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Dunning SAP AG

2 December 1999

Copyright

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Dunning SAP AG

4 December 1999

Contents

Dunning ...............................................................................................................6Dunning Program Processing Steps ........................................................................................... 8Checking Open Items.................................................................................................................. 10Processing Accounts .................................................................................................................. 11Configuring the Dunning Program ............................................................................................ 12Managing the Dunning Program ................................................................................................ 13Dunning Procedure ..................................................................................................................... 14

Dunning Frequency and Dunning Interval................................................................................ 15Grace Days for Line Items and Minimum Numbers of Days in Arrears for Accounts .............. 16Dunning Levels......................................................................................................................... 18Notes on Grace Days and Days in Arrears .............................................................................. 19Determining Dunning Levels .................................................................................................... 20Effect of Minimum Amounts and Percentage Rates on Dunning Levels ................................. 22Special Features When Dunning per Dunning Level ............................................................... 24Company Code-Specific Specifications: Figure ....................................................................... 25Dunning Levels: Additional Specifications................................................................................ 26Dunning Levels and Days In Arrears........................................................................................ 27Charges and Interest ................................................................................................................ 28Minimum Amounts and Dunning Level Determination ............................................................. 30Selection of Transactions for Dunning ..................................................................................... 31Entering Grace Days and Minimum Days in Arrears ............................................................... 32

Dunning Areas ............................................................................................................................. 33Usage of Dunning Areas .......................................................................................................... 34Allocating Dunning Areas and Dunning Procedures ................................................................ 35Dunning Areas and Different Dunning Procedures .................................................................. 36Dunning Areas and a Single Dunning Procedure .................................................................... 37Dunning Areas in the Line Item ................................................................................................ 38Dunning Information in the Customer Master Record.............................................................. 39

Dunning Blocks and Dunning Keys........................................................................................... 40Dunning Forms: Overview.......................................................................................................... 41

Parts of the Form...................................................................................................................... 43Letter Header, Sender, and Footer .......................................................................................... 45Windows In The Dunning Form................................................................................................ 47Text Elements in the MAIN Window - Dunning Letters ............................................................ 48Text Elements for the HEADER Window ................................................................................. 50Data from the Dunning Run for the Form Print......................................................................... 51Sample Dunning Form ............................................................................................................. 52Sorting Dunning Notices, Dunning Lists and Open Items........................................................ 54Modifying the Forms................................................................................................................. 55

Special Features .......................................................................................................................... 56Dunning Credit Memos............................................................................................................. 57Grouping Open Items Under Grouping Keys ........................................................................... 58Cross-Company Code Dunning ............................................................................................... 59Dunning: Legal Proceedings .................................................................................................... 60Local Dunning........................................................................................................................... 61Dunning One-Time Accounts ................................................................................................... 62Customer and Vendor Clearing................................................................................................ 63

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Alternative Dunning Recipient .................................................................................................. 64The Dunning Program: System Configuration ......................................................................... 65Executing the Dunning Program................................................................................................ 66Maintaining Parameters for the Dunning Program .................................................................. 67Creating a Dunning Proposal ..................................................................................................... 69Displaying the Dunning Run Status .......................................................................................... 70Editing the Dunning Proposal .................................................................................................... 71Displaying Lists: Dunning Program .......................................................................................... 73Displaying a Sample Printout..................................................................................................... 74Displaying the Log....................................................................................................................... 75Printing Dunning Notices............................................................................................................ 76

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Dunning

6 December 1999

DunningPurposeSometimes your business partners may fall behind on payments. You can send them a paymentreminder or a dunning notice to remind them of their outstanding debts.

The R/3 System allows you to dun business partners automatically. The system duns the openitems from business partner accounts in which the overdue items create a debit balance. Thedunning program selects the overdue open items, determines the dunning level of the account inquestion, and creates a dunning notice. It then saves the dunning data created for the items andaccounts affected.

You can use the dunning program to dun both customers and vendors. It may be necessary todun a vendor if he or she has a debit balance as a result of a credit memo. If a customer is also avendor, you can offset the account balances against one another.

The dunning program is also used in Real Estate Management. For moreinformation, see Dunning Procedure for Rental Agreement [Ext.]

Implementation ConsiderationsIf you wish to use the automatic dunning procedure, you will need to make settings in thefollowing places before using the system and while it is running:

• In Customizing for Financial Accounting

• In the master record for your customer or vendor

• When posting documents

See also Configuring the Dunning Program [Page 12]

Once you have decided in which countries you wish to use the automatic dunning procedure,adjust your settings to meet the country-specific business requirements. In the USA, for example,debtors are not usually dunned.

You use the following attributes to control the dunning program, and you can configure themaccording to the needs of your company:

• Dunning procedureThe dunning procedure controls how dunning is carried out by the system. You candefine as many dunning procedures as you like.

• Dunning levelThe dunning levels are calculated based on the number of days open items are inarrears. You can also have the system calculate the dunning levels based on thedunning amount or a percentage paid (sales-related dunning level determination).You can determine more than one dunning level per dunning procedure.

• Dunning areaA dunning area is an organizational unit within a company code used for the dunningprocess.

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A dunning area can be a division or a sales organization. You assign a dunning area toan open item when making a posting. You can dun items separately by dunning area.

FeaturesThe dunning program contains the following special functions:

Payment deadline, interest onarrears, and dunning charges

You can enter a definite payment deadline in thedunning notice, as well as interest on arrears anddunning charges.

Dunning currency If all the open items in an account have been posted inthe same currency (either local currency or a foreigncurrency), the dunning run uses this currency.Otherwise, the dunning program uses the localcurrency of the company code. The items aredisplayed in document currency in the dunning notice,and the totals in local and foreign currency.

Cross-company code dunning You can combine the overdue items for one customeror vendor from several company codes in one dunningrun and issue the items in one dunning notice.

Dunning for head office/branchrelationships

If your customer or vendor has both a head office andbranch offices, dunning notices are sent to the headoffice. However, you can also send dunning notices tothe branch offices.

Dunning one-time accounts You can dun a one-time account just like any othercustomer or vendor account. All the items for a one-time account that have the same address are groupedin one dunning notice. The dunning date and level areentered in the item, not in the account master record.

Individual dunning notice In addition to using the conventional dunning run, inwhich all overdue items are dunned according to theirselection criteria, you can also dun individualcustomers or vendors separately.

Dunning history The dunning history provides you with information onall of the dunning runs you have executed and thedunning notices you have sent (overdue items,dunning totals, etc.). If required, you can also select byaccount type, company code, and/or customer orvendor.

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Dunning Program Processing Steps

8 December 1999

Dunning Program Processing StepsThe dunning process consists of the following stages:

Documents

Open items

Master record

Data on thebusiness partner

Dunning program

Printing program

Dunning listDunning letters

Printing dunningletters

Dunning data set

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Processing adunning proposal

Creating adunning proposal

1. Creating the dunning proposal You start the dunning program and enter the companycodes for the dunning run. You can only run the program for certain accounts. The dunningprogram determines the accounts and items which are to be dunned, the dunning level andall other details necessary for dunning. The dunning program produces a dunning proposallist. The dunning proposal list can be created as often as required since the dunning data forthe item and in the account is not updated until the dunning notices have been printed.

2. Editing the dunning proposal list You edit the dunning proposal list by raising or loweringthe dunning level of some line items, blocking some line items from being dunned, orremoving dunning blocks.

3. Printing the dunning notices The print program prints the dunning notices. It updatesthe fields Dunning level and Dunning date in each line item, and dunning date and level inthe master records.

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Dunning Program Processing Steps

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The dunning forms and texts you use must be defined or adapted before the dunning run isexecuted. You determine the items and accounts to be dunned and the dunning texts, when youconfigure the dunning program. This configuration involves defining the rules governing how theprogram determines the data it needs.

Only those accounts which contain a dunning procedure in the master record areincluded in the dunning run.

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Checking Open Items

10 December 1999

Checking Open ItemsThe dunning program checks whether a account needs to be dunned as follows:

1. It checks the fields Dunn.procedure (dunning procedure) and Last dun.notice (date of lastrun) in the customer master record to determine whether the arrears date or the date of thelast dunning run lies far enough back in the past.

2. It tests whether the account is blocked from dunning according to the Dunn.block field in thecustomer master record.

Following these checks, the account in question is either released for dunning or rejected. If theaccount is released for dunning, the dunning program processes all open items which wereposted on or before the date entered in the field Documents posted until.

3. It checks each open item in an account as to whether the open item:

a. Is blocked from dunning

b. Is overdue according to the date of issue, the base date, the payment conditions and thenumber of days grace granted

Following these checks, the open item in question is either released or rejected for dunning. If itis released for dunning, the dunning program calculates the following:

4. How many days the open item is overdue

5. Which dunning level the open item has according to the dunning level specified in thedunning procedure.

From these calculations, open items with specific dunning levels are determined for an account,whereby the dunning level of the account is equal to the highest dunning level of an open item.

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Processing Accounts

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Processing AccountsOnce the dunning program has determined which open items to dun and the dunning level for theaccount, it processes each account by making the following checks:

• Does the customer (or vendor) have a debit balance with regard to overdue items and allopen items? If not, the account is not dunned.

• Is the total to dun and the percentage of all open items more than the minimum amountand percentage defined in the dunning procedure? These minimum amounts are definedfor each dunning procedure, currency, and dunning level, and may be zero (no minimumlevel required).

• Is the dunning level for the account or the overdue items higher than it was for the lastdunning run? If not, are there new open items to be dunned (with a previous dunning levelof 0)? If not, does the dunning procedure specify that dunning be repeated? If the answerto these three questions is no (i.e. the dunning level of both the account and the overdueitems has not changed, there are no new open items to be dunned and the dunning is notto be repeated), the account is not dunned.

After the account is accepted for dunning, the next account is tested.

After these processing steps, the program creates a list of all the accounts and open items whichhave been proposed for dunning (Dunning proposal list). The program allocates a dunninglevel to the account according to the highest dunning level of an open item in an account.

You can process the dunning proposal, raising or lowering the dunning level of an item orblocking an item so that it does not appear in the dunning notice. You can increase the dunninglevel of an item to a maximum of one level higher than it was the last time the dunning programwas run. However, you can lower the dunning level of an item to several levels lower than in theprevious dunning run.

Dunning SAP AG

Configuring the Dunning Program

12 December 1999

Configuring the Dunning ProgramThis section describes how you configure the dunning program. During dunning programconfiguration you determine the following:

• The dunning procedure to be used. The dunning procedure determines the dunning interval,the grace days for due date determination and the number of dunning levels. Note that it isnot company code-specific.

• The company codes and accounts that are always to be included in the dunning procedure.Only those company codes which you specify in the configuration of the dunning program aretaken into account. Only those accounts to which you allocated a dunning procedure via themaster record are dunned.

• The type of dunning notice to be sent to the customer. You determine the appearance of thedunning notices by specifying their layout, which parts are highlighted and the fonts used.You can tailor the dunning texts to your own requirements, formulating them differently perdunning level.

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Managing the Dunning Program

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Managing the Dunning ProgramOverall control of the dunning program is exercised via the settings you make for the dunningprocedure. Further control can be exercised via the settings you make in the customer or vendormaster record, via the open items, and with regard to the parameters for the dunning run.

Dunning is controlled via:

• Company code-specific specifications. One of the factors these specifications determineis which company codes are dunned.

• The dunning procedure. This contains most of the important specifications for dunningcontrol, including the dunning frequency, the dunning levels, and the grace days for due datedetermination.

• The customer or vendor master record. In the master record, you specify with whichdunning procedure the account is to be dunned. The dunning program stores the date of thelast dunning run and the dunning level in the master record. If an account is not to bedunned, enter a dunning block.

• The open items. You can block items from being dunned, or specify that an item is only tobe dunned up to a certain dunning level. The dunning program notes the date of the lastdunning run for the item and the dunning level.

• The parameters for the dunning run. These include which company codes and whichaccounts are to be checked during the dunning run, and the posting date up to whichdocuments should be taken into account.

You can define the dunning forms or dunning notices to meet your own requirements. Thisinvolves defining the layout of the letters, the texts to be used, how the letters are sorted and theitem information. In addition, a range of information from the dunning run can be included in thedunning notice, such as the name of the person processing the account, the account number ofthe customer, the open items dunned or all open items, the dunning level of the items, and apayment deadline.

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Dunning Procedure

14 December 1999

Dunning ProcedureThe dunning program duns open items in customer and vendor accounts if the overdue itemsresult in a debit balance. When configuring the dunning program, you can specify further criteriaby which accounts or their open items are to be dunned.

Most of the important specifications are made via the dunning procedure which is defined undera four-digit alphanumeric key, and determines:

• The dunning frequency and/or the dunning interval with which accounts are dunned.

• The grace days and the minimum numbers of days in arrears for the purposes ofdetermining whether the open items and accounts in question should be dunned. This data isused only to determine the due date of the open items and whether an accounts should bedunned.

• The number of dunning levels. For each dunning level you determine the number of days aline item must be in arrears to be assigned to a particular dunning level. This dunning levelthen determines the wording of the dunning notice.

• The transactions to be dunned. You can select whether standard and/or special G/Ltransactions are dunned with the same procedure. Examples of special G/L transactions arepayment requests, bill of exchange payment requests, down payments and down paymentrequests. Bill of exchange payment requests are used in Spain, France and Italy.

You can set up one or more dunning procedures. Several procedures are necessary if you wantto dun accounts differently according to the above mentioned criteria.

You specify which procedure is used for an account in the master record of the accountconcerned. Enter this procedure in the company code specific area.

Although you never send more than one payment reminder to certain of yourcustomers, you send up to three different dunning notices to all other customers. Asa result, you define two dunning procedures: a single-level procedure and a 3-levelprocedure. Enter the single level dunning procedure into the master records ofcustomers who should receive only one payment reminder. Allocate the 3-leveldunning procedure to all other customers.

The system is delivered with standard procedures for you to use, and these can be changed orsupplemented with your own procedures.

Dunning Frequency and Dunning Interval [Page 15]

Grace Days for Line Items and Minimum Numbers of Days in Arrears for Accounts [Page16]

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Dunning Frequency and Dunning Interval

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Dunning Frequency and Dunning IntervalFor every dunning procedure, you determine the dunning interval and therefore the dunningfrequency. This is the minimum number of days which must elapse after a dunning run before anaccount can be dunned again.

In order to determine whether an account is included in a certain dunning run, the dunningprogram stores the date of the last dunning run in the master record. On the basis of this dateand the dunning interval, the dunning program determines whether the account should beincluded in a dunning run.

If the necessary dunning interval has not elapsed, the account is not dunned. The account is notdunned even if it contains overdue items.

You have last dunned on 3/1. The dunning interval is 14 days. When a dunning runis performed on 3/15, the necessary dunning interval of 14 days would be reached;the accounts could be dunned again. If a dunning run were performed on 3/14, thenecessary dunning interval would not yet have passed.

Customer. .. . . . . .Company code . . .

Tomkins Enterprises Inc., San FranciscoSAP AG Walldorf

Dunning data

123000001

Dunning procedure .. . Dunning block . . . . .0001Dunning recipient . . Legal dunning.. . . . .Last dunning. . . Dunning level . . . . . . . 103/01/1992Dunning by user . . 01

Minimum days in arrears (account). . . .

Interest indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ref.dunning procedure. . . . . . . . . . . .

Dunning of special G/L transactions . .

Dunning interval in days . . . . . . . . . . . 14Number of dunning levels .. . . . . . . . . 4

Dunning of standard transactions.. . . X

Grace period line items. . . . . . . . . . . 3

Dunning procedure . . 0001Description . . . four-level procedure Dunning run

Account can be dunned

03/15/1992

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Grace Days for Line Items and Minimum Numbers of Days in Arrears for Accounts

16 December 1999

Grace Days for Line Items and Minimum Numbers ofDays in Arrears for AccountsThe dunning program determines which items are to be dunned according to the paymentperiods defined in the line item and the date of issue of the dunning notice (which you specifyduring the dunning run). The baseline date for payment and the latest possible payment date(according to the terms of payment) are added together and subtracted from the issue date. If theresult is a certain number of days in arrears, the item is to be dunned.

You specify the issue date 03/13/1997 for a dunning run. For an item that is due netby 03/12/1997, the dunning program would calculate the item as being one day inarrears. Consequently, the item would be overdue.

You can increase the payment period by granting grace days, in order to take account of (fordunning items) bank processing days or processing time for incoming payments in yourcompany. You can determine grace days for items (Grace period line items) or minimumnumbers of days in arrears for accounts (Minimum days in arrears (account)) (see the figurebelow).

Description. . . . . . . . . four-level procedure

Interest indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ref. dunning procedure . .. . . . . . . . . .

Dunning of special G/L transactions . .

Dunning interval in days . . . . . . . . . . . 14Number of dunning levels . . . . . . . . . . 4

Dunning of standard transactions.. . . X

Dunning procedure . . 0001

Minimum days in arrears (account) . . .Grace period line items . . . . . . . . . . 3

To determine whether an account is to be dunned, the system adds the grace days for lineitems to the due date, thus giving the due date for the dunning program.

You specify an issue date of 03/3/1997 for a dunning run, and have defined threegrace days for line items. For an item due net by 03/12/199, the dunning programwould not determine any days in arrears: the item would not be recorded as overdue.

As an alternative to entering grace days per line item, you can enter minimum numbers ofdays in arrears (see the figure above) for accounts. The dunning program only duns the openitems of an account if the maximum number of days an item is overdue is greater than or equal tothe number of days in arrears defined for the account.

(I)Days in Arrears

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Grace Days for Line Items and Minimum Numbers of Days in Arrears for Accounts

December 1999 17

You defined three grace days for accounts. The dunning program calculates thehighest number of days in arrears as three: a dunning notice would therefore becreated for the account.

(II)Days in ArrearsYou defined three grace days for the line items and six days as the minimumnumbers of days in arrears for the accounts. The dunning program calculates thatthe open items which are longest overdue are only five days in arrears, and theaccount is therefore not dunned.

(III)Days in ArrearsYou defined three grace days for the line items and six days as the minimumnumbers of days in arrears for the accounts. The dunning program identifies thoseitems which are not in arrears (due to the grace days). These items are not dunned.Those open items longest overdue have six days in arrears. The account is dunnedbecause the minimum number of days in arrears for accounts has been reached.However, the dunning program only duns those items which are overdue despite thegrace days.

Determining the Payment Deadline According to Working DaysIf you would like to ensure that the payment deadline in the dunning letter does not fall on aweekend or public holiday, you can make an appropriate setting in the dunning procedure bysimply entering a holiday calendar key in the dunning procedure field Holiday Calendar ID.

The payment deadline is still calculated from the dunning notice issue date and the paymentperiod you specified in the print parameters, but if this date happens to be a weekend or holiday,then the next working day is the date printed in the dunning notice.

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Dunning Levels

18 December 1999

Dunning LevelsDunning levels determine which dunning text is selected for the dunning notice. The wording ofthe dunning letter will vary according to the dunning level. For the first dunning level you candefine a text that gently reminds a customer of their outstanding debts. At the second dunninglevel, you define a text with a more insistent tone.

For each dunning procedure, you must define at least one dunning level up to a maximum ofnine. For each level, specify the number of days in arrears an item must be to be allocated thisdunning level (see the figure below).

Dunning procedures which have only one dunning level are referred to in the system as apayment reminder. You will allocate a single-level dunning procedure to very importantcustomers and public corporations, thereby ensuring that they are sent only one paymentreminder.

When setting up a dunning procedure, the system defaults the number of days in arrears on thedunning levels screen. For the first dunning level, the system suggests the grace days for the lineitems; for all further dunning levels, the system adds dunning intervals in days to the days inarrears of the previous dunning level (see the figure below). You can overwrite these defaultvalues.

Always dun?. . . . . . . . . X

Payment period . . . . . .

Calculate interest. . . . X X

Dunning procedure . . 0001Description . . . . four-level procedure

Print parameters:

10Print all items . . . . . . . . X X

Dunning level 1 2 3 4

Interest indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ref. dunning procedure . . . . . . . . . . .

Dunning of Special G/L transactions . .

Dunning interval in days . . . . . . . . . . 14Number of dunning levels. . . . . . . . . . 4

Dunning of standard transactions. . . X

Dunning procedure . . 0001Description . . . four-level procedure

Grace period line items. . . . . . . . . . . 3Minimum days in arrears (account) . . . Days in arrears . . . . . . 3 17 31 45

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Notes on Grace Days and Days in Arrears

December 1999 19

Notes on Grace Days and Days in ArrearsThe number of grace days (line item) and days in arrears (first dunning level) you enter willnormally be identical. This ensures that all items that can be allocated to a certain dunning levelare also printed on the dunning notice. The system therefore defaults the number of grace dayswhen you define the dunning levels.

If the number of grace days does not equal the number of days in arrears, you should note thefollowing:

• Grace period longer than days in arrearsIn this case there may be items which have reached a certain dunning level but which,due to the number of grace days, are not overdue. These items are printed in thedunning notice only if you choose to print all open items. The dunning level is zero.

• Grace period shorter than days in arrearsIn this case there may be items which are overdue but which do not reach a certaindunning level due to the days in arrears. Although these items are printed out, theyreceive the dunning level zero. These items alone cannot trigger a dunning notice.

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Determining Dunning Levels

20 December 1999

Determining Dunning LevelsOpen items reach a certain dunning level if the number of days in arrears is equal to or greaterthan the days in arrears specified for that particular dunning level, but less than the days inarrears specified for the next level up. When the dunning notices are printed, the dunning level ofan item is stored in the item.

You defined dunning levels for your dunning procedure as shown in the figure below.An open item which was 14 days in arrears would then be allocated to the firstdunning level; an item which was 31 days in arrears to the third level, and an itemwhich was 50 days in arrears to the fourth level.

Dunning procedure specification Dunning level determined

Dunning level

Days in arrears

OI days in arrears

Dunning level3 17 31 45

14 31 50

1 3 4

1 2 3 4

The highest determined dunning level is stored in the master record of the account when theletters are printed. This dunning level determines the dunning text and (if one is required) aspecial dunning form. You can, however, also determine that dunning should be carried out perdunning level. In this case, the highest dunning level of the account does not determine thedunning text or the dunning form; instead, a separate dunning notice is created for every dunninglevel.

Dunning levels are raised or reduced either by the dunning program or manually :

• If you change the dunning level using the document or line item change or accountchange functions, you can raise or lower the level as you wish.

• If you change the dunning level in the dunning proposal, you can reduce it by as many levelsas you wish, but can only raise it by one level at a time. In addition, whether or not you canincrease the dunning level will depend on the last dunning level: if the dunning programalready raised the dunning level during the dunning run, you will not be able to enter a higherdunning level. You will normally increase the dunning level manually if you were to unblock ablocked item in the dunning proposal.

• The dunning program can only raise the dunning level for line items by one level at a time(from the previous dunning level). This applies even to blocked line items once the block hasbeen removed.

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Determining Dunning Levels

December 1999 21

For those customers for whom you have defined bank collection, line items are takeninto account according to the following rules:

For items which have a payment method specified for incoming payments in theitems, a check is made to determine whether the item is blocked for payment. If it is,the item is dunned.

If no payment method is specified, a check is made to determine whether a paymentmethod for receipt of payment was specified in the master record. If one exists, afurther check is made as to whether the master record is blocked for payments. If ithas been blocked, the item is dunned.

If a payment method is not defined in the master record, the item is dunned.

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Effect of Minimum Amounts and Percentage Rates on Dunning Levels

22 December 1999

Effect of Minimum Amounts and Percentage Rates onDunning LevelsTo prevent relatively small overdue amounts from triggering high dunning levels, you can specifyminimum amounts and minimum percentage rates (see the figure below) for every dunning level.The next dunning level up is then triggered only if the amount to be dunned is equal to orexceeds the minimum amount and the minimum percentage rate (with reference to all openitems). If this is not the case, the items are allocated to the next dunning level down and thecheck is carried out again.

During a dunning run, a "dunnable" amount of 100 USD was defined for dunninglevel one; the total of all open items is 1000 USD. The minimum amount for the firstdunning level is 10 USD and the minimum percentage rate 10 percent. In this case,the minimum amounts have been reached and dunning level one is triggered.

In the next dunning run, the open items are allocated to dunning level two, due to theincreased number of days in arrears. The "dunnable" amount for level two is 100USD. However, the total of all open items has changed and is now 1100 USD. Thusthe minimum percentage rate is not reached. The amount to be dunned is allocatedto the next dunning level down (level one) (see the figure below).

Minimum amounts

Dunning level Min. amount Min. percent. Min. amount for interest Curr. DEM

4 . . . .3 . . . .2 50 101 10 10

Dunning procedure . . . 0001Description . . . . four-level dunning

Dunning level 2 dunning amount 100 USD1000sum of open items USD

Dunning level 1 100 USDdunning amount1100 USDsum of open items

For checking purposes, the system determines the amount to be dunned in local currency or inthe foreign currency for those accounts that were posted to in a foreign currency only. Youtherefore enter your minimum amounts in local and/or foreign currency. If the dunning programfinds no entry in the selected foreign currency, it determines the minimum amounts in localcurrency.

SAP AG Dunning

Effect of Minimum Amounts and Percentage Rates on Dunning Levels

December 1999 23

Dunning SAP AG

Special Features When Dunning per Dunning Level

24 December 1999

Special Features When Dunning per Dunning LevelDunning notices are printed separately for every account per company code. You can alsodetermine that dunning should be carried out per dunning level. You make this specification foreach company code (see the figure in Company Code-Specific Specifications: Figure [Page 25](2)).You should note the following special features when dunning per dunning level:

• If you change the dunning level in the dunning proposal, the item is allocated to thedunning notice created for this dunning level. If no dunning proposal exists for this dunninglevel, no dunning notice is created, regardless of this allocation.

• The dunning program checks whether the amount to be dunned is equal to or exceeds theminimum amount and the minimum percentage rate (see the topic Effect of MinimumAmounts and Percentage Rates on Dunning Levels [Page 22] above). If this is not the case,no dunning notice is created for this dunning level. The dunning amount is not allocated tothe next dunning level down.

• You can determine that all other open items are also printed in the dunning notice in additionto the dunned items. With dunning notices per dunning level, it makes sense to only assignthe dunned items to a dunning level. The dunning program therefore does not perform theoption "print all items".

SAP AG Dunning

Company Code-Specific Specifications: Figure

December 1999 25

Company Code-Specific Specifications: Figure

...

.

. .

0001

0002

0003

X

X

X

X

Company code Dunning perdunning area letter per dunn. lev.

Different dunning Ref. companycode for texts

1 2 3 0001

0001

0003

Dunning SAP AG

Dunning Levels: Additional Specifications

26 December 1999

Dunning Levels: Additional SpecificationsFor higher dunning levels you make specifications which make the tone of the dunning noticemore urgent (see the figure Dunning Levels and Days in Arrears [Page 27]).

For each dunning level you can specify that

• Interest is to be charged. Further information on interest can be found in Charges andInterest [Page 28].

• Dunning should always be carried out. The dunning program duns if there is a changein the dunning proposal compared to the last dunning run. This can happen due to a newopen item or a changed dunning level. If you specify that you always want to dun, thedunning program also duns for an unchanged dunning proposal; however, it takes thedunning interval into account. This option is particularly suitable for one-level dunningprocedures (payment reminders).

• All items are to be printed.

The Print all items indicator has no effect if selections have been made to generateseparate dunning notices for each dunning level in a company code. If this is thecase, open items that are not yet due cannot be properly assigned to a dunningnotice.

• A payment period should be printed in the dunning notice. You can enter a number ofdays which are added to the issue date of the dunning run and printed in the dunningnotice.

SAP AG Dunning

Dunning Levels and Days In Arrears

December 1999 27

Dunning Levels and Days In Arrears

Always dun?. . . . . . . . . X

Payment period . . . . . .

Calculate interest. . . . X X

Dunning procedure . . 0001Description . . . . four-level procedure

Print parameters:

10Print all items . . . . . . . . X X

Dunning level 1 2 3 4

Interest indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ref. dunning procedure . . . . . . . . . . .

Dunning of Special G/L transactions . .

Dunning interval in days . . . . . . . . . . 14Number of dunning levels. . . . . . . . . . 4

Dunning of standard transactions. . . X

Dunning procedure . . 0001Description . . . four-level procedure

Grace period line items. . . . . . . . . . . 3Minimum days in arrears (account) . . . Days in arrears . . . . . . 3 17 31 45

Dunning SAP AG

Charges and Interest

28 December 1999

Charges and InterestYou can levy charges and interest for dunning notices and print them out on the dunning notices.The amounts are not posted.

You determine the amount of dunning charges separately per dunning procedure, currency anddunning level. Dunning charges can be entered either as a set amount or as a percentage rate.You can also stagger the dunning charges by dunning amount (see the figure below).

Dunning Charges

Dunning Charges

Dunning Procedure 0001

Description 4-Level Dunning Procedure

Dunning Level From Dunning Amount Dunning charge Dunning Charge %

1 100 2 DM

1 1000 0,3

1 5000 0,3

2 100 3 DM

2 1000 0,4

2 5000 0,4

3 100 4 DM

3 1000 0,5

3 5000 0,5

4 100 5 DM

4 1000 0,6

4 5000 0,6

The dunning charges are determined by the dunning program in the appropriate currency: if youposted to an account in different currencies, the program determines the amount to be dunnedand the charges in local currency. If all the open items in an account were posted in the samecurrency, the program uses this currency. This can be a local or a foreign currency.

The charges must be defined in the currencies which the dunning program determines.Otherwise, no charges are printed in the dunning notice. If you only process businesstransactions with customers in a foreign currency, you should also enter the charges in thisforeign currency. Otherwise, the customer is not billed for any charges during dunning.

SAP AG Dunning

Charges and Interest

December 1999 29

You determine whether interest is to be calculated for the individual levels of a dunningprocedure (see Dunning Levels and Days In Arrears [Page 27]). Interest is generally calculatedfor higher dunning levels in order to render the dunning notice more insistent.

For interest calculation, you can specify an interest indicator in the master record of thecustomer/vendor and per dunning procedure (see Dunning Levels and Days In Arrears [Page27]). The specification in the master record has higher priority.

The interest rates valid on the dunning date are used for interest calculation. The interest isalways determined and printed out in the currency of the item. Since, generally speaking, interestis not calculated for small dunning amounts, you can make the interest calculation dependent onminimum amounts. Enter it separately per dunning level in local currency and/or foreign currency(see Minimum Amounts and Dunning Level Determination [Page 30] ). If no entry exists in foreigncurrency, the dunning program uses the entry in local currency.

If you defined rounding rules for the currency, the interest will be rounded according to thosesame rules. You can find further information on the rounding rules in Configuring the SystemUsing the Implementation Guide [Ext.]

Define your interest rates for every interest indicator. You can provide the interest rates with avalidity date and enter interest rates separately for every currency and depending on thecredit/debit balance.

Dunning SAP AG

Minimum Amounts and Dunning Level Determination

30 December 1999

Minimum Amounts and Dunning Level Determination

Minimum amounts

Dunning level Min. amount Min. percent. Min. amount for interest Curr. DEM

4 . . . .3 . . . .2 50 101 10 10

Dunning procedure . . . 0001Description . . . . four-level dunning

Dunning level 2 dunning amount 100 USD1000sum of open items USD

Dunning level 1 100 USDdunning amount1100 USDsum of open items

SAP AG Dunning

Selection of Transactions for Dunning

December 1999 31

Selection of Transactions for DunningFor every dunning procedure, specify which transactions are to be included in the dunning run. Adistinction is made between standard transactions and special G/L transactions (see the figureEntering Grace Days and Minimum Days in Arrears [Page 32]).

Special G/L transactions are transactions which should be displayed in a particular way in thesystem either for reporting purposes (balance sheet) or for other reasons internal to thecompany. Down payments, bills of exchange and guarantees are all types of special G/Ltransaction. When you maintain the dunning procedure, the system displays a list of special G/Ltransactions from which you select the transactions to be included for dunning.

Dunning SAP AG

Entering Grace Days and Minimum Days in Arrears

32 December 1999

Entering Grace Days and Minimum Days in Arrears

Description. . . . . . . . . four-level procedure

Interest indicator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Ref. dunning procedure . .. . . . . . . . . .

Dunning of special G/L transactions . .

Dunning interval in days . . . . . . . . . . . 14Number of dunning levels . . . . . . . . . . 4

Dunning of standard transactions.. . . X

Dunning procedure . . 0001

Minimum days in arrears (account) . . .Grace period line items . . . . . . . . . . 3

SAP AG Dunning

Dunning Areas

December 1999 33

Dunning AreasThe following topics describe how dunning areas are used. Dunning areas are only necessary ifyou do not process dunning at company code level. Since dunning is generally processed at thislevel it is not usually necessary to set up dunning areas.

Dunning SAP AG

Usage of Dunning Areas

34 December 1999

Usage of Dunning AreasDunning areas are used if several organizational units are responsible for carrying out dunningwithin a company code. These organizational units are represented by dunning areas in the SAPsystem. Dunning areas can correspond to a division, a distribution channel, a sales organizationor a business area. The dunning procedure is controlled and the dunning notices are sentseparately per dunning area.

Two separate dunning areas have been set up, for the fertilizers and the plasticsdivisions respectively. If a customer purchases his goods from the fertilizer divisionand also buys plastics, he could be dunned by two dunning areas (see the figurebelow).

Dunning area

Customer600

Dunning letter

Fertilizers

Dunning letter

Plastics

SAP AG Dunning

Allocating Dunning Areas and Dunning Procedures

December 1999 35

Allocating Dunning Areas and Dunning ProceduresDunning areas and dunning procedures are allocated in the master record of thecustomer/vendor. Enter the dunning areas and the dunning procedures in use (see the figurebelow). If you use dunning areas, you can:.

• Define different dunning procedures for the dunning areas. Read the topic Dunning Areasand Different Dunning Procedures [Page 36].

• Use the same procedure for several dunning areas. Read the topic Dunning Areas and aSingle Dunning Procedure [Page 37].

Dunning SAP AG

Dunning Areas and Different Dunning Procedures

36 December 1999

Dunning Areas and Different Dunning ProceduresEvery dunning area can have its own dunning procedures. Separate dunning procedures arenecessary if the dunning areas are to dun at different intervals or to assign different grace days.

The dunning areas for the fertilizers and plastics divisions defined their own dunningprocedures. A customer who purchases goods via both divisions is reminded of itspayment due by the dunning area for the fertilizer division after ten days; the plasticsdunning area only sends a dunning notice after 14 days.

The figure below shows an example of information which is stored in the customermaster record. Dunning areas 01 and 02 use different procedures.

Dwight EvansSAP AG Walldorf

Boston

Page 01/01Parameters for dunning Dunning letter sentArea Procedure Block Recipient User Date Dun. level Legal dunning

CustomerCompany code

EVANS0001

__0102

AAAA

BBBB 02/11/92

1AAAA 02/11/92

02/11/9221

SAP AG Dunning

Dunning Areas and a Single Dunning Procedure

December 1999 37

Dunning Areas and a Single Dunning ProcedureIf you want to use dunning areas but use only one dunning procedure, you need enter only theprocedure in the customer or vendor master record, obviating the need to define a dunningprocedure for each dunning area. The system determines the correct dunning procedureautomatically from the dunning area entered in the line items. In effect you use only one dunningprocedure; the information concerning the dunning area (see the previous figure) is storedautomatically in the master record per dunning area, and you can dun separately per dunningarea.

Dunning SAP AG

Dunning Areas in the Line Item

38 December 1999

Dunning Areas in the Line ItemTo enable line items to be allocated to a dunning area, a dunning area must be entered in thecustomer or vendor line item. This dunning area can be entered in the appropriate field duringdocument entry or can be transferred from other business transactions.

No entry can be made in the field Dunning area unless it exists in the entry screen for thecustomer or vendor line item. To ensure that this field is present, you must specify that dunning isto be carried out per dunning area. This specification is made under the company code-specificspecifications for dunning (see the figure Company Code-Specific Specifications: Figure [Page25] (1)).The dunning area is stored in the line item. In addition, the last dunning level and the last dunningdate are noted per dunning area in the customer or vendor master record. (see the figureDunning Information in the Customer Master Record [Page 39]). If you have not specified anydunning areas in the master record, the system automatically enters the dunning areas specifiedduring document entry into the master record, including the related data. If you transfer businesstransactions from the Sales and Distribution or Materials Management application components,the dunning area is taken from these components and entered into the line item. The dunningarea can be taken from the sales organization, the distribution channel or the division (productgroup). Before the derivation of the dunning areas is defined in the other applications, they mustbe defined for the individual company codes in the Financial Accounting application component.

Further information on the derivation of dunning areas from other applications can be found in thedocumentation for these applications.

SAP AG Dunning

Dunning Information in the Customer Master Record

December 1999 39

Dunning Information in the Customer Master Record

Dwight EvansSAP AG Walldorf

Boston

Page 01/01Parameters for dunning Dunning letter sentArea Procedure Block Recipient User Date Dun. level Legal dunning

CustomerCompany code

EVANS0001

__0102

AAAA

BBBB 02/11/92

1AAAA 02/11/92

02/11/9221

Dunning SAP AG

Dunning Blocks and Dunning Keys

40 December 1999

Dunning Blocks and Dunning KeysDunning blocks enable you to prevent an account or an item from being dunned. Dunningblocks require a blocking key to be entered in the field Dunning block in the master record or inthe item. There are texts stored for the blocking keys which explain the reason for the block (seethe figure below,(1)). Blocked accounts or items are not included in the dunning run and areprinted in an exception list with the reason for the block.

Dunning keys enable you to limit the dunning level for an item. They also allow you to controlwhether the items with dunning keys are to be displayed separately in the dunning notice (seethe figure below,(2)). You can also print the text for the dunning key in the dunning notice.Dunning keys are company code-independent.

Blocking keyBlock Text

Dunning key

Dunn. key Max. level Sep. print Text

A Manual block reason A . . . .B Manual block reason B . . . .

22

11

123

1234

5

X

X

initiates up to dunning level 1initiates up to dunning level 2initiates up to dunning level 3Payment made, separate linedisplayResid. items from pymt. difference

When a certain incoming payment was made, you posted a residual item carryforward, since you noticed differences in payment. You want to display this residualitem in a separate section in the dunning notice, and to do this, you define anappropriate dunning key for it.

SAP AG Dunning

Dunning Forms: Overview

December 1999 41

Dunning Forms: OverviewTo learn how to create and change forms, refer to the documentation on SAPscript wordprocessing. The following describes only the special features to be observed regarding dunningforms.

To ensure that the forms are printed correctly by the print program, the position of each group ofdata in the form is predefined in the system. The layout of the form is defined using SAPscript.

You can use just one form or several different forms for the dunning notices in your organization.You specify the form when configuring the dunning program, depending on the dunningprocedures, the company code and the account type involved. You can further differentiateselection by dunning level (see the figure below,(1)) and dunning area (see the figure below,(2))and separately for the legal dunning procedure (see figure below, (3)).

Dunn. procedure 0001four-level procedureDescription

Account typeCompany code

D Customer0001 SAP AG

Normal dunning procedure

Legal dunning procedure

Dunn. level Area Form List name

F150_DUNN_03

1234

F150_DUNN_01F150_DUNN_01F150_DUNN_02F150_DUNN_01

LIST1SLIST2SLIST3SLIST4S

LISTXS

22

23

11

Form with interest

You need different dunning forms if you

• Use dunning procedures with different dunning levels. If for example you have defineda single-level dunning procedure and a multi-level dunning procedure, you would requirea form for each dunning procedure.

• Require different line structures. You would require different line structures if you wantto print the line item in the dunning notices without interest for lower dunning levels andwith interest for higher dunning levels.

• Require different totals structures. This might be required if, for example, you needone form on which both the item totals and the account balance are printed, and oneform on which only the item totals are printed.

You do not need different dunning forms if, for example, you defined the dunning procedure soas to dun with different dunning frequencies. You can also use the same form if you want to dunin different languages. You only need to translate the texts of the form to do this. The forms arestored by language key. In each case, the print program selects the form in the language entered

Dunning SAP AG

Dunning Forms: Overview

42 December 1999

in the master record of the customer/vendor. If there is no form in this language, the defaultlanguage of the form is used, and the dunning program issues an error message in the dunningrun log.

If you use the same form for several company codes and dunning procedures, you need specifythe form once only. For the company codes and dunning procedures which use the same form,refer to the reference company code (see Company Code-Specific Specifications: Figure [Page25],(3)) or the reference dunning procedure (see Entering Grace Days and Minimum Days inArrears [Page 32]). The form can only be maintained for this company code or this procedure.

The reference dunning procedure for the forms should be used only with procedureswhich have same number of dunning levels.

You can enter one list name per dunning level. The individual dunning notices are then storedunder these names in the SAP spool. This makes it possible to store dunning notices fromdifferent company codes or with different levels separately in the spool.

Parts of the Form [Page 43]

Letter Header, Sender, and Footer [Page 45]

Text Elements in the MAIN Window - Dunning Letters [Page 48]

Data from the Dunning Run for the Form Print [Page 51]

Sample Dunning Form [Page 52]

Sorting Dunning Notices, Dunning Lists and Open Items [Page 54]

Modifying the Forms [Page 55]

SAP AG Dunning

Parts of the Form

December 1999 43

Parts of the FormA dunning form can consist of one or more pages. You can define two pages per form: a first anda subsequent page. In the SAP system every form page is divided into different windows - seeWindows In The Dunning Form [Page 47] .

The figure below shows the text windows for page 1 which were defined for a dunning notice inthe standard system:

Text window for dunning notices

Window Contents

HEADER company-specific specifications, for example which company name and logo

ADDRESS Receiver address and sender

INFO1

FOOTER

Address of original dunning recipient

Footer, for example company accounts and names of the members of theboard of directors

REPEAT

INFO

Test printout

Account information such as account number of the customer with you, youraccount number with the customer, the accounting clerk, date, telephone andfax numbers

MAIN Main window: this contains the dunning text (letter), the line item informationfrom the dunning run and total sums

You determine the windows and their position on the page when defining a form. Enter a text forevery window.

For the HEADER, ADDRESS and FOOTER windows, you can enter different texts depending onthe company code and dunning area. To do this, read the topic Letter Header, Sender, andFooter [Page 45].

The MAIN window is processed in a special way. You can use text elements for this window(see the figure in Sample Dunning Form [Page 52]).

The text elements enable you to enter different texts for a window; which text is then printeddepends on the dunning proposal in question. To do this, read the topic Text Elements in theMAIN Window - Dunning Letters [Page 48].

For information which can only be determined in the dunning run, you store variables in the textor in the text element. These are replaced by the appropriate values when the dunning notice isprinted. Read the topic Data from the Dunning Run for the Form Print [Page 51].

None of the line item information printed in the dunning notice can be determineduntil the dunning run takes place. This information is provided by the dunningprogram and includes the document number, the document date, the currency andthe amount. Variables are defined in the text element of the form for this information.

Dunning SAP AG

Parts of the Form

44 December 1999

These variables are replaced with the actual information when the dunning noticesare printed.

SAP AG Dunning

Letter Header, Sender, and Footer

December 1999 45

Letter Header, Sender, and FooterYou can print the dunning notices on letterhead or on blank paper. If you use letterhead, you donot need to make any specifications concerning the letter header, the sender and footer in yourform.

If you use blank paper, define the texts for the letter header, the sender specifications and thefooter in your form. To enable you to do this, separate windows (see Windows In The DunningForm [Page 47]) have been defined for the forms defined in the SAP system.

You can enter text in these windows in three ways:

Text element

Include ADRS_HEADER

IDESHolding Inc.

2

Standard textfor all forms

1

Directdataentry

3Standard,company code-specific text for allforms

Standard text

IDESHolding Inc.

ADRS_HEADER

ADRS_HEADER

a

Include & REGUD-TXTKO&OBJEKT ...

c

Letter headerCompany code 0001

ADRS_HEADER

b

IDESHolding Inc.

Since the texts for the above-mentioned windows are company code-specific, you must specifywhether you are working with one or several company codes:

1. You can enter a fixed text in the form window text element. You should do this only if youuse the form for a single company code.

2. You can define a standard text for several forms.

Enter the name of the standard text in the text elements of your choice in several forms.

However, this is only worth doing if you work with one company code but want to useone text for several forms. In the figure above, the standard text "ADRS HEADER" wasused, for example.

3. You can define standard texts for several forms, and specify (depending on the dunningarea and company code involved) which text should be used in the form.

This makes sense if you work with several company codes which use the same form.Three steps are necessary to do this:

a) Create the company code-specific standard texts.

Dunning SAP AG

Letter Header, Sender, and Footer

46 December 1999

b) Specify, when configuring the dunning program, which standard text is to be used forwhich company code.

c) In the text element, enter a standard variable for the standard text (see the tablebelow). Depending on the company-code in question, the print program replaces thevariable with the name of the standard text.

The variables for the company code-specific standard texts that you specify in the text elementare predefined in the system:

Variables for Standard Texts

Standard text for Variable in the text element

Letter header T047I-TXTKO

Sender in the letter window T047I-TXTAB

Signature line T047I-TXTUN

Letter footer T047I-TXTFU

SAP AG Dunning

Windows In The Dunning Form

December 1999 47

Windows In The Dunning Form

MAIN

FOOTER

HEADER

ADDRESS REPEAT

INFO 1 INFO

Dunning SAP AG

Text Elements in the MAIN Window - Dunning Letters

48 December 1999

Text Elements in the MAIN Window - Dunning LettersThe MAIN window contains a series of text elements. Each text element is indicated by /E in theprint format column and a number in the text column (see the figure below). These numbers arepredefined in the system. If there is data in the dunning proposal for one of these text elements,the print program prints that text element.

You define dunning texts for the MAIN window for each of the individual dunninglevels (see the figure Text Elements for the HEADER Window [Page 50]). The printprogram selects the dunning text according to the dunning level of the account.

In the MAIN window, you can define the following text elements:

Text elements for the MAIN window

Text element Meaning

500 Information on original

Dunning recipient

511 Dunning text level 1

512 Dunning text level 2

51n Dunning text level n (n <= 9)

520 Dunning text for legal dunning proceedings

530 Line item heading

531 Line item line layout

540 Blank line

550 Beginning of separate display dunning key x

551 End of separate display dunning key x.

570 Dunning charge

581 Dunning totals line 1

582 Dunning totals line n (n > 1)

591 Account balance line 1

592 Account balance line n (n > 1)

If you define your own form, you should note that text elements 530, 531 and at least one text fora dunning level must be contained in the MAIN window. If these are not present, this will lead toerrors when the dunning notices are printed.

SAP AG Dunning

Text Elements in the MAIN Window - Dunning Letters

December 1999 49

Dunning SAP AG

Text Elements for the HEADER Window

50 December 1999

Text Elements for the HEADER Window

Text element

Include ADRS_HEADER

IDESHolding Inc.

2

Standard textfor all forms

1

Directdataentry

3Standard,company code-specific text for allforms

Standard text

IDESHolding Inc.

ADRS_HEADER

ADRS_HEADER

a

Include & REGUD-TXTKO&OBJEKT ...

c

Letter headerCompany code 0001

ADRS_HEADER

b

IDESHolding Inc.

SAP AG Dunning

Data from the Dunning Run for the Form Print

December 1999 51

Data from the Dunning Run for the Form PrintThe data from the dunning run which you need for the form printout is provided by the dunningprogram. The dunning program stores this data in the following files after each dunning run.

• MHNKcontains information from the master records, for example, dunning level of the account andaccount number of the dunning recipient.

• MHNDcontains the information on the items to be dunned, for example the amount, the dunninglevel of the item and the document number. The dunning program creates a MHND recordfor every item that is dunned.

• F150Dcontains different totals which were set up for the dunning run: total of items due, total of allopen items in the account, interest and account balance. The totals are displayed in bothlocal and foreign currency.

• T003Tcontains the document type texts.

• TBSLTcontains the posting key descriptions.

All fields from these files can be used as variables in the form. In addition, you can transfer fieldcontents into the forms from master record tables (e.g. KNA1 and KNB1) and document tables(e.g. BKPF and BSEG).

In order to insert variables into a letter, you must name the field and enter the field namebetween two "&" characters. A complete field name consists of the name of the data table andthe name of the field.

If you want to insert the account balance in a foreign currency for example, you must use thename &F150D-SALFW&. The field is called SALFW and is in the table F150D. The print date ofthe letter is &MHNK-AUSDT&.

Dunning SAP AG

Sample Dunning Form

52 December 1999

Sample Dunning FormThe figure below shows an example of a dunning notice.

Dunning notice foraccount no. TESTTest companyGeneral ServicesMain StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19112

Document

Dunning charge

Total of due itemsAccount balance

USD

USDUSD

5.00

1700000010170000001119000000161900000017

09/15/199509/15/199509/14/199509/14/1995

USD08/15/199509/04/199509/04/1995

USDUSDUSDUSD

31311111

1111

60,000.0060,000.0050,000.00-10,000.00-

60,005.00160,000.00

Date Curr. Amount Due date Dys/ar D

Test print1st dunning notice

MAIN

INFO 1

INFO

REPEAT

ADRESS

HEADER

FOOTER

Ides Holding Inc., P.O.box 9999, Wilmington, DE 19807

Jackson Shipping,P.O. box 7893,Philadelphia, PA 19113.

Date09/15/95Our clerkMr.TrentTelephone(302) 555 4657Fax(302) 555 2365Your account with usUB2

This notice includes postingsup to and including:09/15/95

Dear Sir/Madam,

The following invoices are due for payment. If you havepaid the due amounts by the time you receive thisnotice, please disregard the notice,

regards,IDES Holding Inc.

The texts in the form windows are defined as follows:

• HEADER ADDRESS and FOOTERCompany code-specific standard texts have been created for these windows (see thefigure in the topic Text Elements for the HEADER Window [Page 50],(3)). The names ofthese texts were specified for every window according to the company code in the

SAP AG Dunning

Sample Dunning Form

December 1999 53

configuration of the dunning program. When the dunning notice is printed, the printprogram determines the corresponding text.

• INFOThe INFO window includes the name of the clerk for the customer account, thetelephone number and the fax number. The dunning program determines the data on thebasis of the name identification code in the master record of the customer/vendor andenters the information via structure FSABE into the INFO window.

The "documents up to" date specified for the dunning run (03/15/1995) is entered in thedunning notice. The date is entered by the dunning program into field GRDAT of fileMHNK. The corresponding variable MHNK-GRDAT was entered into the text element ofthe INFO window. The print program replaces the variable with the date.

• INFO1This window contains the address of the original recipient of the dunning notice.

• MAINThe MAIN window contains a letter text with information on the line items and a dunningcharge, the total of the items and the balance of the account.

The dunning text was entered under text element 513 ("3" for the third dunning level) inthe text element of the MAIN window.

The percentage rate for interest on arrears (see the figure above, b) has been entered infield T056Z-ZINSO by the dunning program. The payment period (see the figure above,c) was determined by the dunning program on the basis of the specification for the thirddunning level (see Dunning Levels and Days In Arrears [Page 27]) and entered into fieldF150D-ZIELD. The total of the receivables (see the figure above, d) was taken from fieldMHNK-SALDO.

The line item information was defined under the following text elements the MAINwindow:

Text Elements Used in the Dunning Notice

Text element Meaning

530 Line item heading

531 Layout of line item information with variables for document number, duedate, currency, amount, arrears dunning level and interest

570 Dunning charge with variables for currency and amount

581 Dunning totals with variables for currency and amount

591 Account balance with variables for currency and amount

Dunning SAP AG

Sorting Dunning Notices, Dunning Lists and Open Items

54 December 1999

Sorting Dunning Notices, Dunning Lists and Open ItemsYou can specify the sort sequence for the printing of the dunning notices. Dunning notices can besorted by postal code for example, in order to obtain a discount for presorted letters from the postoffice. You could specify the dunning level as a second sort criterion, enabling you to separatethe letters with the last dunning level ( to be sent to the legal department) from other letters moreeasily. In addition, you can sort the open items listed in a dunning notice.

In the standard system letters are sorted by company code, dunning procedure, customernumber and account number of the head office. The open items are sorted by due date,document date and number and line item number.

The sort criteria for the dunning notices and the open items (see the figure below) apply to alldunning procedures and all company codes. The dunning list is sorted according to the samecriteria.

Dunning Sorting

Dunning items

Dunning letters/listsSeq. Field name

Seq. Field name1 MHND-BLART2 MHND-FAEDT3 MHND-BLDAT4 MHND-BELNR

1 MHNK-BUSAB2 MHNK-KUNNR3 MHNK-MAHNS4 MHNK-SKNRZF

Description

CustomerDunning level

Acct. clerk dunning Type

CCN

Length101010

Description

Due date for net pymtDocument date

Document type Type

CDD

Length

Document number

Offset

Offset

C10

288

You can specify a maximum of five sort fields from the tables MHNK and MHND. By specifyingan offset, you can determine the position from which one should sort for every field. Sorting isnormally carried out in ascending order, but you can also sort in descending order.

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Modifying the Forms

December 1999 55

Modifying the FormsYou can copy and change the forms in the standard system, or define your own. If you define anew form, you must allocate it to the appropriate dunning procedure and company code.

You can alter the dunning forms in the standard system by overtyping the texts for the individualwindows, defining a new position for the windows or changing the highlighting of the individualwords and letters. If you need other information from the dunning run, you can add thecorresponding variables from the files KNA1, KNB1, MKNK, MHND, F150D, BKPF and BSEGinto your text elements.

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Special Features

56 December 1999

Special FeaturesIf you do not follow the standard dunning procedure, there are certain special features you shouldnote. These are described in the following topics.

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Dunning Credit Memos

December 1999 57

Dunning Credit MemosThe procedure for dunning credit memos differs from the standard procedure as far as thedetermination of due date and dunning level are concerned.

The dunning program assumes that credit memos are always due straight away at baseline date,unless they have been given a certain due date or are invoice-related. This means that the creditmemo dunning is not affected if you enter only one payment term manually in a line item.

If you want the dunning program to take payment terms into account, you must either referencethe credit memo to an invoice or enter a credit memo with a due date. For the latter you mustenter a V in the field for the invoice reference. The credit memo is due once the baseline dateand the maximum number of days specified have been exceeded.

The following applies with regard to determination of the dunning level:

• For invoice-related credit memos, the dunning level is taken from the invoice, provided this isin the dunning proposal.

• All other credit memos due are assigned to the highest dunning level so far determined forthe account they belong to. This means that these credit memos are cleared with the oldestinvoices. Sometimes the credit memos may cause the dunning level to be reduced. Thedunning level is updated in the item but has no effect on dunning level determination.

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Grouping Open Items Under Grouping Keys

58 December 1999

Grouping Open Items Under Grouping KeysGrouping keys allow you to group together those customer or vendor open items that are to bedunned. To do this, you must specify a maximum of two fields from table BSIK (vendors) or BSID(customers) when you define a group key. Those open items for which the contents of thesefields match are grouped together. One possible use of grouping keys is in the Financial AssetsManagement application component, where you may have to generate a dunning notice forseveral open items for a rented property, all of which have the same contract number.

The required grouping key is entered in the company code-specific area of the master record ofthe customer or vendor for which you want to group the items.

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Cross-Company Code Dunning

December 1999 59

Cross-Company Code DunningUseYou can use cross-company code dunning to combine overdue items from several differentcompany codes in one dunning run. The overdue items for business partners who exist in severalcompany codes are dunned with a single dunning notice. This eliminates the need to send acustomer a separate dunning notice for each company code.

PrerequisitesIf you wish to dun several company codes at once, you must assign the relevant company codesto a common dunning (or leading) company code. The dunning procedure assigned to thebusiness partner in the dunning company code is used. The dunning frequency and dunningblocks are checked individually, not just in the dunning company code.

If a date has been specified for an account in the dunning code which marks it forinclusion in the legal dunning procedure, this also affects the dependent companycodes.

You can assign the relevant company codes to the appropriate leading company code in thedunning program.

You make the settings in the Accounts Payable or Accounts Receivable menu underEnvironment � Maintain configuration � Environment � Company code data. Enter the dunningcompany code indicator for those company codes that are to be included in cross-company codedunning.

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Dunning: Legal Proceedings

60 December 1999

Dunning: Legal ProceedingsAs soon as an account has reached the last dunning level, an internal dunning notice will beissued, the text of which is defined in the form, below the last dunning level. You then send thisdunning notice to the legal department which in turn initiates the legal dunning proceedings. Thelegal department enters the date at which the legal proceedings were initiated into the masterrecord of the account. This field (Legal dunning proceedings) is found in the company code-specific area of the master record.

In Germany, legal dunning notices are only issued for the sum total of all due payments whichhave been dunned at least three times. In other words, the legal notice covers those items whichhave reached dunning level 3. To display this total separately in the legal notice, use the fieldTotal of Due Items by Dunning Level, found in the dunning procedure specifications. The entryyou make in this field determines the dunning level above which all due items from a singleaccount should be totaled. For legal dunning proceedings, enter a 3. All items having a dunninglevel greater than 3 will then be totaled.

An account for which legal proceedings have been initiated is not included in the dunning rununtil a new open item is posted and the end of the dunning interval is reached. The legaldepartment is informed of all postings to the account with an internal message. To ensure thatthis happens, you must specify a form for your dunning procedure in the field Legal dunningproceedings (see the first figure in Dunning Forms: Overview, 3).

You can use a separate form or your standard form. You must store the text for the internalmessage in the standard form under text element 520 (dunning text legal dunning proceedings).

The dunning level in the master record and item is not changed during the dunning runs. Thedunning program only updates the date of the last dunning run.

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Local Dunning

December 1999 61

Local DunningWhere an organization has both a head office and branch offices, correspondence (includingdunning notices) is sent to their head office. However, by marking the field Local processing inthe master record, local dunning can also be carried out.

The dunning procedure used is that defined in the master records of the branch accounts. If youchoose local dunning, note that dunning data is updated in the master record of the branchaccount and not in that of the head office account.

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Dunning One-Time Accounts

62 December 1999

Dunning One-Time AccountsIn the master record of the one-time accounts, enter the dunning procedure and all further datafor dunning. The account is dunned in the same way as other customer accounts. The dunningprogram determines the necessary master data from open items.

Items in a one-time account which have the same address are grouped together in one dunningnotice. The dunning date and the dunning level are not updated in the master record but only inthe item.

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Customer and Vendor Clearing

December 1999 63

Customer and Vendor ClearingIf you dun customers who are also vendors and want to clear the items, the dunning programlists both the overdue customer items and the overdue vendor items in the dunning proposal anddetermines a joint balance.

When you dun a customer who is also a vendor, only the master record information of thecustomer is relevant.

The items can only be cleared if the same dunning procedure has been defined inthe standard dunning area for both customer and vendor.

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Alternative Dunning Recipient

64 December 1999

Alternative Dunning RecipientIf you do not want to send the dunning notices to the customer that owes the receivable inquestion, enter an alternative dunning recipient into the master record. You must already havecreated a master record for this customer. Enter the account number in the field Dunningrecipient in the company code data area of the customer to be dunned.

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The Dunning Program: System Configuration

December 1999 65

The Dunning Program: System ConfigurationThe SAP Financial Accounting application component is delivered with the dunning procedureand all further specifications for dunning. You should check whether you can use these defaults.You may need to make changes.

Some specifications are company code-dependent. If you do not use the company code keysdelivered with the system, you must change these standard entries or make your own entries.You must then allocate the required dunning procedures to your customers/vendors and allocatedunning areas (where used).

For more information on configuring the dunning program, refer to the Financial Accounting stepsin the Implementation Guide. See Configuring the System Using the Implementation Guide [Ext.]

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Executing the Dunning Program

66 December 1999

Executing the Dunning ProgramThis section describes how to run the dunning program and print dunning notices.

The dunning forms and texts to be used must be predefined or modified for your purposes. Toenable the dunning program to determine the items and accounts to be dunned and the dunningtexts, you need to specify the rules by which the program is to determine this data. These rulesare defined in Customizing when you configure the dunning program.

Note that the SAPscript word processing program is used to write the text for the notices. Fordetails about SAPscript, see the Basis documentation.

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Maintaining Parameters for the Dunning Program

December 1999 67

Maintaining Parameters for the Dunning Program1. From the Accounts Receivable or Accounts Payable menu, choose Periodic processing

→ Dunning.

2. Enter the dunning run date. This date specifies the day you will use as a basis forcalculating the amount of days in arrears (as a rule, this is the run date of the dunningprogram). You can also enter an identification to store this set of dunning parameters.

3. Choose Edit → Parameters → Maintain.

You reach the Dunning: Parameters screen. Here you can either copy the parametersfrom a previous dunning run using the Parameters → Copy function or enter a series ofdunning parameters.

Dunning parameters consist of:

− Issue date

− Documents posted until

− Company codes

− Customers and Vendors to be processed

The Date of issue is used to calculate the number of days overdue for each open item.This date can also be printed on the dunning notice. For example, if you run the dunningprogram on a Friday, but want to calculate the days in arrears up until the Monday, enterMonday's date in this field.

The Documents Posted Until is the last date that documents are processed for dunning.Invoices entered after this date are not processed by the dunning program. This daterefers to the posting date in the header of the FI document containing the relevant openitem.

You can process one or more Company Codes by entering the four-character code foreach one. You can also enter a range of company codes such as (US01, US07), US12.

You can enter individual customers or vendors and ranges of customers or vendors forprocessing. Although it is unusual to dun your vendors, you can have the dunningprogram dun them in the same way that you dun customers, if they have a debit balance.

If you dun customers who are also vendors, and which must be cleared in the sametransaction, the dunning program prints both the overdue customer items and the vendoropen items in the dunning proposal and then calculates the net account balance. Fordetails about clearing customers with vendors, see Customer and Vendor Clearing [Page63]

You can make further selections for the dunning run by choosing Edit → Selectioncriteria. You can enter up to eight additional selection criteria for accounts anddocuments. Fields from tables BSID, BSIK, KNA1, KNB1, KNB5, LFA1, LFB1, LFB5 areused as selection criteria. You can assign values to these fields, and you can include orexclude those values during the search.

The system expects the entries to be made either as a list of individual values, e.g. value1, value 2, value 3..., or as a list of intervals, e.g. (from value 1, to value 1), (from value 2,to value 2). However, individual specifications and intervals can be entered at the sametime. They must be separated by a comma, and no blanks should be used. You must

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Maintaining Parameters for the Dunning Program

68 December 1999

alway enter the intervals in round brackets '(' ')', whilst the individual values must beentered in the length defined for the field. Leading zeros must not be omitted.

Selections for dunning run

Field name KNA1-PSTLZ

Values (67000,67999)

Values 69190

Exclude values O

Field name BSID-WRBTR

Values (1000,10000)

Values

Exclude values O

Field name BSID-BELNR

Values (140005645,150000000)

Values

Exclude values X

In addition to the parameters on the parameter screen, the above-mentioned selectionsalso restrict the dunning run in the following way: From the chosen customers, only thosewho live in postal code area 67000 and 67999 and those from the city with postal code69190 are included in the dunning run. Documents are then only included if the amountin document currency is between 1000 and 10000 currency units. Documents withindocument number interval 140005645 and 150000000 should not be included in thedunning run.

4. Choose Parameters → Save in the Dunning: Parameters screen.

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Creating a Dunning Proposal

December 1999 69

Creating a Dunning ProposalAfter you have entered the dunning parameters, you can run the dunning program, and printdunning notices in one step as follows:

1. From the Automatic Dunning: Initial Screen, choose Edit → Dunning run → Schedule.

2. To start the dunning run immediately, click in the Start immediately field.

To schedule the dunning run, enter the date and time to start.

If you want the dunning notices to be printed straight away or to schedule them, youcan no longer edit the dunning proposal. If you want to be able to edit the dunningproposal, you should carry out printing separately. Refer to Printing Dunning Notices[Page 76] for more information on this.

3. To have the dunning notices printed after the dunning run, click in the field Dunn. print withscheduling ?.

4. Choose ENTER.

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Displaying the Dunning Run Status

70 December 1999

Displaying the Dunning Run StatusThe current status of the dunning run is displayed on the Automatic Dunning: Initial Screen.

Once the dunning selection run is finished, you can check in the log to see if any mistakesoccurred by choosing Edit → Dunning run → Display log.

In addition, you can call up an overview of accounts and open items to be dunned by choosingEdit → Dunning run → Lists → Dunning statistics. You will then be able to call up dunningstatistics, a dunning list, and a list of blocked accounts and items.

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Editing the Dunning Proposal

December 1999 71

Editing the Dunning ProposalThe dunning program produces a dunning proposal which is the set of open items it selected fordunning. You can either accept or change the dunning proposal. If you change the dunningproposal, these changes are recorded in an additional log.

Dunning proposals can be both viewed and changed. The editing options allow you to carry outthe following:

• Raise or lower the dunning level of an item

• Block an item from being dunned

• Block an account for the current dunning run or remove the block

• Block an account in the master record for dunning or remove the block

• Block a document for dunning or remove the block

To edit a dunning proposal, proceed as follows:

1. Once the message Dunning run has finished is displayed on the Automatic Dunning: InitialScreen, choose Edit → Dunning run → Change dunn. notices, in order to start editing thedunning proposal.

2. Choose ENTER to display all accounts to be dunned .

Alternatively, select the accounts to be dunned by entering the following criteria:

a. A single customer or a range of customers

b. A single vendor or a range of vendors

c. A company code

d. An accounting clerk

e. A dunning area

f. A dunning level or range of dunning levels

g. A dunning block

Choose ENTER.

The dunning proposal is displayed with the account overview.

3. Select an entry from the list and edit it. You can:

− Block an account for the current dunning run or remove the dunning block

− From the account overview, you can prevent an account from being dunned orremove the dunning block by changing the entry in the Dunn.block field. If you set anaccount dunning block, then it is no longer possible to edit the relevant dunningitems. This dunning block is, however, only valid for the current dunning run. If youwish to make a permanent change to the dunning block for the account, you must dothis in the customer master record.

− Block an account in the master record for dunning or remove the block

− From the account overview, you can branch directly to the master record in order tomake a permanent change to the dunning block for an account. To do this, position

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Editing the Dunning Proposal

72 December 1999

the cursor on the relevant account and then choose the Master record function. Thistakes you directly to the dunning data within the master record where you canchange the dunning block. This dunning block change is, however, not valid for thecurrent dunning run. If you want it to apply to this run as well, then you must alsomake the change in the account overview.

− Change the dunning level of an item

− Using the Dunning items function on the dunning proposal list account overviewscreen, you branch to the items overview screen which displays the individualdocuments from the chosen account. Here you can change the dunning level bymaking an entry in the Lv (dunning level) field.

− Block a document for dunning or remove the block

− You can also branch directly into the document from the item overview screen, bysimply selecting it on the screen. You can now change the dunning block in thedocument, although this change is not valid for the current dunning run. If you want itto apply to this run as well, you must also set the dunning block on the dunningproposal list item overview screen.

4. Save your changes by choosing Dunn.proposal → Save.

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Displaying Lists: Dunning Program

December 1999 73

Displaying Lists: Dunning ProgramAfter you have carried out the dunning selections, you can display lists with evaluations regardingthe dunning run. Access these lists by choosing Edit → Dunning run → Lists from the initialscreen of the dunning program.

• Dunning statistics

The dunning statistics show:

− The number of accounts dunned

− Account display broken down by items

− Item display with dunning level, amount and currency

• Dunning list

The dunning list is a detailed log of the whole dunning run. It contains all the data fromthe dunning run and is sorted in the same way as the dunning proposal list. You maintainthe sort fields in Customizing for Financial Accounting. For further information on systemconfiguration, refer to Configuring the System using the Implementation Guide [Ext.].

You can also enter a variant for the dunning list, enabling you to adapt the informationoutput to suit your requirements. If you do not enter a variant, the whole list is generated.

You can also access and edit the texts for individual line items from a selected dunninglist.

• Blocked accounts

• Blocked line items

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Displaying a Sample Printout

74 December 1999

Displaying a Sample PrintoutTo display a sample printout, proceed as follows:

1. Choose Edit → Dunning printout → Sample printout from the Automatic Dunning: InitialScreen menu bar.

2. A pop-up window appears. Select Yes to have the notices displayed on the screen, or No tocall up another window, where you can specify a printer to send the notices to.

3. Select Back to return to the Automatic Dunning: Initial Screen.

Only the first 10 dunning notices are displayed on the screen when you carry out a sampleprintout.

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Displaying the Log

December 1999 75

Displaying the LogIf you edit the dunning proposal, you can display logs of changes to accounts or items whichhave been changed by choosing Edit → Dunning run → Log of changes from the AutomaticDunning: Initial Screen. You can also generate these logs using programs. Program RFMAHN04displays the list of item changes, RFMAHN05 the list of account changes. Refer to GettingStarted with the R/3 System for more information on how to use programs.

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Printing Dunning Notices

76 December 1999

Printing Dunning NoticesTo schedule each dunning notice separately for printing, proceed as follows:

1. Choose Edit → Dunning printout → Schedule from the Automatic Dunning: Initial Screenmenu bar.

2. Enter the date and time that you want the system to print the dunning notices, or alternativelychoose the option to print out immediately.

3. Enter the four-character code for the printer and choose ENTER.

If the dunning notice printout is interrupted, you can restart it by selecting Dunningnotices � Restart dunning notice printout.

You can have the system optically archive dunning notices as they are printed. For moreinformation, see Archiving Outgoing Documents (FI) [Ext.].

The text of the notice depends on how you set up the dunning program and on the language keyin the customer master record. The system suggests a printer based on the default printer in youruser master record. The system first stores the notices in the spool and then prints from thespool.

For details about setting up the printer, refer to the Basis documentation.

To display a list of all dunning runs and their processing status, choose Dunning notices →Overview.