following BTE should be maintained for Product BAM

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Now let’s look at the con guration required under BCM

Basic settings:
Go to SPRO > BCM > Basic Settings > Basic Settings for Approval

In this activity, we need to maintain the “Rule Currency”, “Exchange Rate Type”, “Days re-submission” and
whether “Signature” is required or not.

Rule Maintenance
Go to SPRO > Financial Supply Chain Management > Bank Communication Management > Payment Grouping >
Rule Maintenance

Here we have to create rules for group of the payments, based on these rules the payment documents would be
merged and batches would be created. The batches are sent for approval not actually individual payment
documents.

We have to set the priorities correctly in the rules here. 0 has the highest priority followed by 1,2..

In case, if the payment document satis es the conditions of 2 rules then the document would be merged in the
batch with the rule set with highest priority.

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Note: Merge id should not be there in the rule as FBPM1 is being called automatically in the background when
Automatic payment program is run via Fiori apps.

Additional Criteria for Payment Grouping

Go to SPRO > Financial Supply Chain Management > Bank Communication Management > Payment Grouping >
Additional Criteria for Payment Grouping

Here we assign the group by which the payment documents should be grouped in the Payment le.

Note: Grpng Field1 should be always HKTID for the work ow to trigger based on the signatories in the Bank
Master Fiori app. The Grpng. Field2 can be as required.

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Mark Rules for Automatic Payments (No Approval)

Go to SPRO > Financial Supply Chain Management > Bank Communication Management > Release Strategy >
Mark Rules for Automatic Payments (No Approval)

Incase if we don’t want to trigger the approval process for certain payments, then we can create a separate rule
for this purpose and check Auto payment as shown below. Then it will skip the process of batch merging, hence
direct le generation.

Digital Signatures
Go to SPRO > Financial Supply Chain Management > Bank Communication Management > Release Strategy >
Digital Signatures:

De ne Basic settings

Here we need to maintain the SSF information under the communication tab of the user id’s of the
approvers. Refer to the below note 2774821 on Digital signature in BCM for further information.

Specify Signature Method for Approval Using Simple Signature

Here we can maintain the signature method for approving payments, for example using password
veri cation when making approvals.

Now let’s look at the Settings required in the Bank Master

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Maintain Signatories
Goto Fiori Launhpad > Manage Bank Account app.

Here the Bank account is created as required, then Navigate to the Signatories Tab and Maintain the
Signatories as shown below.

Additional information

1. The con guration of creation of rule and assigning to the release steps would not be required anymore in
SAP S/4HANA, as the Signatories in the Bank master would determine the approvers of the batch.

2. The following BADI can be used to reverse original payment documents in case of rejection or resubmit of
the batches.

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Conclusion
Now we learnt what are the con guration settings and the master data required for the Payment approvals
using SAP Bank Communication Management in SAP S/4HANA.

References and other related useful links.

1. https:/
Alert /help.sap.com/viewer/ba 8e6fcd47439f84d3c09244d1df1f/1.0.02/en-
Moderator
US/fe2cedefa74b43c392554d771 66a64.html
2. 2852487 – Users are not visible under “Payment Signatories” in Manage Bank Account App
3. In ordertags
Assigned to have User ID’s and their Names to be displayed in Payment signatories we need to create
Employee and assign to Business partner. Refer to this blog for the steps.
https://blogs.sap.com/2019/07/17/employee-as-a-business-partner-and-synchronization-with-hr-data/
SAP S/4HANA Finance | SAP Bank Communication Management | #BAM | #BCM | #paymentapprovals |
4. 2774821 Digital signature in BCM
View more...

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8 Comments

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RSSV Prasad Atmakuri

September 2, 2020 at 7:09 pm

https://blogs.sap.com/2020/09/02/payment-approvals-configuration-using-bcm-in-sap-s-4hana/ 9/12
10/15/2020 Payment approvals configuration using BCM in SAP S/4HANA | SAP Blogs

Thanks Omprakash for the detailed and structured blog on BCM..

Regards

Prasad

Like(1)

Sudharsan Renganathan

September 3, 2020 at 6:59 am

Nice Blog OM

Like(1)

v subbarao Puvvada

September 3, 2020 at 11:06 am

Nice one, OM….If you have possibility add the test scenarios.

Like(1)

Omprakash Ramapuram Arjuna | Post author

September 6, 2020 at 9:28 am

Hi Subbarao,

I’m planning to do that, in near future.

Regards

Omprakash

Like(0)

Madan Kumar Vattikuti

September 4, 2020 at 12:37 pm

Hi Om Prakash,

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10/15/2020 Payment approvals configuration using BCM in SAP S/4HANA | SAP Blogs

I have a doubt in changing the status of the batch, once we send the DME le for a payment batch we receive
acknowledgement and acceptance (BAB status) les from bank and the batch status in BNK_MONI will be
received by bank.

Is there any way we can change this status (received by bank) to (Rejected by bank)?

We manually tried sending rejection letter for the same batch but its throwing error saying status set to BAB

Please let me know if you have any solution for this

Thanks & Regards

Madan Kumar V

Like(0)

Omprakash Ramapuram Arjuna | Post author

September 7, 2020 at 4:48 pm

Hi Madan,

This has to happen based on the actual le receipt from the bank on the status of the payment.

If the Bank Rejects a payment for some reason then it would be under exceptions.

Manually we can not set the status like Rejected by bank.

Regards

Omprakash

Like(0)

Vinay Dhamnani

September 29, 2020 at 6:57 am

Thanks for sharing Om, very informative blog.

Like(1)

Pulak Das

September 29, 2020 at 7:01 am

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10/15/2020 Payment approvals configuration using BCM in SAP S/4HANA | SAP Blogs

very good blog Om

Like(1)

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