Financials > Closing processes > Bad debt management 

Use this function to create journal entries based on late charges calculated according to the terms defined in the Bad debt terms function (GESBDT).

Bad debt is an account receivable due to a business when the repayment of credit previously extended to a customer is estimated to be potentially uncollectible. Bad debt is a contingency that must be accounted for by all businesses that extend credit to customers because there is always a risk that payments will not be received.

To generate a list of open items to consider, select criteria such as company, bad debt rule, reference date, number of days, site, etc.

The Bad debt selection screen opens to display open items that are eligible for bad debts, grouped by company. If a bad debt has already been issued for an open item, the Already processed column displays a value.

If needed, you can perform a reversal when the Management rule is Doubtful debts or Impairment. When you select Reversal in the Action type field, this screen lists open items that can be reversed.

Prerequisites

SEEREFERTTO Refer to documentation Implementation

Screen management

Header

Fields

The following fields are present on this tab :

Block number 1

Enter a company.

The company legislation must be same as the Bad debt terms.

  • Number of days (field NBOFDAYS)

Enter the number of days between the accounting due date for an open item and the Reference date.

The date used is based on the BDTDR – Bad debt date filter rules parameter (CPT chapter, CLO group) value for the company.

  • Reference date (field REFDAT)

Enter a date that is within the Number of days to define the range of open items to include.

Block number 2

  • Management rule (field BADBTRULE)

Select a rule:

  • Doubtful debts: eligible for reversal
  • Impairment: eligible for reversal
  • Write-offs

The companies included are based on the BDTMGT – Bad debt management rules parameter (CPT chapter, CLO group) setting.

  • Action type (field BADBTTYP)

Select:

Post: default value

Reverse: only applies to doubtful debts or impairments

If you select Post, you can select the Accounting date when you Create the bad debt.

The automatic journal used for posting is determined by the following parameters in the CPT chapter, CLO group:

GAUBDTDOU – Bad debts – Doubtful debts

GAUBDTDWO - Bad debts - Write-off

GAUBDTIPR – Bad debts - Impairment

Enter the code for a term that was created in Bad debt terms.

The legislation for the term must be the same as the company.

If you select Reversal for the Action type, this field is disabled.

Close

 

Tab Primary criteria

Fields

The following fields are present on this tab :

Block number 1

  • All sites (field ALLFCY)

You can filter for all sites or a range of sites.

 

 

Block number 2

  • All customers (field ALLBPC)

You can filter for all customers or a range of customers.

 

 

Block number 3

  • All entry types (field ALLTYP)

Select this checkbox to filter for all entry types.

If the All entry types check box is not selected, you can select an entry type.

  • From entry (field PCEDEB)

If you selected an entry type, you can filter for a range of entries.

  • To entry (field PCEFIN)

 

Control accounts

You can filter by control group.

  • Control (field SAC)

You can enter a control account if you did not enter a control group.

  • Account (field SACACC)

This field displays the related account code and cannot be modified.

Currencies

You can enter a currency group.

You can enter a currency.

Miscellaneous

  • Criteria (field CRI)

You can enter a formula in this field to define custom search criteria. The Formula wizard is available from the Action icon menu in this field.

Close

 

Bad debt selection

This screen displays open items eligible for bad debt management based on your search criteria.

If you selected Reversal for the Action type, this screen lists doubtful debts and impairments that can be reversed. Write-offs cannot be reversed.

Open items are grouped by customer, site and currency and the data displayed in the grid cannot be modified except for the Percentage column, which is always a percentage of the Item balance.

From the Action icon on each line, you can view the original invoice, the original journal entry or the analytical dimensions. By default, the analytical dimensions for the company display. You can change these for the open item, but you must create the bad debt before closing the Analytical allocations screen to apply you changes.

Open items with a temporary balance are highlighted in pink.

You can select all open items or individual items by selecting Yes or No from the Select column.

When you click Create, a journal entry is created for each selected open item. A new screen opens where you can select the Accounting date. The Generation type is always Debit/Credit and cannot be modified.

Rules

The journal entries should be issued to the original business partner.

The automatic journal used for posting is determined by the following parameters in the CPT chapter, CLO group:

GAUBDTDOU – Bad debts – Doubtful debts

GAUBDTDWO - Bad debts - Write-off

GAUBDTIPR – Bad debts - Impairment

Error messages

The only error messages are the generic ones.

Tables used

SEEREFERTTO Refer to documentation Implementation