Sharing our implementation of automated intercompany reconciliation that reduced our month-end close time by 3 days. We have 22 legal entities in S/4HANA 1809 with high intercompany transaction volumes - about 8,000 monthly intercompany invoices and payments.
Previously, accountants spent 4-5 days each month manually reconciling intercompany AR/AP balances, identifying mismatches, and creating adjustment entries. The manual reconciliation process was error-prone and delayed our consolidated close.
We built an automated solution using BAPI_ACC_DOCUMENT_POST for creating adjustment entries and IDoc ACC_DOCUMENT integration for posting matched transactions. The middleware auto-matches intercompany transactions using business rules (invoice number, amount, company code pairs) and automatically posts clearing entries when matches are found.
The solution reduced manual reconciliation from 4-5 days to under 6 hours, improved month-end close timing by 3 days, and eliminated 95% of intercompany reconciliation errors.
Cross-period matching is handled through a configurable lookback window - we match current period against prior 2 periods. When cross-period matches are found, the system creates adjustment entries dated to the current period, maintaining proper period-end balances. For audit trail purposes, we store the original posting dates and document numbers in the clearing document text fields. Finance controllers can configure whether to auto-post cross-period matches or flag them for review based on materiality thresholds.
This sounds exactly like what we need. Can you share more details about your matching rules? We struggle with scenarios where invoice numbers don’t match exactly between buyer and seller entities, or when partial payments create complex matching situations. How does your middleware handle these edge cases?
Our matching algorithm uses a three-tier approach. Tier 1 is exact matching on invoice number, amount, and company code pair - this handles about 70% of transactions. Tier 2 uses fuzzy matching with tolerance bands (±5% on amount, similar invoice numbers) for transactions with minor discrepancies - handles another 20%. Tier 3 flags remaining 10% for manual review with suggested matches ranked by probability. The key is configurable business rules that finance controllers can adjust without IT involvement.
Can you elaborate on the IDoc ACC_DOCUMENT integration? We’ve had challenges with IDoc error handling - when IDocs fail, how do you ensure the reconciliation data stays consistent? Also, did you use standard partner profiles or custom IDoc extensions for your intercompany-specific data?