SAP Important Accounts for Invoice Verification

When you post an invoice, the system selects the accounts to be posted. Account assignment is based partly on your entries when you create an invoice and partly on information stored in the system.

Your entries provide the following information:
- Is the invoice posted as a net or as a gross amount?
- Which vendor account must be posted?
- Which G/L accounts must be posted?
- Which amounts must be posted?

The material master record provides the following information:
- Which valuation class does the material belong to?
- What type of price control is the material subject to?
- Which account must be posted for the material?
- Is the stock available smaller than the quantity invoiced?

Posted documents provide the following information:
- What is the purchase order price?
- Has there been a goods receipt for the purchase order?
- To post invoices correctly, your system administrator must define the accounts in the chart of accounts and the actions to be taken for the different postings when the SAP system is being installed in your company.

The SAP accounts are defined in a chart of accounts. The following accounts are particularly important for Invoice Verification:

Vendor Accounts
There is a separate account in the sub-ledger for each vendor that all amounts concerning this vendor are posted to . Making a posting to the vendor account is not the same as making a payment; payment is only made when the Financial Accounting department posts the vendor's payment to a bank account.

Stock Accounts
In the R/3 System, you do not set up a separate account for each material. Instead, different materials with similar features are grouped together in a common account (for example, raw materials: acids). The account relevant for a material is defined in the material master record when a material is created. The system only posts to the stock account when a price difference occurs for an invoice.

GR/IR Clearing Accounts
The GR/IR clearing account is an "intermediate" account between the stock account and the vendor account. At goods receipt, the net invoice amount expected is posted to the stock account. The offsetting entry is posted to the GR/IR clearing account. This posting is then cleared by an offsetting entry on the vendor account at invoice receipt.

Tax Accounts
The system makes postings to special tax accounts when invoices include tax.

Price Differences Accounts
Price differences have to be posted to a price difference s account if price differences have occurred in an invoice and when invoices are posted net and no posting can be made to the stock account.

Cash Discount Clearing Account
When you post an invoice net, the cash discount amount is taken into account in the invoice, it reduces the value of the items; the offsetting posting is made to the cash discount clearing account, which is then cleared when payment is made.

Freight Clearing Account
The stock account is debited with the planned delivery costs at goods receipt and the system makes the offsetting posting to a freight clearing account. This posting is then cleared by an offsetting entry to the vendor account at invoice receipt.